the petition, Mr. Chaparro was financially ruined as CONSEP and the renter disposed of all the property including the machinery and office equipment. 17. Mr. Chaparro was kept in detention for one year, six months and eleven days in the Social Rehabilitation Center of Guayaquil. He was detained on November 15, 1997 and released on August 22, 1999. He had been arrested on November 15, 1997 without an arrest warrant, he was never informed of the reasons for his detention, he was held incommunicado for five days, he did not have the assistance of a defense lawyer and he was not charged for twenty-three days. The Superior Court of Guayaquil provisionally dismissed the charges against him. Following the dismissal, the Court ordered that the seized goods be returned to Mr. Chaparro. 18. Based on the foregoing, the petitioners allege that the State incurred in the following violations of the American Convention with regard to Mr. Juan Carlos Chaparro: a) violation of Article 7(2) and (3) because he was detained without a judicial arrest warrant and not in circumstances that could be termed in flagrante delicto; b) violation of Article 7(3), because he was subject to arbitrary imprisonment for a year, six months and eleven days for a crime which he did not commit; c) violation of Articles 5(1) and (2) because he was held in incommunicado detention for more than the 24 hours permitted under Ecuadorian law; d) violation of Article 7(5), because the State kept him in detention for more than 240 days when Ecuadorian law only allows 180 days; d) violation of Articles 7(6) and 25 because the writ of amparo that he presented was rejected without grounds; f) violation of Article 21(1) and (2) for having been arbitrarily and illegally stripped of his company, Plumavit Factory, without having committed any offense; and g) violation of Article 7(5) and 8(1) for not having respected the requirements of trial within a reasonable time or release. In the revised petition received on August 19, 2002, the petitioners added violation of Article 8(1) because the State failed to advise Mr. Chaparro of his right to consular assistance following his detention, pursuant to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, and 8(2) regarding alleged violation of the presumption of innocence. B. Position of Mr. Lapo, the second petitioner 19. On November 15, 1999, Mr. Freddy Hernan Lapo Iñiguez was arrested with three co-workers, ostensibly in connection with a drug-trafficking operation known as the “Rivera Case.” Police authorities had seized the drugs at the Simon Bolivar Airport: 14,821 grams of heroin and 353,688 grams of cocaine, camouflaged in 144 containers containing fish, property of the Marisco Oceana Maror company; the containers were destined for Miami. Mr. Lapo was arrested at 11:00 a.m. at his place of employment, Plumavit Factory, where he was employed as Production Manager. He requested the police to show him the search warrant, and the police replied that they did not have one, but having seized 400 kilos of drugs at the Airport, they were going to search and arrest whatever and whomever they wanted. 20. At approximately 4:00 p.m. Mr. Lapo and his three co-workers were taken to the No. 2 Guayaquil Regiment Police Station, where they were locked in individual cells and where they were held incommunicado for five days. They were not even permitted to make a phone call during that time. 21. Mr. Lapo was then taken to make a declaration without having been allowed to contact his lawyer. The police then informed him that he was suspected of involvement in a drug-trafficking operation known as the “Rivera Case.” He was thought to have fabricated the plastic cube-shaped containers in which the drugs were found. When one of the containers in which the drugs were found was shown to him, he noted that it was constructed differently from those produced by his company. The police also sought an expert analysis, and on December 5, 1997, it was confirmed that the Plumavit Factory had not manufactured the boxes. 22. On December 8, 1997, despite the expert analysis provided by the Mechanical Engineering Faculty of the Technical College of the Litoral (E.S.P.O.L.) to the effect that the containers had not