3 sometimes enclosed in the bathroom or the closet or tied to the bed. They claim that the alleged assailant always made sure the curtains were drawn and the doors were well locked and that the victim was not close to the telephone. Luis Carrera Almoina would constantly tell her that he had previously killed eight women and dropped their bodies on the highway. They state that, during the kidnapping, the alleged assailant took Linda Loaiza López to the house of his father, who did nothing about the matter although he witnessed the abuse suffered by the victim. 12. The petitioners point out that, on July 19, 2001, Mr. Almoina contacted his father to inform him that Linda Loaiza López was no longer of any use to him and that he would look for black bags to take her out of the Hotel Aventura. Taking advantage of Mr. Almoina’s absence from the room, the alleged victim went to the window, naked, injured and only covered by a sheet, to ask for help, as a result of which the neighbors called the police of the municipality of Chacao, who rescued her. They state that later came the firemen, an official of the Prosecutor’s Office and the apartment’s owner, who took Linda Loaiza López in an ambulance to the hospital. During her rescue, Linda Loaiza López identified Luis Carrera Almoina as her assailant. 13. They claim that, when she reached the hospital, Linda Loaiza López was taken to the operating room because of the severity of her physical condition, and that she thereafter stayed in various 4 hospitals for a period of 15 months. They claim that, since then, the alleged victim has undergone 10 reconstructive surgeries, although to date she has not yet fully recovered physically. According to the petition, Ms. López still suffers from a hearing impairment, mobility problems, severe problems of the pancreas because of the blows she received, and low probability of bearing children, among other aftereffects, both physical and psychological. 14. The petitioners allege that the criminal process at issue started formally with the intervention of the Prosecutor’s Office on July 19, 2001, date on which the corresponding criminal investigation began. On August 22, 2001, the Prosecutor assigned to the case also filed charges identifying Luis Carrera Almoina as the perpetrator of the crimes of hiding narcotic and psychotropic substances, rape, and generic bodily injuries to the detriment of Linda Loaiza López, and ordered preventive custody of the assailant. Linda Loaiza López also personally filed individual charges against Mr. Almoina on November 19, 2001, for the crimes of qualified attempted murder, rape, illegal restraint of liberty and torture. 15. The petitioners identify a series of abuses, irregularities, omissions and delays perpetrated by various justice officials which allegedly undermined the investigation and the criminal proceedings filed against Luis Carrera Almoina; errors that allegedly led to the impunity of the sexual violence incidents. 16. First of all, they contend that the Prosecutor in charge of the case did not conduct the initial investigation seriously and effectively, constantly mistreated the victim and her next of kin, and allowed “inappropriate influences” to affect the case during the criminal process because the accused belonged to a well-known family with financial means in Venezuela, in contrast to the victim. For example, the petitioners indicate that the Prosecutor in charge of the case always received information provided by Linda Loaiza López with expressions of disbelief and threats. They state that the Prosecutor also told the victim’s next of kin that they had to say the truth because she knew that the son of a university principal 4 The petitioners claim that the medical examination of Linda Loaiza López when she was taken to the hospital yielded the following results: Gynecological exam: Former defloration and signs of genital traumas occurring more than eight days earlier; Extra-genital exam: Abrasion covered by a scab on the back of the nose, various anfractuous wounds of various sizes on both lips, loss of external substance and with signs of infection on the auricle of the left ear, small abrasions on the surface of the right side of the neck, a swollen bruise on the vertical half (ramus) of the lower left jaw, traces of abrasions on both hands and the thoracolumbar spine; Polytraumas: traumatic brain injury complicated by a fracture of the lower jaw bone, chest trauma, closed abdominal trauma complicated by acute abdomen.