50
forth that the Public Attorneys must perform their duties with organic dependency,
such circumstance does not necessarily entail in itself a violation of the Convention.
165. In its turn, the Court underscores that the principle of legality ruling the acts
performed by public officials, which governs the activities of Public Attorneys,
imposes on them the obligation to carry out their duties acting on the basis of the
regulations defined in Constitution and statute. That way, prosecutors must watch
for the law to be correctly applied and seek the truth of the facts as they are, acting
professionally, loyally and in good faith, considering both the elements that prove
the existence of the crime and the participation of the person charged with such
crime, as well as the elements that may extinguish or extenuate the criminal
responsibility of the accused.
166. In the instant case, it was not been proven that the prosecutors acting in the
proceedings conducted against Mr. Tristán Donoso acted in response to their
individual interests, upon motives alien to the law, or that they based their decisions
on instructions imparted by senior officials that ran contrary to the applicable legal
provisions. On the other hand, it has not been shown that either Mr. Tristán Donoso
or his representatives, through domestic law procedures such as that allowing for a
challenge,144 claimed that there were possible irregularities regarding the activities of
the Public Attorneys during the inquest stage of the proceedings, nor did such
representatives affirm that the criminal action brought against the victim was
vitiated because of their acts or omissions as a body having occurred during the
preliminary proceedings.
167. In view of the foregoing, the Court hereby finds that the State did not violate
the right to the due process of the law enshrined in Article 8 of the American
Convention to the detriment of Mr. Tristán Donoso, in the context of the investigation
carried out against him for crimes against honor.
2. ii) Right to be presumed innocent
168. The representatives alleged that, in the proceedings conducted against Mr.
Tristán Donoso, the Segundo Tribunal Superior de Justicia [High Court of Justice
Number Two] a) did not assess “[a] series of factors that caused [the victim] to
become convinced that the [former Attorney General] had recorded his
conversation”; b) presumed that the accused party willfully attributed a false criminal
act to the individual accuser, and concluded that Mr. Tristán Donoso had acted with
reckless malice; and c) sentenced the victim, among other things, to serve eighteen
months in prison, which sentence was replaced by the obligation to pay 75 days’ fine
(supra para. 107). In view of the foregoing, the representatives considered that the
State violated Article 8(2) of the Convention in relation to Article 1(1) thereof.
169. As it has done in previous cases,145 the Court points out that it has already
considered the criminal proceedings and the sentence imposed on Mr. Tristán Donoso
in relation to Article 13 of the American Convention (supra paras. 116 to 130), and
that, so, it is not necessary for this Court to determine on the alleged violation of the
144
Section 395 of the Judicial Code provides that “[t]he provisions on impediments and challenges
concerning justices and judges shall be applicable to Public Attorneys,” supra note 73, folio 1920.
145
Cf. Case of Herrera-Ulloa, supra note 79, paras. 176 to 178.