2
d)
the execution of the criminal judgment convicting the victims was
ordered in a “comminatory, non-postponable[,] executable” manner and
“forthwith” by the Criminal Trial Court of the First Judicial Circuit of San José, to
be executed within three days of notification, which took place on February 27,
2001;
e)
in response to a petition received on March 1, 2001, the Commission
adopted the following precautionary measures: that the State of Costa Rica
(hereinafter “the State” or “Costa Rica”) suspend the execution of the guilty
verdict until the Commission had examined the case and adopted a final
decision on the merits of the matter, o until the State had adopted the
necessary measures to annul the judgment voluntarily; that the State abstain
from taking any measure addressed at including the journalist, Mauricio Herrera
Ulloa, in the Judicial Record of Offenders of Costa Rica, and that it abstain from
executing any other act or action that would affect the right to freedom of
expression of the journalist, Mauricio Herrera Ulloa, and the newspaper, La
Nación;
f)
in a decision of March 20, 2001, a remedy filed in order to enforce
compliance with the precautionary measures of the Commission was declared
inadmissible;
g)
the situation of the journalist, Mauricio Herrera Ulloa, and of Fernán
Vargas Rohrmoser, legal representative of La Nación, has deteriorated since the
precautionary measures were ordered and is currently “precarious and of
imminent risk”; and that the statements of the different judges who are
intervening in the case, disregarding the precautionary measures, lead to the
conclusion that the judgment may be executed in any moment and that any
decision of the Commission, or eventually of the Inter-American Court of Human
Rights (hereinafter “the Court” or “the Inter-American Court”) will be ineffective
since “grave, irreparable damage to freedom of expression” will have been
perpetrated; in other words, it will not produce any “useful effect”; and
h)
that the damage to freedom of expression is clear and imminent, not
only with regard to the individual freedom of Herrera Ulloa and Vargas
Rohrmoser, but to that of the entire Costa Rican society.
i)
consequently, the Commission requested the Court to adopt forthwith
the following provisional measures:
1)
that Costa Rica suspend the execution of the condemnatory
judgment delivered by the Criminal Trial Court of the First Judicial Circuit
of San José on November 12, 1999, until the Commission has examined
the case and, in accordance with Article 50 of the American Convention
on Human Rights (hereinafter “the Convention” or “the American
Convention”), has adopted a final decision on the merits of the matter or,
should the case be referred to the Court, the latter has delivered the
corresponding judgment;
2)
that Costa Rica abstain from executing any action addressed at
including the journalist, Mauricio Herrera Ulloa, in the Judicial Register of
Offenders of Costa Rica, and