4 I INTRODUCTION OF THE CASE AND CAUSE OF ACTION 1. The case submitted to the Court. –On May 29, 2012, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter “the Inter-American Commission” or “the Commission”) submitted to the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights the case Hugo Oscar Argüelles et al. v. the Republic of Argentina (hereinafter “the State” or “Argentina”). According to the statement by the Commission, the case involves the alleged violation of the right to personal freedom and the right to a fair trial in the internal proceedings that began in 1980 against 20 military officers for the crime of military fraud, under the terms of Argentina’s Code of Military Justice (hereinafter “CJM”). These crimes included at least the following: (i) irregular allocation of the credits of several Argentine Air Force units so as to obtain the monies for their own benefit, (ii) personal appropriation of funds from the different Air Force units, and (iii) document forgery for these purposes. The Commission submitted to the jurisdiction of the Court the facts and human rights violations allegedly committed by the State and that had continued since the time it accepted the contentious jurisdiction of the Court on September 5, 1984, that is, violation of the victims’ right to personal freedom when they were kept in pretrial detention for excessive periods, and the right to be tried with due guarantees within a reasonable period, in injury of (1) Hugo Oscar Argüelles, (2) Enrique Jesús Aracena, (3) Carlos Julio Arancibia, (4) Julio César Allendes, (5) Ricardo Omar Candurra, (6) Miguel Oscar Cardozo, (7) José Eduardo di Rosa, (8) Carlos Alberto Galluzzi, (9) Gerardo Feliz Giordano, (10) Aníbal Ramón Machín, (11) Miguel Ángel Maluf, (12) Ambrosio Marcial (deceased), (13) Luis José López Mattheus, (14) José Arnaldo Mercau, (15) Félix Oscar Morón, (16) Horacio Eugenio Oscar Muñoz, (17) Juan Ítalo Óbolo, (18) Alberto Jorge Pérez, (19) Enrique Luján Pontecorvo and (20) Nicolás Tomasek (hereinafter “the alleged victims”). 2. – The following proceedings took place before the Commission: a) Petition. – From June 5, 1998 through October 28, 1998, the Inter-American Commision received petitions from the following persons: 1) Hugo Oscar Argüelles, (2) Enrique Jesús Aracena, (3) Carlos Julio Arancibia, (4) Julio César Allendes, (5) Ricardo Omar Candurra, (6) Miguel Oscar Cardozo, (7) José Eduardo di Rosa, (8) Carlos Alberto Galluzzi, (9) Gerardo Feliz Giordano, (10) Aníbal Ramón Machín, (11) Miguel Ángel Maluf, (12) Ambrosio Marcial (deceased), (13) Luis José López Mattheus, (14) José Arnaldo Mercau, (15) Félix Oscar Morón, (16) Horacio Eugenio Oscar Muñoz, (17) Juan Ítalo Óbolo, (18) Alberto Jorge Pérez, (19) Enrique Luján Pontecorvo, (20) Miguel Ramón Taranto and (21) Nicolás Tomasek.2 The petitions claimed Argentina's responsibility for violating the rights set forth in articles 1(1), 5, 7, 8, 10, 24 and 25 of the American Convention. The petitions submitted gave very similar arguments of fact and law, and therefore they were joined into a single file numbered 12.167 for the purposes of the Admissibility Report. b) Admissibility Report. – On October 9, 2002, the Commission approved Admissibility Report 40/02, declaring the petition admissible for alleged violation of articles 1, 5, 7, 8, 10, 24 and 25 of the American Convention, and insofar as applicable, articles I, XXV and XXVII of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man (hereinafter “the American Declaration”). 3 2 The Commission had originally submitted its application for 21 of the alleged victims. However, on July 9, 2012, the Commission provided the Court with a fe de errata regarding the Report on Merits, stating that on January 25, 2006, Mr. Miguel Ramón Taranto had withdrawn from the process, and the total number of victims therefore was reduced to 20. 3 Cfr. Admissibility Report No. 40/02 of October 9, 2002 (Commission working file, folios 4023 and 4040).