2
II
FACTS SET FORTH IN THE APPLICATION
2.
In its application, the Inter-American Commission stated that on December
16, 1998, the date on which Mexico recognised the Court’s contentious competence,
Mr. Alfonso Martín-del-Campo-Dodd (hereinafter “Alfonso Martín-del-Campo”,
“Martín-del-Campo” or the “alleged victim”) was arbitrarily held in custody and
continued to be held in such condition up to the time that the application was
entered. The Commission indicated that the alleged victim “was illegally arrested on
May 30, 1992, and subjected to torture by agents of the Judicial Police of Mexico’s
Distrito Federal, to make him confess that he had committed the double homicide of
both, his sister, Patricia Martín-del-Campo.Dodd, and his brother-in-law, Gerardo
Zamudio-Aldaba.” The Commission stated that “said confession is the only element
supporting the sentence to 50 years in prison imposed by Mexico’s Judicial
Authorities.”
3.
In like manner, the Inter-American Commission pointed out that, after
Mexico’s recognition of the contentious jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court, the
alleged victim, before the Mexican courts, claimed illegality of his detention, but that
the remedies available had been “manifestly ineffective.”
In this sense, the
Commission stated that on April 5, 1999, Mr. Martín-del-Campo filed a recognitionof-innocence acknowledgement with the Superior Court of Distrito Federal “based on,
among other unquestionable elements, a report issued by the office of the Internal
Comptroller of the Attorney General’s Office of Mexico’s Distrito Federal itself, which
established the responsibility for such illegal detention, and for the torture inflicted
by one of the two policemen who took part in the cited events.” In this regard the
Commission expressed that “the courts did not respond with due diligence to Mr.
Alfonso Martín-del-Campo’s claim, or with such effectiveness as called for by the
obligations prescribed by the American Convention;” that “the Judicial Authorities
never started a thorough investigation to identify all the officers that inflicted the
torture;” that “nobody has been trialed or punished judicially for such violations;”
and that “the Mexican courts did not annul the confession obtained under torture,
nor the judgment based on this serious occurrence, as required by the rules of the
Inter-American human rights system.”
4.
The Commission requested the Court to establish the State’s international
liability and to declare that the latter violated articles 5 (Right to humane treatment),
7 (Right to personal liberty), 8 (Right to a fair trial) y 25 (Right to judicial protection)
of the American Convention, and failed to comply with the provisions of Article 1(1)
(Obligation to respect rights) of said covenant, to the detriment of Mr. Alfonso
Martín-del-Campo. The Commission also requested the Court to declare the State
liable for violation of articles 6, 8 and 10 of the Inter-American Convention to
Prevent and Punish Torture (hereinafter “Inter-American Convention Against Torture)
to the detriment of the alleged victim.
III
PROCEEDINGS WITH THE COMMISSION
5.
On July 13, 1998, Mr. Alfonso Martín-del-Campo submitted a brief with
several appendices to the Inter-American Commission, whereby he filed a petition
against Mexico. In such petition Mr. Martín-del-Campo indicated the following: “on
May 30, 1992, [his] sister and [his] brother-in-law were murdered by unidentified
individuals at the home [of the former] in Mexico City. At the same time he was