murdering the professor and the nine students from Enrique Guzmán y Valle University should be tried. 21. Consequently, claims the petitioner, on the night of February 7, 1994, ruling-party congressman Julio Chu Meris proposed a legislative bill under which the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division could resolve the jurisdictional challenge by a vote of only three judges, superseding the previous rule that required four of them to be in agreement. The bill was voted on in the predawn hours of February 8, 1994. The ruling-party bloc in Congress passed the bill and, the next day, President of the Republic Alberto Fujimori immediately signed it into law. 22. The petitioner claims that finally, on February 11, 1994, in strict compliance with the new law and without waiting for a ruling on its constitutionality, the three judges of the Criminal Division, now with the necessary quorum, ordered that the trial of the individuals accused of the La Cantuta killings be referred to military justice. 23. The petitioner states that on February 21, 1994, in a first-instance ruling, the War Division of the Supreme Council of Military Justice (CSJM) sentenced 10 of the culprits to prison terms ranging from one to 20 years, including Maj. Santiago Martín Rivas and Maj. Carlos Pichilingue Guevara, operations chief and administrative chief, respectively, of the "Colina Group," which had carried out the killings of the professor and nine students from La Cantuta. The CSJM reviewed this decision and, on May 3, 1994, handed down a new decision, sentencing the following members of the Peruvian army: Major General Juan Rivero Lazo, Cavalry Colonel Federico Augusto Navarro Pérez, Infantry Captain José Adolfo Velarde Astete, Engineering Corps Majors Santiago Enrique Martín Rivas and Carlos Eliseo Pichilingue Guevara, and Technicians 3rd Class Julio Chuqui Aguirre, Nelson Rogelio Carbajal García, and Jesús Antonio Sosa Saavedra. The ruling also ordered compensation to be paid to the families of the deceased, to be contributed jointly by those convicted and by the Peruvian State. 24. The petitioner alleges that although Gen. Rodolfo Robles Espinoza and other elements within the army accused other high-ranking army officers of being behind the crime–including Commander General Nicolás de Bari Hermoza and presidential advisor Capt. Vladimiro Montesinos (ret.)–they were neither investigated nor questioned by the military justice system, let alone tried or convicted. The petitioner has submitted a press report that published an open letter from General Rodolfo Robles Espinoza, which reads as follows: Gentlemen: . . . I am Lieutenant General Rodolfo Robles Espinoza. In 1992 I was the Commander General of the Third Military Region . . . I have always accepted my assignments without hesitation or grumbling. But this last change is brought on by a despicable act that no soldier and no man could tolerate, in that it deals with the systematic violation of the human rights of the Peruvian population by a group of hired assassins who, under orders from former Captain Vladimiro Montesinos and with the servile approval of Gen. Nicolás de Bari Hermoza Ríos (ret.), the unworthy Commander General of the Peruvian army, have been committing crimes that have unfairly sullied the glorious Peruvian army in its entirety. My utter loyalty to my army . . . force[s] me to reveal the following to the people: (1) The La Cantuta crime, in which one professor and 10 students from that university were slain, was carried out by a special intelligence detachment operating under direct orders from Presidential Advisor and virtual head of the SIN Vladimiro Montesinos, the actions of which are coordinated with the Army Intelligence Service (SIE) and the General Staff’s Intelligence Directorate (DINTE) but always are approved of and known to the Commander General of the Army. This detachment was commanded by Maj. Martín Rivas Santiago Enrique of the Engineering Corps . . . also present was Infantry Lieutenant Portella Núñez Aquilino . . . that night, the cordon was put in place by the DIFE under the command of Maj. Gen. Pérez Documet Luis (aka "Tuto") and the raid or actual hit was carried out by Commando Infantry Battalion BIC-19 led by Infantry Lt. Col. Guzmán Calderón . . . Intelligence Operative Technician 3rd Class Sosa Dávila . . . Intelligence Operative Junior Officer 1st Class Ramos also participated. . . . Although these detachments are the perpetrators, responsibility for planning, conducting, and controlling them lie with higher echelons, 4