9 enclosure without any activities, since there are no programs for hygiene, sports, work, leisure or others. Mr. Raxcacó Reyes has asked him several times to submit requests to the General Directorate of Prisons to enable him to receive medical attention, because he suffers from several health problems and has not received any comprehensive or systematic treatment. Moreover, he has not received any psychological assistance since he has been in prison. When he visits the prisoner, they are separated by a wire mesh that divides the visiting room, which is three square meters in area. Since his detention, Mr. Raxcacó Reyes has not been able to see his wife who is serving a prison sentence for the same crime. c) Testimony of Eduardo Zachrisson Castillo, Deputy of the Congress of the Republic of Guatemala, President of the Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Commission Currently, the Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Commission of the Congress of Guatemala is considering a draft law presented by the President of the Human Rights Commission of the Congress of the Republic, which provides for the adoption of reforms to Decree No. 17/73 (Penal Code), to eliminate the death penalty as the maximum punishment under Guatemalan criminal legislation and, in cases where there has been a final ruling, commute it to the maximum prison sentence established for the crime in question. There is also another draft law to adapt Guatemalan laws to the American Convention on Human Rights and to re-establish commutation of sentence by adopting the law regulating pardons. The Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Commission presided by the witness plans to issue opinions in both cases, to be considered by the Congress in a plenary session, before the end of 2005. d) Testimony of Conchita Mazariegos Tobías, Deputy of the Congress of the Republic She referred to the application of the death penalty in Guatemala. She stated that on April 9, 1996, Congress issued Decree No. 81/96 under which the death penalty was stipulated for two new crimes. Also, in appearance, it modified four categories of crime for which the death penalty was already established, including the crime of kidnapping or abduction. The death penalty was already established for this type of crime under Article 201 of the Penal Code, but the total substitution of this norm, de facto and de jure, created a new category of crime with the death penalty. She also stated that the American Convention on Human Rights became national law, prevailing over domestic law under Article 46 of the Constitution, which prohibits Guatemala from legislating on the matter. e) Expert evidence of Aída Castro-Conde, graduate in psychology from the Universidad de San Carlos of Guatemala She assessed the psychological and mental harm resulting from the prison conditions of those sentenced to death in Guatemala. The Zone 18 Men’s Preventive Detention Center, where Mr. Raxcacó Reyes is imprisoned was among the prison centers she evaluated.

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