proceedings had also been filed against El Universo newspaper
constituted a breach of the principle of jurisdiction and legality.
•
The participation of several temporary judges, mainly in the first
instance of the criminal process, violated the principle of jurisdiction.
•
The reinstatement of the hearing in the appeal phase, which had initially
been set for September 22, 2011, and which later, by order of
September 17, 2011, notified on the 19th of the same month and year,
was again postponed to September 20, 2011, generated a state of
defenselessness and violated the defendants’ right to defense, as they
had the legitimate expectation that said hearing would be held on the
originally scheduled date.
•
Although the defendants were able to file appeals to challenge the first
instance and appeal judgments, as well as challenge judges, the
effectiveness of these procedural actions was doubtful, since, as judicial
independence was affected in this case, the possibility that these appeals
were resolved impartially was also remote.
•
The authorship of the first instance judgment was questioned, which
motivated the victims of the case to file a constitutional action for
precautionary measures, in which resolution it was determined that “the
judgment of first instance was not created in the computer equipment
of the relevant court but came from an external team.”
20.
Based on the accepted facts, the State acknowledged its international
responsibility for the violation of Articles 8(1), 8(2)(c), 8(2)(f), 9, 13 and 25(1) of the
American Convention, in relation to Articles 1(1) and 2 of the same instrument. The
State did not acknowledge its international responsibility in relation to Articles 7, 21,
22, and 26 of the American Convention, for which it stated that it would refer to the
aforementioned articles in the relevant part of its answering brief.
21.
The representatives expressed that the State’s recognition is partial,
ambiguous, imprecise and sometimes contradictory. In particular, they expressed that
the State, contradictorily, has not recognized the context of the violations within which
the facts of this case occurred: the attacks on freedom of expression and the deficiencies
of judicial independence. The representatives declared that they do not accept the terms
of the acknowledgment of responsibility, which is why the controversy persists. Thus,
they stated that the Court must resolve the controversy in the terms proposed by the
Commission and the representatives. In this regard, the representatives made various
statements related to the existence of the context in which the facts of the case occurred
and indicated that the State's request seeks to ensure that a judicial truth is not reached
and seeks to strip the judgment of symbolic value. For this reason, they indicated that
the Court must exercise its jurisdiction by correcting the ambiguity of state recognition.
22.
The Commission assessed positively the partial acknowledgment made by the
State. However, it pointed out that the acknowledgment of responsibility has a certain
ambiguity, and therefore requires clarification in terms of its scope and legal effects. The
Commission referred to the lack of clarity of the State's position regarding whether it
agreed with the conclusions of the Merits Report on issues such as the need to analyze
the requirements established by the doctrine of actual malice or the legal consequences
of some relevant facts that violated judicial guarantees and judicial protection. Similarly,
the Commission indicated that, although the State referred to reparations in its brief, it
did not specifically identify the scope of its partial acknowledgment in terms of
reparations. Finally, it highlighted that the State did not recognize the context in which
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