REPORT Nº 14/08 PETITION 652-04 ADMISSIBILITY HUGO HUMBERTO RUIZ FUENTES GUATEMALA March 5, 2008 I. SUMMARY 1. On October 8, 2003, when the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter "the Commission," "the Inter-American Commission," or "the IACHR") adopted its Report on Merits N° 49/03 in Case Nº 12.402 (Ronald Ernesto Raxcacó Reyes), it decided to open a petition against the State of Guatemala (hereinafter “the State,” “the State of Guatemala,” or “Guatemala”), ordering a certified extract of the proceedings concerning Mr. Hugo Humberto Ruiz Fuentes (hereinafter the “alleged victim”) in that case file for separate processing. This was due to the fact that the request of the CEJIL and the Institute for Comparative Studies in Penal Sciences of Guatemala (hereinafter “the petitioners) to include Mr. Ruiz Fuentes as a victim in that case was rejected because it was made after the procedural phase for such determinations had ended.1 [1] The separate petition was opened on July 26, 2004. 2. The original facts that gave rise to the case concerned primarily the criminal procedure that resulted in the imposition of death sentence on the alleged victim. The petitioners requested the inclusion of additional alleged violations of human rights, alleging that Mr. Hugo Humberto Ruiz Fuentes was tortured in detention and this was not properly investigated, and alleging further that he was summarily executed in the course of his capture after escaping from his place of detention. The 1 IACHR, Report on Merits Nº 49/03, Case 12.402, Ronald Ernesto Raxcacó Reyes, Guatemala, October 8, 2003, paras. 28-30: “28. Secondly, with regard to the petitioners’ request to include Mr. Hugo Humberto Ruiz Fuentes as a victim in this case, in the light of procedural principles of preclusion and contradiction, the Commission considers it to be unfounded. In the first place, in accordance with the principle of preclusion, the stages of a proceeding develop successively, by definitively closing each one, thereby preventing the return to already extinguished and completed stages or moments in the process. According to the principle of contradiction or opposition, which guides proceedings in the inter-American system, the parties’ right of defense must be respected. As a result, the opposing party must be guaranteed the opportunity to respond to arguments of fact and of law, and this applies to evidence presented or offered by it as well. 29. In the present case, the Commission considers that preclusion is operative with respect to the inclusion of a new victim, since the opportunity in the process to examine and decide on that issue was in the admissibility stage, which in this case ended with Admissibility Report No. 51/02 issued on October 9, 2002. According to the petitioners’ request, the defense of Mr. Ruiz was served with the judicial decision by which the amparo petition was denied on December 12, 2002, or in other words, after the stage in which matters related to compliance with the requirements under Article 46 of the Convention were considered and in which the right of defense of the state in that matter was guaranteed. 30 Consequently, in view of the fact that this is a separate situation, the Commission instructs the Executive Secretariat to authenticate copies of the proceedings in the case records referring to Mr. Hugo Humberto Ruiz Fuentes and, in application of Article 24 of the Rules of Procedure, since the requirements for that purpose have been met, to initiate the process for a separate petition.” 1