INTER - AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS COMISION INTERAMERICANA DE DERECHOS HUMANOS COMISSÃO INTERAMERICANA DE DIREITOS HUMANOS COMMISSION INTERAMÉRICAINE DES DROITS DE L'HOMME ORGANIZACIÓN DE LOS ESTADOS AMERICANOS WASHINGTON, D.C. 2 0 0 0 6 E E U U March 17, 2014 Ref.: Caso No. 12.816 Adán Guillermo López Lone y otros Honduras Mr. Secretary: I am pleased to address you on behalf of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in order to file Case No. 12.816 Adán Guillermo López Lone et al. v. Honduras (hereinafter “the State”, “the Honduran State” or “Honduras”) before the jurisdiction of the Honorable Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The instant case involves the disciplinary proceedings against judges Adán Guillermo López Lone, Luis Alonso Chévez de la Rocha and Ramón Enrique Barrios Maldonado, as well as magistrate Tirza del Carmen Flores Lanza, within the context of the coup that took place in Honduras in June 2009. The victims were members of the “Association Judges for Democracy” which published press releases describing the facts related to the dismissal of former President Zelaya as a coup, in opposition to the official version of the Supreme Court of Justice, which argued that it was a constitutional succession. The Commission concluded that the disciplinary proceedings were initiated with the aim of sanctioning acts or expressions of the victims against the coup. The Commission also noted that the proceedings were carried out in violation of the procedure established in the Constitution which provided that the Supreme Court of Justice was the competent authority to decide on the dismissal of the judges “after the proposal of the Consejo de la Carrera Judicial”. In opposition to that norm, the dismissal took place by means of agreements of the Supreme Court of Justice and the Consejo de la Carrera Judicial only intervened after the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice, as an appeal authority, despite such council was dependent of the Supreme Court. The Commission also found irregularities that affected other components of due process. For example, the Supreme Court did not act as an impartial authority, provided that its public positions of legitimate the coup. Neither the victims had the opportunity to present a disqualification of the members of the Consejo de la Carrera Judicial who were called to act on the council directly by its president, with no previous process to guarantee its independence. Mr. Pablo Saavedra Alessandri, Secretary Inter-American Court of Human Rights Apartado 6906-1000 San José, Costa Rica