5 Saquicuray’s decision declaring Amnesty Law No. 26479 inapplicable in the Barrios Altos case. An audience on the applicability of the said law was arranged for July 3, 1995. m) Judge Saquicuray’s refusal to apply Amnesty Law No. 26479 led to another congressional investigation. Before the public hearing could be held, the Congress of Peru adopted a second amnesty law, Law No. 26492, which “was directed at interfering with legal actions in the Barrios Altos case”. This law declared that the amnesty could not be “revised” by a judicial instance and that its application was obligatory. Moreover, it expanded the scope of Law No. 26479, granting a general amnesty to all military, police or civilian officials who might be the subject of indictments for human rights violations committed between 1980 and 1995, even though they had not been charged. The effect of this second law was to prevent the judges from determining the legality or applicability of the first amnesty law, invalidating Judge Saquicuray’s decision and preventing similar decision in the future; and n) On July 14, 1995, the Eleventh Criminal Chamber of the Lima Superior Court of Justice issued a decision on the appeal that was contrary to the decision by the Judge at the lower level; in other words, it decided that the proceeding in the Barrios Altos case should be quashed. In its judgment, this Chamber decided that the Amnesty Law was not contrary to the Constitution of the Republic or to international human rights treaties; that judges could not decide that laws adopted by Congress could not be applied, because that would go against the principle of the separation of powers; and ordered that Judge Saquicuray should be investigated by the Judiciary’s internal control organ for having interpreted laws incorrectly. III COMPETENCE OF THE COURT 3. The Court is competent to hear this case. Peru has been a State Party to the American Convention since July 28, 1978, and recognized the obligatory competence of the Court on January 21, 1981. IV PROCEEDING BEFORE THE COMMISSION 4. As a result of the petition submitted by the National Human Rights Coordinator on June 30, 1995, against Peru for granting an amnesty to agents of the State who were responsible for the assassination of 15 persons and the injuries inflicted on a further four in the Barrios Altos incident, the Commission starting processing the case, registered as No. 11528, on August 28, 1995. The Secretariat of the Commission notified the State and requested it to transmit any pertinent information on the facts within 90 days. 5. On July 10, 1995, before the Commission started processing the case, the petitioners requested precautionary measures to avoid the application of Law No. 26479 to the events that were the grounds for the instant case and to protect Gloria Cano Legua, the lawyer of one of the survivors of the Barrios Altos massacre in the criminal proceeding initiated against Army General Julio Salazar Monroe and other