turned over to military officers. While he was detained there, his home was subjected to an illegal search by the Carabineros, looking for evidence to incriminate him. On October 16, 1973, Mr. Hipólito Pedro Cortés Álvarez was executed together with 14 other persons in the Arica Military Regiment. According to the petition, this execution was carried out at the orders of the so-called “Caravan of Death", the military leader of which reported to the press that "in accordance with orders from the wartime military tribunals the following persons were executed (…) Hipólito Pedro Cortés Álvarez and 14 other persons". The petition also claims that the body of Mr Cortés was unlawfully buried in a common grave of the La Serena cemetery. 6. According to the petitioner, these facts were recognized by the Chilean State through the Official Report of the National Truth and Reconciliation Commission (the "Rettig Commission"), which indicated that the 15 executions had been carried out by official personnel acting outside the law, and that the bodies had been secretly interred. The petitioner adds that it was only in 1998, after the advent of the democratic régime, that the bodies were exhumed from the common grave, whereupon it was established that Mr. Cortés had been tortured before he was killed. 7. The petitioner maintains that these facts were investigated by military tribunals, but that they reached no positive conclusion and the case was closed definitively on the basis of the amnesty law. Beginning in 1998, however, proceedings were brought against Augusto Pinochet in the Court of Appeals of Santiago, and “the investigation into the socalled Caravana de la Muerte thereupon continued and a significant number of military personnel were tried. That process is still underway.” 8. In 1999, following acknowledgment by the Rettig Commission and the discovery of the corpse, the widow and children of Mr. Cortés submitted a claim for compensation before the Second Civil Court of La Serena (the "Cortés con Fisco de Chile" case, #1122-99). On March 9, 2001 the Second Civil Court granted the claim and ordered the State of Chile to pay the sum of 15 million pesos to each of the claimants. The State Prosecutor appealed the ruling before the Court of Appeals of La Serena, which in a judgment of April 9, 2002 revoked the first instance decision and accepted the argument the limitations had tolled (prescripción) presented by the State of Chile. The claimants then brought writ of cassation against the decision before the Supreme Court, which on March 25, 2003 dismissed the action, thereby confirming the denial of compensation to the claimants. In the wake of this judgment, the case was returned to the court of first instance, which confirmed its