REPORT Nº 6/051 PETITION 285/03 ADMISSIBILITY OMAR HUMBERTO MALDONADO VARGAS ET AL. CHILE March 9, 2005 I. SUMMARY 1. On April 15, 2003, two human rights organizations, Corporación de Promoción de Defensa de los Derechos del Pueblo (“CODEPU”), headquartered in Chile and represented by its president, Paz Rojas Baeza, and lawyers María Alejandra Arriaza Donoso and Hugo Humberto Gutiérrez Gálvez, and the International Federation for Human Rights (“FIDH”), headquartered in France, filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter “the Commission”) on behalf of their clients, 12 members of the Chilean Air Force, who were tried and convicted by a Military Court in Chile following the military coup of September 11, 1973, and who sought nullification of the proceedings before the Supreme Court of Chile in September 2001. The crux of their complaint is the allegation that they suffered a denial of justice as a result of the Supreme Court decision. The 12 persons represented by the abovementioned lawyers and organizations, are: (1) Omar Humberto Maldonado Vargas; (2) Alvaro Yañez del Villar; (3) Mario Antonio Cornejo Barahona; (4) Belarmino Constanzo Merino; (5) Manuel Osvaldo López Ovanedel; (6) Ernesto Augusto Galaz Guzmán; (7) Mario González Rifo; (8) Jaime Donoso Parra; (9) Alberto Salustio Bustamante Rojas; (10) Gustavo Raúl Lastra Saavedra; (11) Víctor Hugo Adriazola Meza; and (12) Ivar Onoldo Rojas Ravanal (hereinafter, “the petitioners”), in which the international responsibility of the Republic of Chile (hereinafter, “the State” or “the Chilean State”) was alleged due to the fact that the Chilean Supreme Court is an organ of the State. The petitioners allege that the failure of the Chilean Supreme Court to grant judicial review of the decision taken by the military Courts Martial constituted a violation of their rights, as set forth in Articles 1(1), 2, 8(1), 8(2)(h), 9, 11(1), 24, 25, and 27(2) of the American Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter, “the American Convention” or “the Convention”), pursuant to the obligations assumed by the State in connection with Article 1(1) of this instrument. 2. The alleged victims are officers and non-commissioned officers of the Chilean Air Force. During the military regime, the petitioners were accused of the crimes of sedition and treason. The accused were subject to the Court Martial (Consejo de Guerra), the military tribunal in charge of trying certain offenses in times of war, and two proceedings were opened. In 1974 and 1975 verdicts were handed down in each case, finding the accused guilty. The Commander in Chief of the Air Force affirmed the convictions but reduced the death sentences to life imprisonment. Finally, the judgments became res judicata. 3. On September 10, 2001, several of the officers convicted filed a motion to reopen the case based on new facts (recurso de revisión) before the Supreme Court, in the terms of Article 657 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, for the purpose of having the proceedings annulled. They alleged, mainly, that after the firm judgment, new facts had been uncovered that showed that the proceeding had been vitiated by serious irregularities, such as the confession extracted through torture, and retroactive application of the criminal law. For those purposes, they presented evidence that included, among others: the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission; declassified documents from the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States; and a court judgment from which it appeared that several of the officers directly involved with the petitioners’ detention was part of an illicit association, called “Joint Command,” that was involved in repressive acts during the years of the military dictatorship. 4. The Supreme Court denied the motion for formal reasons. In so deciding, it held that according to the Code of Military Justice and the Constitution, the judgments handed down by 1 Commissioner José Zalaquett Daher, a Chilean national, did not participate in the discussion or decision of the case, in accordance with Article 17(2)(a) of the Rules of Procedure of the Commission. 1