sentences, and in addition, life sentences, and prison sentences for the longest periods recognized by Chilean legislation. These judgments were forwarded to the Commander in Chief of the Air Force, who on September 26, 1974, and April 10, 1975, respectively, reduced the death sentences to life imprisonment, which, according to the petitioners, constitutes an excessive penalty. The petitioners note that in criminal proceedings held during wartime, active-duty officers, who are non-lawyers and who, at the same time, are commanders in chief of the zone known as the theater of operations, act as an appellate court. In addition, they observed that from the formal standpoint, the proceeding before the Supreme Court was divided into two parts, each with its own defendants and different members of the respective Courts Martial, despite the fact that they constituted a single case. Guilty verdicts were handed down against all the accused, except for Air Brigade General Alberto Bachelet M., due to his death in the course of the proceeding as a result of the torments suffered. 9. The petitioners state that on September 10, 2001, with a constitutional government reinstalled, the officers and non-commissioned officers filed a motion for annulment (recurso de revisión) to reopen the case before the Supreme Court of Chile, making use of an extraordinary remedy, a special motion for annulment, that makes it possible, on an exceptional basis, to modify firm and final judgments when new facts arise that clearly show they are in error or null, or that clearly show the innocence of one convicted. A declaration of nullity would also imply doing away with the accessory effects of the conviction, and vindicate one’s good name, and that of the persons who have died who were tried and convicted in this proceeding. 10. Article 657 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of Chile indicates: The Supreme Court may review, on an extraordinary basis, for purposes of annulment, the final judgments in which a person has been convicted for a crime or misdemeanor, under the following circumstances: No. 4 When, after a conviction of guilt, there should occur or come to be discovered some fact, or some document should appear, unknown during the trial, that is such as to suffice to demonstrate the innocence of the person convicted. 11. The petitioners substantiate the seeking of nullification of the above-mentioned judgments of the Courts Martial on new facts that came to light following the issuance of the sentences. Specifically, in the years 2000 and 2001, the Ninth Criminal Court of Santiago and the Special Judge (Ministro de Fuero), Juan Guzmán Tapia, processed cases 12,806 MV and 2122-98, respectively, where it was shown that a group of Chilean Air Force intelligence officers functioned as a paramilitary command, in legal terms --an illicit association—, and instituted a trumped up judicial proceeding against the individuals who are the subjects of this complaint, using their dual capacity as intelligence agents and members of the judicial apparatus in time of war, in addition to being members of this illicit association. 3 This concocted judicial proceeding had the following defects: (1) Confessions extracted under torture; (2) Grave breaches of evidence law and due process; (3) Lack of the court’s jurisdiction or competence; (4) Retroactive application of the criminal law; (5) Aberrant criminal definition. The information presented to the court was not sufficient to support a conviction, and consequently, the presumption of innocence enshrined in Article 11 of the Chilean Constitution of 1925 enjoyed a renewed relevance.4 3 In relation to the investigation into the kidnapping and disappearance of José Luis Baeza Cruces, and others, case 12,806-MV was investigated in the Ninth Criminal Court; the crime of genocidal illicit association, by members of the Office of the Air Force Prosecutor, which operated at the Aerial Warfare Academy, who were directly involved with the detentions and interrogations of the group of retired officers and non-commissioned officers in the instant case. 4 Article 657 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of Chile notes that the circumstances that constitute the background should be so compelling so as to make it possible to affirm that the persons convicted are not guilty. The criminal nature of the political extermination scheme that was behind the convictions, the nature of a proceeding aimed at securing a conviction that does not answer to legal justification and logic, but to a previously-made political decision, implied that it was not possible to uphold, in law, a proceeding to determine guilt 3