10
a)
On February 25 and 26, 1986, Mrs. Virginia Ugarte Rivera filed
petitions with Lima’s Forty-sixth Examining Court seeking writs of habeas
corpus on behalf of Mr. Nolberto Durand Ugarte and Mr. Gabriel Pablo Ugarte
Rivera, who were detained by police from DIRCOTE on February 14 and 15,
respectively, on suspicion of terrorism.
According to the Commission,
proceedings on the two writs were suspended when riots broke out at a
number of Peruvian prisons on June 18, 1986; and
b)
On June 26, 1986, subsequent to the riots on June 18 of that year,
Mrs. Virginia Ugarte Rivera filed for another writ of habeas corpus on behalf of
Mr. Durand Ugarte and Mr. Ugarte Rivera, this time with Callao’s First
Examining Court. On June 27, 1986, that Court denied the writ. On July 15,
1986, Callao’s First Police Court upheld the other court’s ruling. On August
13, 1986, the Supreme Court’s First Criminal Law Chamber found that the
July 15, 1986 ruling was not null and void.
On October 28, 1986, the
Tribunal of Constitutional Guarantees ruled that “the decision in question
stands; claimant still has the right to bring another action” (supra, para. 2.d).
37.
The Court notes that the first petitions filed concerned the imprisonment of
Mr. Durand Ugarte and Mr. Ugarte Rivera following their arrest by DIRCOTE police;
the second concerned their disappearance in the wake of the events of June 18,
1986. Given the foregoing, the Court considers that the remedy of habeas corpus
filed on June 26, 1986, is the remedy to be considered to determine whether local
remedies were exhausted; after being heard at several instances, that petition was
denied by the Tribunal of Constitutional Guarantees (supra, para. 2.d). It has thus
been established that in the instant case, the appropriate domestic remedy was
pursued and exhausted.
38.
Moreover, the Court observes that while the Commission requested
information from the State concerning the exhaustion of local remedies on May 19,
1987, it was not until September 29, 1989 that the State informed the Commission
that the case was being heard in the military courts. With the Commission,
therefore, the State did not argue exhaustion of local remedies as a preliminary
objection and hence cannot do so now (stopple) to win its argument with this Court.
39.
The Court, therefore, dismisses the first preliminary objection.
VIII
MATTER DECIDED, RES JUDICATA, THE
COURT’S LACK OF JURISDICTION
Objection Two
40.
The second objection argued by the State concerns the “matter decided by
the Commission.”
41.
The State argued that although the Commission acknowledged that the facts
in the instant case were precisely the same as those in the Neira Alegría et al. Case,
the Commission did not opt to join the two petitions, which was the procedure
provided in Article 40.2 of its Regulations. It further noted that the defendant State
in both cases was the same.