Death penalty for political causes, any kind of tortures and whipping, are forever abolished. (…).2 14. As of 1992, when Mr. Fernández was arrested, Law 2372, Code of Criminal Procedure, regulated detentions without a judicial warrant in the federal jurisdiction in the following terms: Article 4: The chief of the Police of the Capital and his agents have the duty to arrest persons who they catch in flagrante delicto and those against whom are vehement indicia or prima facie conclusive evidence of guilt, and should immediately bring them before a competent judge. … Article 184.4: … in public offenses, the officers shall have the following obligations and powers: To proceed to the arrest of the purportedly guilty person in the cases mentioned in Article 4.3 15. Law 23,950 of 1991 – Limitation of police authority – amended the Statute of the Federal Police and indicated as follows: Article 1: Apart from the cases established in the Code of Criminal Procedure, persons may not be arrested without the order of a competent judge. Nonetheless, if there are duly founded circumstances that make one presume that someone has committed or may commit a criminal act or a breach and does not show clearly his or her identity, he or she may be taken to the corresponding police station with notice to the judge with jurisdiction over criminal matters on duty and kept for the minimum time necessary for establishing his or her identity, which in no case may exceed ten hours.4 16. In addition, after 1992 the Federal Code of Criminal Procedure was amended. Article 284 of that law establishes as follows: … police officers and auxiliaries have the duty to arrest, even without judicial warrant: 1. One who attempts to carry out a crime prosecutable at the initiative of the authorities that is punished by a penalty of deprivation of liberty at the moment of preparing to commit it. 2. One who flees, being legally under arrest. 3. On an exceptional basis the person against whom there are vehement indicia of guilt, and when there is imminent danger of flight or of a serious thwarting of the investigation and for the sole purpose of bringing him or her before the competent judge immediately to resolve his or her arrest. 4. One who is caught in flagrancy committing a crime prosecutable at the initiative of the authorities that is punished by a penalty of deprivation of liberty.5 B. Context on arrests without judicial warrant or situation of flagrancy in Argentina 17. The IACHR takes note that several mechanisms of the universal human rights system have issued pronouncements on arrests in Argentina without judicial order or a situation of flagrancy. In this respect, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention made a visit to Argentina in 2003 and noted as follows: Article 18 of the National Constitution stipulates that “no one may be arrested without a written order from the competent authorities.” However, in some provinces, such as Buenos Aires and Salta, police officers have the authority to arrest or apprehend individuals whom Senate of Argentina. National Constitution, First Part, recovered from http://www.senado.gov.ar/Constitucion/capitulo1. Federal Judicial Branch, Criminal Clerk No. 2, Pretrial detention order Fernández Prieto, June 16, 1992 (Attached to the initial petition of Fernández Prieto, July 12, 1999). 4 Amendment of the Organic Law of the Federal Police, published in official bulletin November 11, 1991. 5 Brief of Petitioners’ observations on the merits of the case, July 24, 2012. 2 3 3