14. National Juvenile Court N° 9 ordered a temporary stay of the case. Both parties appealed this decision. The complainant requested a reversal of judgement and a new trial, while Police Captain Espósito’s defense counsel requested that the case should be dismissed. On November 13, 1992, the Appeal Court (Chamber VI) decided to dismiss the case, "regardless of the political connotations that some people are attempting to attribute to the proceedings"; however, it reiterated that the arrests were unconstitutional. The petitioner then presented an objection to the Judges of the Appeal Court (Chamber VI); but the Appeal Court (Chamber VII) disallowed this. Furthermore, he requested that the judges should be impeached and this was never resolved. 15. In view of the Appeal Court’s decision to dismiss the case, the complainant successively filed special appeal proceedings and lodged a complaint appeal. The Appeal Court (Chamber VI) disallowed the former appeal on February 12, 1993, because there was "no assumption" of unconstitutionality in the criminal behavior. The Argentine Supreme Court decided the latter appeal on April 5, 1994, fourteen months after it was lodged, by revoking the dismissal because it was not "a valid jurisdictional act" as it lacked legal grounds and facts. According to the petitioners, it took more than five months to transfer the case from the Supreme Court to National Juvenile Court N° 4, although both offices are located in the Palace of Justice, one on the fourth floor and the other on the sixth. 16. On September 30, 1994, National Juvenile Court N° 4 ordered that Police Captain Espósito should be placed under preventive arrest for the crime of 73 instances of aggravated unlawful deprivation of liberty--among them Walter Bulacio--and an attachment for $100,000. At the end of February 1995, the defense counsel lodged an appeal before the higher instance, which confirmed the preventive custody. Nevertheless, as the requirements for release from custody were fulfilled, this was conceded. 17. On September 20, the summary procedure was reopened and Fabian Sliwa, a former officer, who, according to his declarations to the press, had observed the physical punishment that Police Captain Espósito had meted out on Walter Bulacio, was summoned to make a witness statement. The defense counsel tried unsuccessfully to object to this witness. The day established for taking Sliwa’s witness statement, he challenged the judge but National Juvenile Court N° 2 disallowed this because the minor had died. The defense counsel appealed the disallowing of the recusal but the Appeal Court (Chamber VI) confirmed the decision during May 1995. 18. Subsequently, the Police Captain’s defense counsel filed a special appeal ("planteo de especialidad"), requesting the participation of a Court of Investigation--for adults--rather than the National Juvenile Court that had been hearing the case since 1991. Following Sliwa’s testimony, National Juvenile Court N° 4, and National Court of First Instance for Investigation of Criminal Offenses Nos. 5 y 32 declared themselves incompetent. On June 20, 1995, the latter returned the case to National Juvenile Court N° 4, which, in turn, elevated it to the Appeal Court (Chamber VI). Two months later, the latter decided that National Juvenile Court N° 4 should continue with the case because the summary procedure was almost complete. 19. In November and December 1995, National Juvenile Court N° 4 requested various measures to confirm the witness Sliwa’s version, such as handwriting expertise and testimony confirming that Sliwa was present in Police Station No. 35 in the early morning hours of April 19, 1991. In February 1996, it ordered confrontations between Sliwa and several former police agents who confirmed that "Sliwa saw something that night and did not know whether to keep quiet for ever or denounce it" and that, for several years, he consulted about his doubts before appearing before the Judge. In March 1996, National Juvenile Court N° 4 ordered a temporary stay of the case against Police Captain Espósito for the crimes of the bodily injuries, torture and death of Walter Bulacio, considering that Sliwa’s testimony was weak because he had been sentenced in another criminal case. 3