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w)
In its brief answering the report of Article 50 of the Convention, the
State indicated that “in compliance with the domestic legal system, the
petitioner shall have the right to a fair, impartial and prompt proceeding, in
which she must prove her alleged innocence”;
x)
Neither the alleged victim nor her lawyer were able to request
clarification of the police depositions on which the charges against her were
based because, by law, the officials who prepared them were excluded from
appearing before the court. Furthermore, they were not allowed to question a
key witness, who testified unidentified, during the trial;
y)
In its judgment of January 3, 2003, the Constitutional Court found that
the legal provision that prevented the questioning of investigating officials
who had taken part in preparing the police deposition, so as to protect their
right to life, was compatible with the Constitution;
z)
Legislative Decree No. 922 of February 19, 2003, established rules
regarding evidence for the new criminal trials. Nevertheless, it only
established new assessment criteria for the new trials in relation to evidence
used by the military courts in crimes of treason;
aa)
The alleged victim’s trial was held in a private hearing to which the
public did not have access, as noted in the respective record;
bb)
The absence of evidence and the inappropriate grounds for the facts,
which characterize the judgment convicting the alleged victim and the
judgment that confirmed this conviction, constitute a violation of the right to
judicial guarantees embodied in Articles 8 and 9 of the American Convention;
cc)
The requirement that the actual grounds for a judgment should be
stated relates to the rationale for the decision, using the criteria that the body
of evidence should be assessed with sound criticism and logic;
dd)
In this case, the first-instance judgment is the only one that contains
any conclusions allowing the alleged victim’s responsibility to be declared;
ee)
The second-instance judgment did not drawn any conclusions about
the rationale of the first-instance judgment when confirming it, also with an
“absolute lack of grounds,” which, in practice, removed the alleged victim
from judicial protection;
ff)
The judgment of June 8, 1998, confirming the judgment convicting
María Teresa De La Cruz Flores, also considered the behavior of other
defendants under the same charges and with similar evidence, and acquitted
them;
gg)
In January 1999, the National Corporative Chamber for Cases of
Terrorism acquitted two physicians charged with the crime of terrorism,
because it concluded that the mere testimony of one or more “arrepentidos”
was insufficient grounds for a conviction. It acknowledged that the behavior
of these physicians was in keeping with the ethics and legality of their
professional activities; and
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