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Samuel Abad Yupanqui stated that habeas corpus is in order against the acts
of any authority, including competent civil or military authorities; that,
according to Article 173 of the Peruvian Constitution, retired members of the
armed forces are considered to be civilians and, consequently, may not be
submitted to military jurisdiction; that, in the case of Gustavo Cesti Hurtado,
there is no pronouncement from the Constitutional Tribunal because access to
this instance is reserved for when the petition for habeas corpus is rejected
and, therefore, the favorable decision of the appellate procedure exhausted
the proceedings; and that, according to Article 15 of Law 23,506, the
pronouncement in favor of Gustavo Cesti Hurtado in the petition for habeas
corpus has the force and effect of res judicata. Likewise, the expert stated
that, faced with detention by an allegedly incompetent authority, a person
may choose between a jurisdictional dispute and filing a petition for habeas
corpus and that, in order to file the latter, there is no need to previously
exhaust the jurisdictional dispute.
During the examination by the State, the expert declared that no authority
has the powers to refuse to execute a writ of habeas corpus; that once this
has been issued, it is not in order to recommend filing a jurisdictional dispute;
that habeas corpus is in order when the provisions of the Constitution are not
respected, and this includes violation of due process; and that, in the
proceedings against Gustavo Cesti Hurtado under the military justice system,
due process was affected by submitting him to an incompetent tribunal.
Likewise, the expert stated that the Office of the Public Defender had
recommended that the writ of habeas corpus issued in favor of Gustavo Cesti
Hurtado should be executed “without prejudice to investigations continuing
before the competent jurisdictional body”; and that, with the exception of
cases when the death penalty is imposed, the Peruvian Constitution prevents
the Supreme Court from reviewing a judgment pronounced by military
tribunals.
Lastly, the expert declared that non-compliance with a writ of habeas corpus
constitutes an offense of resisting and disobeying authority, regulated by
Article 368 of the Criminal Code.
b.
Report of the expert, Valentín Paniagua Corazao, Professor of
Constitutional Law at the Catholic University, the Sacred Heart
Women’s University and the University of Lima; former President of
the Chamber of Deputies, former Minister of Justice and former
Minister of Education of Peru
Valentín Paniagua Corazao was summoned by the Court, at the request of the
Commission, so that he could present a report on the writ of habeas corpus
and its immutability, finality and consent from the standpoint of constitutional
and procedural law.
The expert described Peruvian legislation on the
constitutional and jurisdictional control of State acts and the binding nature of
the decisions of the Constitutional Tribunal with regard to writs of habeas
corpus which must be recognized by the military tribunals, because the latter
are subject to the control of the Constitution. Likewise, the expert declared
that, in cases of harm or threat to personal freedom by the tribunals, the
appropriate recourse would be the petition for habeas corpus, contemplated
in Article 12 of Law 23,506; that, although jurisdictional dispute exists in