a) A distinction is made between the “reasons for the appeal” for annulment in general
(Article 373) and the “absolute grounds for annulment” (Article 374). In the latter, the
trial and the judgment will always be annulled. In the other situations, even though, in
general, it is established that “[t]he declaration of the nullity of the oral trial and of the
judgment shall be admissible,” article 385 authorizes the court to “invalidate the
judgment alone.”
b) If both the oral trial and the judgment are invalidated, article 386 is applicable and
the case will be forwarded to the corresponding competent oral court for a new oral trial
to be held.
c) If the judgment alone is invalidated and the requirements of article 385 are met, the
higher court must deliver another judgment to replace it.
d) The ruling declaring the annulment must (article 384.2) “describe the grounds on
which its decision is based; rule on the contested issues, unless it upholds the appeal, in
which case it may merely rule on the grounds that it would have found sufficient, and
declare whether or not the oral trial and final judgment that have been appealed are
null, or whether only the said judgment is null, in the cases indicated” in Article 385.
e) The replacement judgment “shall repeat the factual considerations, the legal
grounds and the decisions of the ruling that was annulled, that do not refer to the
issues that were the object of the appeal or that were incompatible with the decision
taken on the appeal, as established in the judgment appealed ” (article 385.2).
c) Analysis of the judgments denying the appeals for annulment in
light of Article 8(2)(h) of the Convention
274. The Court must now analyze whether the appeal system under the Criminal Procedural
Code, as it was applied in this case, is consistent with the requirements of Article 8(2)(h) of the
Convention. To this end, The Court is not required to rule on each of the aspects contested in
the appeals for annulment, but rather to evaluate whether the examination made by the higher
courts that decided the appeals was compatible with the requirement of an effective remedy
established in the American Convention. Nor does the Court have to rule on other aspects in
which an abstract examination of the norms on remedies in criminal proceedings in force in
Chile might reveal some contradiction with the minimum procedural guarantees established in
the American Convention.
c.i) Criminal proceedings against Norín Catrimán and Pichún
Paillalao (judgment delivered by the Second Chamber of the
Supreme Court of Justice on December 15, 2003, denying the
appeals for annulment)
275. Messrs. Norín Catrimán and Pichún Paillalao filed separate appeals for annulment against
the partially guilty verdict of the Angol Oral Criminal Trial Court of September 27, 2003,
requesting the annulment of the trial with regard to the offenses for which they had been
convicted and the holding of a new trial. In addition, they asked that the judgment be annulled
and that a replacement judgment be delivered acquitting those who had been convicted; that it
be declared that the offenses were not of a terrorist nature, and that the punishment be
amended (supra para. 118).
276. On December 15, 2003, the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice delivered
a judgment in which it rejected all the flaws described by the appellants and upheld the partially
guilty verdict with regard to Messrs. Pichún Paillalao and Norín Catrimán (supra para. 118).
277. In the judgment rejecting the appeals, the Second Chamber summarized the flaws
described by the appellants Norín Catrimán and Pichún Paillalao, and indicated that, “basically,
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