IV. ANALYSIS OF MERITS A. Established facts 1. Regarding María Luisa Acosta's work 24. María Luisa Acosta is both nationally and internationally recognized as a lawyer who defends the rights of indigenous peoples.2 In this regard, Nicaragua's State Attorney for the Defense of Human Rights (Procurador para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos) called Mrs. Acosta "the leading defender of indigenous rights [which she] defends courageously and from a human rights perspective."3 At the time of the facts addressed in this case and till now (the date this report was issued), María Luisa Acosta has worked as the Coordinator of CALPI, a Nicaraguan organization dedicated to providing legal and technical advice to the indigenous peoples, principally on matters relating to the exercise of their right to ownership of their lands and natural resources.4 25. Since 2000, María Luisa Acosta has represented the indigenous peoples of the Pearl Lagoon basin in a number of administrative and judicial suits in order to assert their rights to the possession and use of ancestral lands.5 Both within Nicaragua and internationally, María Luisa Acosta publicly denounced what was happening to those peoples.6 26. According to information in the public domain, the various administrative and judicial suits had been filed against real estate broker Peter Tsokos, a national of both Greece and the United States, who had purchased seven of the 22 Pearl Cays, which allegedly constituted ancestral lands of the indigenous people inhabiting them.7 According to both Nicaraguan and international media, the purchase of those cays had been illegal, given that the Nicaraguan Constitution and the Statute on the Autonomy of the Atlantic Coast Regions guaranteed the property of the indigenous peoples against private purchase.8 It was also reported 2 Appendix 1. Letter from the Rector of the University of Tromso to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), dated May 2, 2002. Trial court file No. 110-02, folio 353. Appendix 2. Letter from the Research Center at the University of York to the President of Nicaragua, dated April 18, 2002. Trial court file No. 110-02, folio 355. Appendix 3. Statement by Nicaragua Emergency Response Network on April 11, 2002. Trial court file No. 110-02, folio 350. Appendix 4 “Pastores por la Paz imploran investigar crimen, constatan violaciones a derechos indígenas en el Caribe”, La Prensa, April 10, 2002. Trial court file No. 11002, folio 283. Appendix to the petitioners’ communication of July 13, 2007. 3 Appendix 5. Statement by the State Attorney for the Defense of Human Rights (PDDH), Benjamín Pérez Fonseca, Managua, April 22, 2011. Trial court file No. 110-02, folio 352. Appendix to the petitioners’ communication of July 13, 2007. 4 Web site of the Centro de Asistencia Legal Para Pueblos Indígenas (CALPI), http://calpi.nativeweb.org/quiensomos.htm 5 Workers World, Nicaragua leader targeted, May 2, 2002, http://www.workers.org/ww/2002/nicaletter0502.php Appendix 6. “Abogada de etnias asegura que Policía niega acceso al agua a las etnias que habitan en la zona”, La Prensa, October 14, 2000. Appendix 7. “Corte Suprema ventilará conflicto por Cayos de Perlas”, La Prensa, October 14, 2000. María Luisa also wrote academic papers on the buying and selling of these cays. Appendix 8. Revista del Caribe Nicaragüense, WANI (Legal analysis of the Buying and Selling of the Pearl Cays). Revista del Caribe Nicaragüense, WANI. No. 29 CIDCA-UCA, April-June 2002. Appendices to the petitioners’ communication of July 13, 2007. 6 7 Appendix 9. Letter of Solidarity with María Luisa Acosta from the Alexander Von Humboldt Institute, International Legal Group, and Centro de Asistencia Legal a los pueblos indígenas (CALPI), Trial court file No. 110-02, folio 351. Appendix to the petitioners’ communication of July 13, 2007. Appendix 10 “Jamás he cometido un delito, afirma, Griego protesta su inocencia”, El Nuevo Diario, April 13, 2002.. Appendix 4 “Pastores por la Paz imploran investigar crimen, constatan violaciones a derechos indígenas en el Caribe”, La Prensa, April 10, 2002. Trial court file No. 110-02, folio 283. Appendix to the petitioners’ communication of July 13, 2007. “Nicaragua leader targeted”, Workers World, May 2, 2002. Posted at http://www.workers.org/ww/2002/nicaletter0502.php. Appendix 11. “Indígenas reclaman complejo de islotes”, La Prensa, October 8, 2000. 8 “Nicaragua leader targeted”, Workers World, May 2, 2002. Posted at http://www.workers.org/ww/2002/nicaletter0502.php. Appendix 12. Catherine Elton, “Legal storm rocking island `kingdom'”, The Miami Herald, 99th Year, No. 219, 2002. Trial court file No. 110-02, folios 368-370. Appendix to the petitioners’ communication of July 13, 2007. Nicaragua Network Hotline, Peter Tsokos sells another island!, December 3, 2001. Posted at: http://www.hartfordhwp.com/archives/47/402.html. Appendix 13. “Marena multa al griego Peter Tsokos”, La Prensa, May 18, 2001. “Amparan a misquitos en el caso de los cayos”, El Nuevo Diario, March 12, 2001. Posted at: http://archivo.elnuevodiario.com.ni/2001/marzo/12marzo-2001/nacional/nacional7.html. “El Caso de los Cayos Perlas”, La Prensa, October 12, 2002. ”Venta de cayos podría anularse”, La Prensa, October 8, 2000. The petitioners also voiced their opinions. Initial petition of June 20, 2007.