sanctioning regulation may differ from that required by the principle of legality in criminal
matters, due to the different types of conflicts that each is meant to resolve. Thus, issues of
indeterminacy in a disciplinary offense cannot be examined in the abstract but rather in light
of the judge's reasoning at the time of its application. In the Court's view, the application of
an open disciplinary grounds does not constitute, in principle, a violation of the right to due
process, provided that the jurisprudential parameters that have been defined for that purpose
are respected. In this way, when applying open or indeterminate rules, the impact that the
conduct carried out may have on the police function must be taken into account, whether it
is positively established through the determination of normative criteria for its application or
through an adequate reasoning and interpretation of the judge at the time of its application.
Otherwise, the scope of these disciplinary grounds would be subjected to the moral or private
beliefs of the judge. To that extent, in the absence of normative criteria that guide the conduct
of the judge, the reasoning behind the sanctioning decision provides clarity to be given to the
open or indeterminate disciplinary grounds.
101. The disciplinary ruling fails to explain why the aggravating circumstance provided in
letter (c) of the aforementioned Article 30 would apply, regardless of the specific alleged act,
which pertains precisely to the lack of respect towards a superior by the alleged victim.
Likewise, concerning letter (d), it was not specified which prior infractions were taken into
account to determine the severity of the sanction, to the extent of applying the maximum
penalty possible. This was necessary due to the plurality of disciplinary records contained in
Mr. Mina Cuero's resume, a document that contained different sanctions, some of which would
be understood to have been effectively applied and others nullified by virtue of the legal
actions filed. Furthermore, the Resolution also did not specify what "other circumstance"
increased the seriousness of the offense committed or the dangerousness of the alleged victim
in order to consider the aggravating factor stated in letter (m) and thereby impose the penalty
of dismissal.
102. The Court also observes a violation of the right to presumption of innocence, as the lack
of specification regarding which previous sanctions were considered and applied as
aggravating circumstances, and the imposition of the most severe possible penalty,
demonstrates prejudice by the Disciplinary Court, to the detriment of the alleged victim.
103. Likewise, the Court notes that the lack of specification regarding which prior sanctions
were considered and applied as aggravating circumstances and the imposition of the most
serious possible penalty, constitutes a departure from the duty to state reasons, which also
meant a violation of the ne bis in idem principle, since the aggravating circumstance contained
in letter (c) of Article 30 of the Disciplinary Regulations of the National Police would have been
applied, referring to the execution of the act "in the presence of the personnel,” that is, taking
into account for that aggravating circumstance the same conduct under question, as was the
lack of respect for other members of the police institution.
104. As a result, the Court concludes that due to the failure to meet the duty of providing
reasoning in the administrative resolution and the violation of the presumption of innocence,
the State violated Articles 8(1) and 8(2) of the American Convention, in relation to Article
1(1) of the same international instrument, to the detriment of Mr. Mina Cuero.
105. Regarding the allegations related to the violation of the principle of legality, the Court
observes that, in the abstract, the content of paragraphs 5 and 26 of Article 64 of the
Regulations on Disciplinary Proceedings of the National Police, as well as subparagraphs (c),
(d) and (m) of Article 30 of the same Regulations, provide elements that make it possible to
deduce the factual assumptions contained in the law, with the required precision given the
disciplinary administrative nature of these precepts. A different matter is that, in its