4
14.
The April 20, 2004 brief and its attachments, whereby the Commission
reported that “the extremely grave situation at the Urso Branco Prison has
deteriorated even more.” The Commission presented a brief from the petitioners as
an attachment to its own brief, and pointed out that “as reported in that
communication, in recent days a number of inmates at Urso Branco Prison have been
murdered, some of them publicly; bodies have been mutilated and body parts have
been thrown at authorities and other people present at the scene; apparently there
are over 170 people being held as hostages at the prison, all in connection with a riot
alleged to have occurred there.” Given the foregoing, the Commission requested
that the Court “adopt all urgent measures it deems appropriate to hasten compliance
with the provisional measures […]”. Furthermore, the petitioners’ brief, which
appears as an attachment to the Commission’s brief, states that on Sunday, April 18,
2004, there was a riot at the prison; it was visiting day, but inmates “did not allow
relatives to leave when visiting hours were over.”
15.
The April 20, 2004 brief and its attachments, where the petitioners provided
information on, inter alia, the murders of inmates and the inmate riot that occurred
recently at the prison. This communication contains the same information that the
Inter-American Commission submitted as an attachment to its April 20, 2004 brief
(supra ‘Having Seen’ 14).
16.
The Court’s April 22, 2004 Order, wherein it resolved:
1.
To call upon the State to:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
adopt all measures necessary to effectively protect the life and
personal safety of all inmates at the prison1 and of all persons who
enter the prison, including visitors;
adjust conditions at that prison to conform to the applicable
international standards for protection of human rights;2
submit to the Court an updated list of all persons incarcerated at the
Urso Branco Prison, giving the names of released and incoming
inmates and showing the number and names of the inmates who are
serving sentences and those who have not been convicted, and report
whether convicted inmates and unconvicted inmates are kept in
separate sections;3
investigate the facts that necessitated adoption of these provisional
measures, so as to identify those responsible and punish them
accordingly; this includes the investigation of the egregious events
that occurred at the Urso Branco Prison after the Court issued its
Orders of June 18 and August 29, 2002;4
submit to the Court, by no later than May 3, 2004, a report on:
i) compliance with and implementation of the measures indicated in
the preceding subsections of this operative paragraph;
ii) the events and problems reported in the Commission’s April 20,
2004 brief and attachments thereto, particularly on the serious
uprising now gripping the prison, and whether any of the supposed
1
Cf. Operative paragraph one of the June 18, 2002 Order and operative paragraph one of the
August 29, 2002 Order.
2
Cf. ‘Considering’ ten and operative paragraph six of the August 29, 2002 Order.
3
Cf. Operative paragraph four of the June 18, 2002 Order and operative paragraph seven of the
August 29, 2002 Order.
4
Cf. Operative paragraph two of the June 18, 2002 Order and operative paragraph four of the
August 29, 2002 Order.