11
8.
Having monitored compliance with the judgments on merits and reparations
delivered in the present case, and after examining the information supplied by the
State, by the Commission and by the representatives between the November 27,
2003 Order and the present, the Court has established that the State has complied
with the obligation to publish the operative part of the August 18, 2000 Judgment on
merits in a newspaper with nationwide circulation (supra Having Seen 2.7, 9.b and
10.b).
*
*
*
9.
As for the duty to take the measures necessary to render null and void the
conviction that the Supreme Court of Peru handed down against Luis Alberto
Cantoral Benavides, in accordance with operative paragraph four of the December 3,
2001 Judgment on reparations (supra Having Seen 2), the State reported that the
National Chamber on Terrorism issued a resolution to the effect that “in accordance
with Legislative Decree No. 926, the verdict [of conviction handed down by the
Supreme Court of Peru against a number of persons] was nullified save in the case
of Luis Alberto Cantoral, among others, due to the fact that the person in question
was pardoned and later rehabilitated.” In the State’s view, this meant that the
pardon “had rendered the conviction null and void and automatically nullifies [Mr.
Cantoral Benavides’] criminal record.” (supra Having Seen 8.b).
10.
Supreme Resolution No. 078-97-JUS of June 24, 1997, which was the
instrument through which Mr. Cantoral Benavides was pardoned, states that “Law
No. 26655 created an Ad Hoc Commission charged with evaluating and proposing to
the President of the Republic, as an exceptional measure, the grant of a pardon to
those convicted of crimes of terrorism or treason based on insufficient evidence,
thereby enabling the Ad Hoc Commission to reasonably presume that there was no
type of association with terrorist elements, activities or organizations; and […] that,
pursuant to Article 118 of the Constitution of Peru, the President of the Republic has
the authority to grant pardons […].”3 These facts were established in the proceedings
on the merits of the present case.
11.
The pardon granted to Mr. Cantoral Benavides did not nullify the conviction
that the Supreme Court of Justice of Peru entered against him, as was pointed out in
the merits phase of the proceedings,4 which, in the reparations phase, was the
reason why the Court ordered that the conviction be rendered null and void (supra
Having Seen 2.4). Moreover, it has been established that in application of Legislative
Decree No. 926 the National Chamber on Terrorism nullified the sentence of
conviction issued by the Supreme Court in the case of a number of people, but not in
the case of Luis Alberto Cantoral, among others, on the grounds that he had already
been pardoned. In other words, for purposes of the present case, the pardon was
one means of exonerating Luis Alberto Cantoral Benavides of all criminal
responsibility. Hence, and on the understanding that the pardon granted has had
substantially that effect, the Court considers that the State has complied with the
obligation to render null and void the conviction in question.
3
Case of Cantoral Benavides. Judgment of August 18, 2000. Series C No. 69, para. 121.
4
Case of Cantoral Benavides, supra note 2, paragraphs 118-122.