30 cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or torture, interrogated by any authority, forcibly or involuntarily disappeared or executed in secret by the State. * * * 96. This Tribunal considers that Article 8(1) of the Convention must be given a broad interpretation based on both the letter and the spirit of this provision, and must be appreciated in accordance with Article 29 (c) of the Convention, whereby none of its provisions shall be interpreted as precluding other rights or guarantees that are inherent in the human personality or derived from representative, democratic form of government. 97. Thus interpreted, the aforementioned Article 8(1) of the Convention also includes the rights of the victim's relatives to judicial guarantees, whereby "[a]ny act of forced disappearance places the victim outside the protection of the law and causes grave suffering to him and to his family" (no underlining in the original) (United Nations Declaration on the Protection of All Persons Against Enforced Disappearance, Article 1(2)). Consequently, Article 8(1) of the American Convention recognizes the right of Mr. Nicholas Blake's relatives to have his disappearance and death to effectively investigated by the Guatemalan authorities to have those responsible prosecuted for committing said unlawful acts; to have the relevant punishment, where appropriate, meted out; and to be compensated for the damages and injuries they sustained. Accordingly, the Court declares that Guatemala violated Article 8(1) of the American Convention, to the detriment of Mr. Nicholas Blake's relatives, in relation to Article 1(1) of the Convention. XIII CONCERNING ARTICLE 25 98. According to the Commission, Mr. Nicholas Blake's relatives "were prevented from making use of [the judicial guarantees enshrined in Article 25 of the Convention] owing to the inoperative of the courts of justice...", inasmuch as those guarantees "were completely ineffective" even though they are established in Guatemalan legislation. 99. The State noted that a criminal trial initiated on June 26, 1985 was pending in the Justice of Peace of the Municipality of San Juan Ixcoy, and was based on the National Police report at the time of Mr. Nicholas Blake's and Mr. Griffith Davis' disappearance; that on July 10, 1985, the file of the case had been referred to the Magistrates' Court of Chiantla, which, in its turn, referred it to the Second Court of First Criminal Instance of the Department of Huehuetenango, and that on August 22, 1995, that Court had issued a warrant for the arrest of Mario Cano, Daniel Velásquez, Hipólito Ramón García, Vicente Cifuentes, Candelario López-Herrera, Emeterio López and Ezequiel Alvarado in connection with this case. It further pointed out that Mr. Vicente Cifuentes-López, considered to be the main material author of the act, had been arrested on March 12, 1997 (supra 27). * * * 100. The Court observes that during the public hearing held at its seat, Justo Victoriano Martínez-Morales testified that it was not until 1995 that he was summoned to testify in this case before the Department of the District Attorney ("Ministerio Público"). Mr. Richard R. Blake, Jr., also testified that no one had