19 criminal court judges, to appraise the evidence in a criminal case proceeding and the effects thereof on the determination of the respective liability. Accordingly, the examination as to whether the State is in breach of the principle of the presumption of innocence may require a review of how the court in question dealt with and assessed the evidence within the framework of due process protections. This exercise is separate from the one criminal court judges must engage in and is exclusively focused on determining whether in performance of their duties, they enforced or overlooked the minimum safeguards, which are provided for under the principle of the presumption of innocence. 65. As established as proven fact, Mr. Zegarra Marín was convicted on November 8, 1996, by the Fifth Chamber for Criminal Matters of the Superior Court of Justice of Lima. Said judgment included an analysis of criminal liability of several persons, with whereas clause 13 specifically addressing the alleged victim’s situation. The Commission notes that in cases in which there is an allegation of violation of the principle of the presumption of innocence in a conviction, the basis in law and fact of the judgment is essential to be able to understand whether the way the evidence was dealt with in the domestic court was consistent with said principle. Consequently, the Commission will analyze the court’s basis in law and fact in whereas clause thirteen of the judgment of conviction. 66. Based on a simple reading of the considerations set forth in said section of the judgment, the Fifth Chamber for Criminal Matters appears to have taken as the basis for its analysis the statements of a co-defendant, Mr. Roberto Cárdenas Hurtado, who essentially claimed that Mr. Zegarra Marín was aware of the irregular issuance of passports. Immediately after the reference to the accusation of the co-defendant named above, the judicial authority noted that Mr. Zegarra Marín denied the facts. Then right after that, the Fifth Chamber for Criminal Matters lists the evidence favoring the position of Mr. Zegarra Marín, to wit, that co-defendants Cárdenas Hurtado and Moreno Palacios were not functionally or administratively under Commander Zegarra Marín; that contrary to the claims made by Mr. Cárdenas Hurtado, the testimonial evidence indicates that Commander Zegarra Marín did not send out the 525 passports; and that, according to the Expert Handwriting Analysis Report, the Peruvian passport in the name of Carlos Remo Manrique Carreño - the focus of the criminal investigation – had been fraudulently authorized as to the signature authenticating it, in other words, Mr. Zegarra Marín’s signature had been forged. 67. After noting the accusatory statements of the co-defendants as the only evidence against Mr. Zegarra Marín and listing the evidence supporting his claim, the Fifth Chamber for Criminal Matters makes the following considerations regarding its decision on Mr. Zegarra Marín’s criminal responsibility: (…) however, these additional pieces of evidence, do not fully disprove the charges made against him by his co-defendants Cárdenas Hurtado and Moreno Palacios, inasmuch as the fact that these two individuals who are defendants in the proceedings have stood firmly by their accusations up through cross-examination conducted in the oral hearing leads this panel of judges to conclude that, even though it is true that there is no direct functional or administrative link between Cárdenas Hurtado and Zegarra Marín, it is also perfectly feasible that these defendants have departed from such parameters in order to act in collusion in carrying out the criminal acts (…) all the more so because it has not been fully proven that Zegarra Marín was not aware of these events inasmuch as no compelling exculpatory evidence has emerged to make him totally innocent of the offenses that he is charged with (…). 68. The Commission finds that a fundamental corollary to the principle of the presumption of innocence is that judicial authorities put on the record the evidence that they considered sufficient to