7
However, the State manifested that, as a consequence of the
order to reopen the investigation issued by the Supreme Court (supra
Considering 9(c)), former army colonel Julio Roberto Alpírez filed a
recourse for amparo before the Constitutionality Court arguing that
since there is a dismissal in his favor “the proceeding cannot be
reopened [nor] can he be subject to a new […] criminal prosecution.” In
said appeal, the accused argued that his “right to a defense, as well as
the juridical principles of due process, imperativeness, equality, and
basis” were not being recognized, since the decision that declared the
dismissal of the criminal prosecution against him was not appealed or
objected to by any of the parties, it used “proceedings that are not
legally pre-established, varying the types of proceeding,” and stated the
Judgment of the Inter-American Court “can never be considered
superior to the Constitution” and “it is not enforceable against legal
precepts in force,” such as those of the Code of Criminal Procedures.
Upon resolving this recourse for amparo, on August 25, 2010, the
Constitutionality Court of Guatemala considered that:
11.
there is evidence of a discrepancy between the Inter-American Court’s decision […] and the
Supreme Court’s decision […] since in the content of [the judgment of the Inter-American
Court] there is no clear notion that leads to the conclusion that the dismissal is fraudulent,
as sustained by the Public Prosecutors’ Office. Thus, there are no grounds to declare the
nullity of the [dismissal], since in order to […] reach the conclusion that the decision of
March eighth of nineteen ninety nine, which closed the […] case file, was issued in fraud of
the law, it is necessary that there be a proceeding that provides enough evidence on the
ineffectiveness of the order granted. To date such proceeding has not been executed. The
“self-execution” of the annulment of the dismissal, without an express order, favors
accusation in violation of the postulates of the right to a defense […].
This Tribunal highlights, as an example, as backgrounds facts related to the verdict issued
in another case, how the Inter-American Court […] has clearly ordered in its operative
paragraphs what the States must do, and thus in the case of “Raxcacó Reyes v.
Guatemala” […] it ruled [that] the State nullify the judgment imposed […] and, without the
need for a new process, issue another judgment that in no terms could be the death
penalty” […], as can be assessed, the decision in the related judgment differs from that
analyzed in this case, given that the other one orders the reopening of procedural phases
carried out in the corresponding case file. It should be noted that the judgment […] in the
case of “Bámaca Velásquez” […] lacks the effects ordered by the Supreme Court […]
especially regarding the annulment of the dismissal order and the judicial actions, which
thus makes it ineffective. The challenged authority does not have, at this time, any
justification to grant the annulment of the […] order of dismissal; therefore that [ordered
by the Supreme Court] is not a true basis or based on the same ratio, since offering
grounds for a judicial ruling means giving the reason, explanation, or justification of the
impulse based on which a decision is made in one sense or the other. By not acting in this
way, the postulant’s constitutional rights are violated [… since the] courts’ obligation to
justify its decisions has been acknowledged as a guarantee of the right to a due legal
process […].
[T]he ruling of the Supreme Court […] without indicating […] the instance that promoted it,
omitted in its grounds the legal causes for which said court assumed the jurisdiction and
competence to issue it, indicating, also, why said decision did not correspond to the
original court [the Court of Retalhuleu], which could have the jurisdiction pursuant [to the]