7
31.
Percy Catacora Santisteban and Jorge Chávez Lobatón were presented by the
Peruvian State to declare as experts. However, on May 24, 1999, the Court adopted
a decision resolving that Percy Catacora Santisteban would declare as a witness.
32.
On July 13, 1999, within the established period, the Commission submitted its
written summing up.
33.
On September 9, 1999, the State submitted its summing up. As this
presentation was manifestly time-barred (the time limit expired on July 11, 1999),
the Court abstained from considering it.
34.
On August 12, 1999, the ad hoc Judge for the case, José Alberto Bustamante
Belaúnde, withdrew from this appointment “due to the irreversible incompatibility
that [he found] between the normal, fluid and irrecusable exercise of this
appointment and [his] publicly known position with regard to the decision of the
Peruvian Government to withdraw from the contentious jurisdiction of the Court” 1,2.
IV
PROVISIONAL MEASURES ADOPTED IN THE CASE
35.
On July 17, 1997, prior to presenting the application, the Inter-American
Commission submitted to the Court a request for the adoption of provisional
measures in the instant case, invoking Article 63.2 of the Convention and Article 25
of the Rules of Procedure. In this document, the Commission requests the Court
that
it [should] order the Illustrious Government of Peru to comply with the judgment of the
Public Law Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of Lima in the habeas corpus action,
without prejudice to the investigation being continued before the competent judicial
organ in order to determine any criminal responsibility on the part of Gustavo Cesti
Hurtado.
36.
In a decision issued on July 29, 1997, the President requested the State to
adopt “without delay, any measures [that may be] necessary to ensure the physical,
mental and moral safety of Gustavo Cesti Hurtado, so that any provisional measures
that the Court might take, if appropriate, [may] have the relevant effects”.
37.
On September 11, 1997, the Court ratified the resolution of its President of
July 29, 1997, based on the following consideration, among others
[t]hat the facts and circumstances raised by the Commission imply that there is a direct link
between the Commission’s request for Gustavo Cesti Hurtado’s release, in compliance with the
1.
In a note dated July 16, 1999, received by the Secretariat of the Court on July 27, 1999, the
General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS) informed the Court that, on July 9,
1999, Peru had deposited an instrument in which it declared that “according to the American Convention
on Human Rights, the Republic of Peru withdraws[drew] the declaration that the Peruvian Government
had at one time made, recognizing the optional clause of submission to the contentious jurisdiction of the
Inter-American Court of Human Rights”. Moreover, the Court received information verifying declarations
made by the ad hoc Judge in the case, José Alberto Bustamante Belaúnde, in support of the position
adopted by Peru.
2.
Heriberto Manuel Benítez Rivas, acting as amicus curiae, presented a document on November 23,
1998. The same day, the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS) and the Center for Justice and
International Law (CEJIL), acting as amici curiae, presented a document to the Court.