45 3. A confession of guilt by the accused shall be valid only if it is made without coercion of any kind. 132. As has been expressed in this same judgment (supra para. 104), Luis Alberto Cantoral-Benavides was subjected to torture to break down his psychological resistance and force him to incriminate himself or confess to certain illegal activities. 133. The Court concludes, therefore, that the State violated, to the detriment of Mr. Luis Alberto Cantoral-Benavides, Article 8(2)g) and 8(3) of the American Convention. Article 8(4) of the Convention Non bis in idem 134. As regards the violation of Article 8(4) of the Convention, the Commission alleged that: a) Luis Alberto Cantoral-Benavides was acquitted by the Supreme Council of Military Justice on August 11, 1993, a decision upheld by the same Council on September 24, 1993. The judgment of the Supreme Council of Military Justice was considered final because it could not be appealed; however, because the second judgment so ordered, a copy of the record was sent to the regular courts for a trial for terrorism, and the accused was subjected to another trial in the regular courts and convicted for the same facts; b) the acquittal of Mr. Luis Alberto Cantoral-Benavides by the Supreme Council of Military Justice for the charges leveled by the DINCOTE in police affidavit No. 49-DIVICOTE 3-DINCOTE has, in accordance with Article 8(4) of the Convention, the binding effect erga omnes against any persecution on the part of Peru against said person for the same facts. This article of the Convention prevents a person from being subjected to a new trial for the same facts, regardless of how the law defines the offense. In other words, what was absolved as the “crime of terrorism within the definition of treason against the fatherland cannot be the subject of a new trial for the crime of terrorism on the basis of the same facts;” c) in the case of Mr. Luis Alberto Cantoral-Benavides, the State changed the facts referred to in the police affidavit which provided the grounds for his being tried and acquitted in the exclusive military jurisdiction “on the basis of an argument which turned out to be fictitious, since the trial in the regular courts was based not only on the same facts, but also […] on the same crime;” and d) Mr. Luis Alberto Cantoral-Benavides was tried in two separate trials, in which he was judged for the same facts in violation of the principle of non bis in idem. 135. For its part, the State alleged that: a) the Peruvian Constitutions of 1979 and 1993 establish the framework of jurisdictional guarantees for cases of the crimes of treason against the fatherland and terrorism. The existence of presumption of liability for another punishable offense, based on new evidence (handwriting evidence) which was

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