4
Special Criminal Court under file No. 62-2007. On January 18 and November 7, 2008, the
aforementioned Court ordered the “discontinuance of the proceeding” against two
defendants accused of forced disappearance, and on June 27, 2008 it declared, ex officio,
“the res judicata plea to be admissible” with respect to nine defendants accused of crimes
against public order and public peace by way of conspiring against the State. On July 19,
2010, the Office of the First Supraprovincial Public Prosecutor formalized a supplementary
criminal complaint against Vladimiro Montesinos Torres and eight of the persons included in
the complaint made by the Provincial Public Prosecutor’s Office for the criminal offence set
forth in Article 108 of the Criminal Code in force at the time of the events. This complaint
was also against Vladimiro Montesinos Torres and seven of the aforementioned individuals
for the forced disappearance of Mr. Gómez Palomino. On August 31, 2010, the Criminal
Court ruled that: a) there was “no cause to proceed” against four of those accused of forced
disappearance, or against nine individuals accused of the crime against the victim's life,
person and health (murder), and b) to “expand the initial investigation order” to include
Vladimiro Montesinos Torres and three others for the forced disappearance of Mr. Gómez
Palomino, as well as charging Vladimiro Montesinos Torres and eight others for the crime
against the life, person and health (murder with malice aforethought) of Mr. Gómez
Palomino. Lastly, on December 30, 2010, the proceedings were bound over to the Second
Special Criminal Court and, in turn, to the Segunda Fiscalía Superior Penal Especial [Second
Supreme Special Public Prosecutor’s Office] in Lima on February 3, 2011. At this time, the
indictment against the defendants was still to be carried out. The State also reported that it
was coordinating matters in order to ensure that “cases investigated in domestic courts, as
a result of [Inter-American] Judgments, be speedily processed.”
7.
The representatives indicated that part of the State’s proffered information has
already been the subject of previous submissions by the representatives and the State
itself. They also stated that more than three years after the commencement of criminal
proceedings, a public trial preceding issuance of a judgment has yet to begin even though
“this process does not entail any great complexity or difficulty in order to amass the body of
evidence because it concerns a single event.” On the other hand, the representatives
indicated that “since 2007, in the course of the criminal proceedings in the ‘Case of La
Cantuta’ [...], four ex-members of the Colina group have signed cooperation agreements
with the Office of the Public Prosecutor [in which they recognized] their responsibility for
[Mr. Gómez Palomino’s] disappearance and have provided important factual information
concerning the acts and the participation of the ten defendants who have yet to be
convicted.” According to the representatives, this information “has not been used to locate
the remains of the victim.” Similarly, they noted that the information on offer from the State
does not account for the lines of investigation of the case, nor does it provide any insight
into compliance with the agreements on effective cooperation mentioned above, specifically
regarding punishments imposed and any corresponding civil reparation measures.
Concerning the coordination efforts mentioned by the State supra, the representatives
continued to await an indictment against these ten defendants, the initiation of the
corresponding oral proceedings, and a judgment within a reasonable period.
8.
The Commission positively assessed the State’s submission of documentary evidence
relating to the most recent advances in domestic proceedings. Nonetheless, it noted that
the State “did not provide information any different from that which the representatives
have already made available to the Tribunal,” which was the subject of its observations. In
this regard, the Commission deems it important that the State present information
regarding time periods for its proceedings, the prospects for issuing an indictment, and the
date in which – according to Peruvian criminal procedure – the trial would be set to begin.
9.
The Tribunal accordingly observes that although the information presented by the