51. Mr. Ruiz Fuentes also stated that, three days after he was admitted to the hospital, “some men” came and told him that he “should not say that [he] had been beaten, but to say that [his] injuries were the result of having fallen from an eight meter-high wall and that they would help [him] get out in two or three months.”60 C. Criminal proceedings against Mr. Ruiz Fuentes c.1 Facts that resulted in the sentence convicting him 52. On August 5, 1997, at 6.50 a.m., the child, P.A.L.W., was kidnapped by three armed men. In repeated telephone calls, the kidnappers demanded that the child’s father pay them one million quetzals for his freedom. On August 6, 1997, the child was found and freed unharmed as the result of an operation carried out by investigators attached to the Anti-kidnapping and Extortion Section of the National Police. During this operation Mr. Ruiz Fuentes and four other individuals were captured and brought before the second criminal magistrate of the municipality of Mixco, Department of Guatemala.61 53. Based on those facts, the prosecutor of the Public Prosecution Service charged Mr. Ruiz Fuentes and others with the perpetration of the crime of kidnapping or abduction defined by article 201 of the Criminal Code of Guatemala in force at the time of the events and this initiated the proceedings. 62 54. The oral and public hearing was scheduled for April 20, 1999. That day, Mr. Ruiz Fuentes’ private lawyer abandoned his client. The court appointed another lawyer as Mr. Ruiz Fuentes’ defense counsel and postponed the hearing to the following day, giving the latter one day to prepare Mr. Ruiz Fuentes’ legal defense.63 55. On May 14, 1999, the Sixth Sentencing Court for Drug-trafficking and Environmental Crimes of Guatemala (hereinafter “the Sixth Criminal Sentencing Court”) handed down its judgment convicting Mr. Ruiz Fuentes and the other defendants for the kidnapping of the child, P.A.L.W. Mr. Ruiz Fuentes, together with two other defendants (J.M.M.R. and Mr. Raxcacó Reyes) were sentenced to death because they were found responsible as direct perpetrators of the crime of abduction or kidnapping. The other two defendants were convicted of committing the crime of abduction or kidnapping and sentenced to forty and twenty years of “non-commutable imprisonment,” respectively.64 c.2 Remedies filed 56. Mr. Ruiz Fuentes and the other two men sentenced to death filed a “special remedy of appeal based on form and substance,” against the judgment delivered by the Sixth Criminal Sentencing Court on May 14, 1999.65 Mr. Ruiz Fuentes founded his appeal by arguing that the sentencing court had found proved facts that differed from those described in the indictment, thus affecting his right of defense.66 He also indicated that he had been deprived of his right to offer and provide evidence Cf. Record of hearing C-4-98. Statement made by Hugo Humberto Ruiz Fuentes during the oral and public trial hearings before the Sixth Sentencing Court for Drug-trafficking and Environmental Crimes on April 21, 1999 (evidence file, folio 1143). 61 Cf. Judgment delivered by the Sixth Sentencing Court for Drug-trafficking and Environmental Crimes of Guatemala on May 14, 1999 (evidence file, folios 7339 to 7341 and 7334). Mr. Ruiz Fuentes was brought before the courts on August 8, 1997, following a surgical intervention on August 6, 1997. Cf. Interview of Hugo Humberto Ruiz Fuentes at the Zone 18 Detention Center by Alejandro Rodríguez, undated (evidence file, folio 521). 62 Cf. Judgment delivered by the Sixth Sentencing Court for Drug-trafficking and Environmental Crimes of Guatemala on May 14, 1999 (evidence file, folio 7334). 63 Cf. Record of hearing C-4-98, Sixth Sentencing Court for Drug-trafficking and Environmental Crimes on April 21, 1999 (evidence file, folios 1135 and 1136). 64 Cf. Judgment delivered by the Sixth Sentencing Court for Drug-trafficking and Environmental Crimes on May 14, 1999 (evidence file, folio 7203). 65 Cf. Judgment delivered by the Fourth Chamber of the Appellate Court of Guatemala on September 13, 1999 (evidence file, folio 100). 66 Cf. Judgment delivered by the Fourth Chamber of the Appellate Court of Guatemala on September 13, 1999 (evidence 60 15