26.
In operative paragraph 9 and paragraphs 442 and 460 of the Judgment, the Court
ordered that the State “must, within a reasonable period of time, establish the necessary
means in order to ensure that the information and documentation related to police
investigations regarding facts as serious as those of the present case be conserved in a
manner such that they do not obstruct the corresponding investigations.”
27.
The Court deems it appropriate to recall that this measure was ordered as a
guarantee of non-repetition, considering that “State authorities carried out important
omissions regarding the recovery, preservation, and analysis of the evidence,” during
"actions adopted by the State between May 1992 and the opening of the first ordinary
criminal proceeding in June 2005” for the investigation of the events that occurred in the
Castro Castro Prison between May 6 and 9, 1992. This lack of preservation of evidence
consisted of, among other things, that with respect to police actions in April 1998, “passive
documentation produced by the Operative and Administrative Units of the Office of Criminal
Investigation during the years 1990, 1991, and 1992 was incinerated, among which a great
part of the internal case file of the present case was burned,” pursuant to a Ministerial
Ruling and the Rules of Procedure for Police Documentation. 37
B.2) Information and observations by the Parties and the Inter-American Commission
28.
The State reported that in the framework of the criminal proceedings No. 44-2005
and No. 67-2007 (supra Considering clause 9) “the Police Authorities have largely
contributed to the clarification of the facts, providing evidence, which has served as the
successful basis for information that the prosecution [...] has used to [f]ormulate the
respective [c]riminal complaint.” Moreover, it also noted that the National Police has
formulated three “Police Reports,” with which “the respective criminal proceedings were
initiated in each case, before their joinder,” and “the police stage concluded with the
preliminary investigation conducted by the Public Prosecutor.” In this regard, it considered
that "the National Police reported and documented the most significant events from their
investigations into the facts, and as such it has been possible for [the investigation] to reach
the procedural stage.” Therefore, it requested that the Court "close this issue.
29.
The common interveners and the Inter-American Commission made no specific
observations regarding the information presented by the State neither in the private hearing
nor in its report of September 24, 2013 regarding the implementation of this measure of
reparation. In a brief of written observations prior to the hearing, Mr. Cassel said “no notice
has been provided of the measures the State has carried out so far to comply with this
measure.”
B.3) Considerations by the Court
30.
The Court appreciates the information presented by Peru regarding the actions that it
has adopted, by way of the National Police, to document and to provide evidence that has
served as a basis for initiating criminal proceedings as of 2005 relating to a part of the
violations in this case (supra Considering clauses 16 and 17). However, the Court recalls
that the measure ordered is comprehensive and goes beyond this case, since the burning of
the documentation related to this case occurred pursuant to a Ministerial Ruling and the
Rules of Procedure for Police Documentation, that is, it came from the application of
regulated domestic legislation. Therefore, to comply with the measure ordered (supra
Considering clauses 26 and 27), Peru must bring its domestic regulations into compliance so
37
Case of Miguel Castro Castro Prison. Merits, Reparations, and Costs, supra note 2, paras. 197.62 and 385.
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