32 * * * 54(45) Mr. Alfredo López Álvarez initially remained detained on the 27th and 28th days of April of 1997 at the Office of Criminal Investigation. On April 28, 1997 he was brought before the Sectional Court of First Instance of Tela. On the 29th of the same month and year he was sent to the Criminal Center of Tela. On May 2nd said Court issued the order of preventive detention, and therefore Mr. López Álvarez remained detained without interruption since that date, first in the Criminal Center of Tela and later in the National Penitentiary of Támara, until August 26, 2003, when he was released.68 The alleged victim was imprisoned for six years and four months or seventy six months.69 Regarding the prison conditions to which Mr. Alfredo López Álvarez was submitted 54(46) Honduras approved the Law of the Defendant without Conviction in consideration of the fact that “many people who, despite the considerable period of time that had gone by since the date of their arrest, ha[d] not yet been convicted or acquitted by the tribunals and courts of justice were imprisoned in the country’s penitentiaries and criminal centers.” In the system of criminal procedures in force in 1997 there was no maximum term established for any case of preventive detention.70 54(47) At the centers where the alleged victim was detained no system was applied for the classification of the inmates; there was no separation between those being processed and those convicted. During his preventive detention in the Criminal Center of Tela and the National Penitentiary of Támara, Mr. Alfredo López Álvarez was imprisoned along with the convicted population.71 68 Cf. letter of definitive release issued by the Sectional Judge of First Instance of Tela in favor of Mr. Alfredo López-Álvarez on August 26, 2003 (dossier of appendixes to the brief of petitions and motions, volume I, appendix 4, folio 19). 69 Cf. accusation presented by the prosecutor of the Office of Public Prosecutors, Mr. José Mario Salgado Montalbán, before the Sectional Judge of First Instance of Tela against Messrs. Alfredo LópezÁlvarez, Luis Ángel Acosta, and Sunny Loreto Cubas on April 30, 1997 (dossier of appendixes to the response to the petition, volume I, folios 126 and 127); preliminary examination statement offered by Mr. Alfredo López-Álvarez before the Sectional Court of First Instance of Tela on April 29, 1997 (dossier of appendixes to the petition, appendix 24, folios 848 through 850); court order to initiate preliminary proceedings issued by the Sectional Court of First Instance of Tela on April 29, 1997 (dossier of appendixes to the response to the petition, volume I, folio 111); commitment order issued by the Sectional Court of First Instance of Tela on May 2, 1997 (dossier of appendixes to the response to the petition, volume I, folio 137); letter of definitive release issued by the Sectional Judge of First Instance of Tela in favor of Mr. Alfredo López-Álvarez on August 26, 2003 (dossier of appendixes to the brief of petitions and motions, volume I, appendix 4, folio 19), and statement offered by Mr. Alfredo López-Álvarez in the public hearing celebrated before the Inter-American Court on June 28, 2005. 70 Cf. Law of the Defendant without Conviction, Decree No. 127-96, of August 13, 1996, modified by Decree No. 183-97, of October 16, 1997, third whereas (dossier of appendixes to the petition, appendix 3, volume I, folios 246 through 250). 71 Cf. letter addressed by the President of the Supreme Court of Justice of Honduras, Mr. José María Palacios, to the Secretary of State in the Office of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Tomas Arita Valle (dossier of appendixes to the petition, appendix 3, folios 234 through 237), and statement of Mr. Alfredo López-Álvarez offered in the public hearing celebrated before the Inter-American Court on June 28, 2005.