Commission on the matter that the Court has competence to rule and, unfortunately,
this did not happen in the instant case, even though the State filed the corresponding
objection.
5. Inadmissibility of the petition with regard to the facts relating to the pre-trial
detention and the duration of the proceedings
The same can be said as regards the admissibility of the petition in relation to the facts
corresponding to the preventive detention and the duration of the proceedings. This was
established because the Commission found that this referred to a situation that was
distinct and separate from the criminal proceedings. As mentioned above, this does not
correspond to the content of the petition and, thus, it was not in order to separate it
from the whole and establish partial admissibility on this basis.
But also and in addition, as indicated in relation to the whole petition, the said
admissibility was established based on the fact “that different appeals had been filed
over the period from March 24, 2006, to May 11, 2007,” 35 in other words, based on
domestic procedural actions that took place months and years after the petition had
been lodged, so that, obviously, they could not be included or invoked as its grounds.
This is precisely why the Judgment states that “in these circumstances, it cannot be
understood that the requirement of prior exhaustion of domestic remedies established in
Article 46(1)(a) of the American Convention has been satisfied,” and that “furthermore
[…] when the initial petition was forwarded to the State on February 23, 2007, the
decision of May 11, 2007, that supposedly exhausted domestic remedies had not yet
been issued.” 36 Consequently, it declared admitted “the preliminary objection of failure
to exhaust domestic remedies filed by the State is admitted as regards the facts relating
to the preventive detention of Mr. Díaz Peña and the duration of the proceedings.” 37
Furthermore, what is surprising is that the Judgment founded this statement also on the
fact that “[m]oreover, it cannot be considered that domestic remedies had been
exhausted by the requests filed by Mr. Díaz Peña’s defense counsel in the context of the
criminal proceedings that were underway at the time,” because “the appropriate remedy
in this regard, was to appeal the judgment delivered at the end of the proceedings,”
which “Mr. Díaz Peña expressly waived the right to file,” and on the fact that the
Commission had declared that “the arguments concerning the irregularities in the
criminal proceedings that could have been rectified by contesting the adverse judgment
were inadmissible.” 38
In other words, this affirmation appears to recognize that the petition is dealt with
considering the said three aspects merely because the Commission divided it up in this
way and not because, in fact, these are three different matters. Moreover, the wording in
the Judgment would appear to insinuate that, if the Commission had not considered the
petition in this way, the decision on the admissibility of the petition would have referred
only to the criminal proceedings, which would include, consequently, the facts relating to
the preventive detention and the duration of the proceedings.
6. Admissibility of the petition with regard to the detention conditions and the lack of
medical attention
35
Para. 123.
36
Para. 123.
37
Para. 125.
38
Para. 124.
8