6
c) The official exchange rate of the United States dollar to the Peruvian
currency, for the period from 1990 to 1998, issued by the Central Bank of
Peru;
d) Peruvian legislation on the two annual job bonuses, which become a
thirteenth monthly salary;
e) Peruvian legislation exempting petitions of habeas corpus and criminal
proceedings from payment of court fees;
f) Law No. 26.926, of January 30, 1998, enacted on February 21, 1998,
typifying genocide, forced disappearance and torture as crimes against
humanity, even though there were precedents in the criminal code, and
g) Decree-Law No. 25.592, published July 2, 1992, which typifies the crime of
forced disappearance.
In the same notes sent to the State, just as in an earlier note dated August 26,
1998, the Court reiterated the request it had made Peru on March 11, 1998, that it
send the
[r]eport prepared by the Office of the Inspector General of Police on the operation in
which Ernesto Rafael Castillo-Páez was detained on orders from the Ministry of the
Interior, as mentioned in official memorandum 2558/DMC-CA, and any other available
intelligence relative to the circumstances of the disappearance of Ernesto Rafael CastilloPáez.
20.
On July 27, 1998, the State requested another hearing to "elaborate upon the
observations made […] on the [r]eparations requested." On July 30, 1998, the
Secretariat advised Peru that the President considered its request inadmissible.
21.
On August 21 and 24, September 9, 11, 29 and 30, October 1, 9, 26 and 29,
and November 2 and 11, all in 1998, the State forwarded some of the documents
the Court had requested as additional, helpful evidence (infra 32). By notes dated
August 20 and 28, 1998, the victim’s next of kin submitted some of the documents
the Court had requested as helpful evidence for purposes of arriving at a more
informed judgment (infra 28). The Inter-American Commission, for its part, did not
respond to the Court’s request for evidence.
22.
On September 11, 1998, the State filed a brief with observations on the
assessments made by the victim’s next of kin, wherein it reserved its right to
express its view on the English-language publication of "Human Rights
Watch/Americas/Helsinki" (HRW), submitted by the victim’s next of kin in their brief
of August 20, 1998, until such time as a Spanish translation of that publication was
made available to it. The State attached the following documents to its brief: a
November 6, 1990 letter that the then Dean of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del
Peru, Mr. Hugo Saravia-Swett, sent to the Minister of the Interior wherein reference
was made to the disappearance of student Ernesto Rafael Castillo-Páez, and press
clippings on bankruptcy proceedings that had occurred in Peru. On October 2, 1998,
the victim’s next of kin supplied a Spanish translation of the publication of "Human
Rights Watch/Americas/Helsinki," which the Secretariat then forwarded to the State
on October 5, 1998.