49
before the lack of investigation of the facts and punishment of those responsible,
eleven years after the occurrence of the facts.
127. In its assent, the State did not refer expressly to the alleged violation of
Article 5 of the Convention, in detriment of the victims’ next of kin.
128. This Court has mentioned, on repeated opportunities,86 that the next of kin of
the victims of violations of human rights may be, at the same time, victims. The
Tribunal has considered the right to mental and moral integrity of some of the
victims’ next of kin violated based on the suffering they have undergone as a
consequence of the specific circumstances of the violations committed against their
loved ones and based on the subsequent actions or omissions of state authorities
regarding the facts.
129. Having analyzed the circumstances of the case, the Court considers that the
illegality and arbitrariness of the arrest of Marco Antonio Servellón García and of
Rony Alexis Betancourth Vásquez, the torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading
treatment to which they were submitted, and the extreme cruelty of their
extrajudicial killing, breached the right to humane treatment of Messrs. Reyes
Servellón Santos and Bricelda Aide García Lobo, parents of Marco Antonio Servellón
García, and of Messrs. Manases Betancourth Núñez and Hilda Estebana Hernández
López, parents of Rony Alexis Betancourth Vásquez. Regarding the mother of
Orlando Álvarez Ríos, Mrs. Antonia Ríos, who left Honduras since the year 1989, and
who currently lives in the United States of America, this Tribunal has not found
enough elements in the body of evidence of the present case to verify an
infringement to her personal integrity due to the death of her son.
130. The Court observes that at the time of his death, Diomedes Obed García
Sánchez lived in a welfare house for street children and the whereabouts of his next
of kin were unknown, from which we can conclude that said family members had
interrupted their ties with the victim, thus an infringement to their rights as a
consequence of the facts of this case cannot be established. The aforementioned is
reflected in the lack of location of the father and other family members of the victim
throughout the domestic proceeding and during the processing of the present case
before the bodies of the Inter-American system, after eleven years of the occurrence
of the facts. Therefore, this Court considers that the right to humane treatment
enshrined in Article 5 of the American Convention of Mr. Diomedes Tito García
Casildo, father, Ester Patricia García Sánchez, Jorge Moisés García Sánchez, and
Fidelia Sarahí García Sánchez, siblings of Diomedes Obed García Sánchez, was not
violated.
131. On the other hand, in what refers to Mr. Concepción Álvarez, father of
Orlando Álvarez Ríos, and Mrs. Andrea Sánchez Loredo, mother of Diomedes Obed
García Sánchez, since they passed away prior to the occurrence of the facts of the
case sub judice, this Tribunal will not issue a ruling regarding the alleged violation to
their right to humane treatment.
132. In what refers to the sister of Orlando Álvarez Ríos, Mrs. Dilcia Álvarez Ríos,
the Court considers that it is necessary to point out that the victim lived with her at
86
Cfr. Case of Ximenes Lopes, supra note 3, para. 156; Case of Baldeón García, supra note 3, para.
128; and Case of Gómez Palomino, supra note 7, para. 60.