"juvenile section" of Police Station No. 35, together with another ten minors. The following day, April 20, at 6.00 a.m., Walter Bulacio vomited and five hours later, at 11.00 a.m. he was transferred to the Pirovano Municipal Hospital in an ambulance with police custody, without either his parents or a judge being advised. The doctor who attended him diagnosed a "head injury", and this was recorded in the duty log. During the afternoon, he was transferred to the Fernandez Municipal Hospital so that a x-rays could be taken, and here he told the doctor who attended him that he had been beaten by the police. His parents heard about his arrest from a neighbor on the evening of April 20 and visited him in the Hospital, observing facial bruising produced by the blows. 7. At midday on April 21, he was transferred to the Mitre Clinic and, accordingly, the Pirovano Hospital doctor prepared a medical certificate stating that Walter Bulacio had suffered "various blows to the face with a 36-hour evolution". The doctor on duty at the Mitre Sanatorium reported by telephone to Police Station No. 7 that "a minor with injuries" had been admitted, and an investigation was initiated for the crime of bodily injuries. 8. Two days later, on April 23, National Juvenile Court of First Instance for Investigation of Criminal Offenses N° 9 was informed of the case. Walter Bulacio died five days after his arrest, on April 26, 1991. The hospital denounced this to the competent judicial authorities. The autopsy established the existence of marks produced by blows from a hard instrument on his face, his legs and the soles of his feet. 9. On April 26, when the minor died, National Juvenile Court N° 9 declared itself incompetent and referred the case to National Court of First Instance for Investigation of Criminal Offenses N° 5 for adults. The parents of the minor came forward as complainants on May 2, 1991, and the Court decided to divide the case, retaining the investigation of the bodily injuries and death of Walter Bulacio in Court of Investigation N° 5, and referring the investigation of the circumstances of the arrests and additional illegal acts committed against other persons to National Juvenile Court N° 9. 10. National Juvenile Courts Nos. 9 and 16 declared themselves incompetent to hear the case, on the basis that it was not possible to divide the subject of the procedure in view of the context of violence narrated by the young people. On May 22, 1991, the Special Division of the Appeal Court decided to merge the case and referred the case records to Juvenile Court N° 9. This Court decided to prosecute Police Captain Espósito for the crimes of unlawful deprivation of liberty, abuse of authority and misconduct in public office, and took an unsworn statement from him. 11. During the following seven months, the judge took nearly 200 witness statements from those arrested and from the police who were present during the police operation. The complainant read these statements for the first time on December 28, 1991, and requested that all those involved, including those above Police Captain Espósito in line of authority should be prosecuted. 12. On February 12, 1992, the prosecutor requested that the case against the defendant should be dismissed and the proceedings filed. On March 20, 1992, National Juvenile Court N° 9 committed Police Captain Espósito to preventive custody for the crime of aggravated unlawful deprivation of liberty and ordered an attachment for $90,000; the case against him for the other crimes was provisionally dismissed. 13. The defendant’s lawyer lodged an appeal against this decision. On May 19, 1992, the National Criminal and Correctional Appeal Court revoked the preventive custody because "even though the procedure was clearly unconstitutional, it was possible that Espósito did not realize this" and because his conduct was "a normal police practice". The petition for review that the complainant immediately lodged before the Chamber was disallowed. 2