cases, the higher court made an analysis that went beyond matters that were strictly juridical
and that, to the contrary, involved an examination that compared the body of evidence in the
case to the assessment made, and the legal consequences derived from it by the lower court.
In this regard, the Court notes that these are recent judgments from 2009, 2012 and 2013. The
Court notes that the representatives called attention to the existence of other domestic rulings
in which the scope of the above-mentioned grounds for annulment is restrictive on this point
and affirmed that it was impossible to analyze matters relating to the establishment of the facts
in the oral trial. These decisions date from 2010, 2011 and 2012. In these judgments, an
interpretation was made that reduced the scope of the review to questions that were, above all,
related to the appropriate application of the rules of evidentiary law.
297. The Court considers that the elements provided are not sufficient to conclude that the
grounds under article 374.e) of the Criminal Procedural Code do not comply with the standard
of an effective remedy guaranteed in Article 8(2)(h) of the Convention as regards the possibility
of contesting factual matters by means of arguments relating to the lower court’s assessment of
the evidence. Taking into account that there is an interrelationship between the factual,
evidentiary and legal dimensions of the criminal judgment (supra para. 270.d), the Court
considers that, since it is not a conclusion that can be derived from the text of the said grounds,
it has not been proved that, based on these grounds, it is not possible to contest matters
relating to the factual framework of the judgment by examining the assessment of the evidence
in it. Therefore, the Court concludes that, in the instant case, the State did not violate the
obligation to adopt domestic legal provisions, established in Article 2 of the American
Convention, in relation to the right to appeal the judgment established in Article 8(2)(h) of this
instrument, to the detriment of the eight presumed victims in this case.
298. Nevertheless, the Court insists that the interpretation that the domestic courts make of
the said grounds must ensure that the content and criteria developed by this Court regarding
the right to appeal the judgment are guaranteed (supra para. 270). The Court reiterates that
the grounds for the admissibility of the appeal ensured by Article 8(2)(h)) of the Convention
must make it possible to contest matters that have an impact on the factual aspect of the guilty
verdict, because the appeal should allow an extensive control of the contested aspects, and this
calls for the possibility of analyzing the factual, evidentiary and legal issues on which the guilty
verdict is based.
VII.3 – RIGHTS TO PERSONAL LIBERTY AND TO THE PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE
(ARTICLES 7(1), 7(3), 7(5) AND 8(2)313 OF THE AMERICAN CONVENTION)
A)
Arguments of the Commission and of the parties
299.
The Commission did not refer to this matter.
300. The FIDH alleged the violation of the right to personal liberty of Aniceto Norín Catrimán,
Pascual Pichún Paillalao, Jaime Marileo Saravia, Juan Patricio Marileo Saravia, José Huenchunao
Mariñán and Juan Ciriaco Millacheo Licán, referring jointly to the arbitrary nature of the pre-trial
detention, the violation of the right to be tried within a reasonable time or released, and the
violation of the principle of the presumption of innocence. It indicated that the fact that they
were “incarcerated for more than a year, because they were considered a danger to the security
of society, constitutes arbitrary imprisonment” and that “[t]he proceedings do not include a
decision referring to the danger to the investigation or the danger of flight of the accused.”
complete text of these decisions was not provided, but rather citations from parts of them; thus they will be assessed with
all the evidence before the Court.
313
The pertinent provisions of the American Convention are transcribed infra para. 307.
103
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