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stemming from the proceedings that he has been subjected to.” In order to do so, the Unit
for International Judicial Cooperation and Extractions was requested to cooperate and
provide international judicial assistance for the purposes of bringing the process before the
competent authorities of the Federal Republic of Brazil. The Prosecutor of the Public
Ministry to the State of Sao Paulo, after assessing the request, decided to “request
complementary information to facilitate the medical and psychiatric evaluation of [Mr.]
Cantoral Benavides,” a matter that was communicated to the First Supraprovincial
Prosecution Office of Lima.
18. The representatives stressed that the State has not taken any action since the Court´s
Order was issued in November 2009. Likewise, they let it be known that the First
Supraprovincial Prosecution Office of Lima, the body in charge of the investigation since
January 2007, has not filed an accusation against the alleged perpetrators, although they
have all the necessary resources, because a expert medical opinion of Mr. Cantoral
Benavides’ case would be necessary and that has not been carried out because he lives
abroad. They added that this expert´s opinion is not essential, and that the filing of the
accusation should not have been delayed considering the case file contains other expert
opinions on Mr. Cantoral Benavides, and the judge could have filed said accusation in court.
Furthermore, they stated that after ten years of preliminary investigation on behalf of the
prosecution, it can be concluded that the State has not shown any willingness to comply
with this point of the Judgment, and on the contrary “it has delayed its decision based on
the supposed lack of procedures of the preliminary investigation,” which, in any case, can
be carried out as part of the any process the Criminal Court decides to open in due course.
19.
The Commission made the sole observation that “no advance has been verified.”
20. The Court reiterates that, eight years after the reparations Judgment and more than
sixteen years since the facts of the present case took place, there are no significant
advances in the investigation of the human rights violations committed against Mr. Cantoral
Benavides, since the case is still in the investigation phase being carried out by the First
Supraprovincial Prosecution Office of Lima (Investigation No. 01-2007).
This Court
reiterates that the State cannot attribute the lack of and/or delay in the compliance with its
treaty obligations to the international coordination procedures, necessary to efficiently
process an expert medical opinion requested by the Prosecution, since, according to the
representatives, even if such were necessary, it could be conducted in a later phase of the
procedure.
21. The Court reiterates that it is the State´s obligation to make all the specific and
necessary arrangements to comply with this obligation and, especially, to take all measures
necessary to ensure that witnesses attend and any other procedure that could facilitate
progress in the investigations. Therefore, the State shall provide all the available means,
both administrative and judicial, or any other that may be deemed necessary, so as to
progress with the investigation, as well as to complete the procedures required thereto.
Accordingly, the Court deems it necessary to request the State to provide updated
information regarding such procedures, in the time stated in the operative part of the
present decision, for the purposes of specifically evaluating the effectiveness of the
investigative actions carried out.
THEREFORE:
THE INTER-AMERICAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS,