procedure being brought against them; ii) that the alleged victims did not file an
appeal for extraordinary review of the final judgments; and iii) that the alleged
victims did not denounce the purported acts of torture in a timely fashion, nor did
they present pertinent evidence in regard to the matter.
52.
For his part, the petitioner argued that the alleged victims were
unable to denounce the alleged acts of torture for two reasons: i) they were
threatened by police authorities to keep them from reporting the abuse against them;
and ii) they were held in solitary confinement for three months.
53.
In order to determine compliance with the requirement for
exhaustion of domestic resources, it is up to the Commission to establish which
remedy is relevant for each specific case, understanding such to be the remedy that
can address the legal situation that has been infringed. The Commission considers
that the principal purpose of the claim filed involves the practice, on the part of police
and prosecutors, of allegedly conducting illegal raids on the dwellings of the alleged
victims, along with inflicting them with acts of excessive violence, torture, and
solitary confinement so they would incriminate themselves. In this respect, in cases
in which violations of the right to humane treatment are alleged, the Inter-American
Court and Commission have repeatedly affirmed that the appropriate mechanism to
investigate and, where applicable, punish those responsible and repair the victims’
relatives where the perpetrators are State agencies is through a criminal
investigation, which should be undertaken ex officio by the States and carried out
with due diligence so that it can be considered effective. 4
54.
In particular, in terms of excessive use of force on the part of State
agents, the Court has stated that:
Whenever the use of force caused the death or injuries to one or more people,
the State should give a satisfactory and convincing explanation of the events
and rebut the allegations related to its liability, by means of adequate
evidence.5
55.
The Commission notes that the State contended that the alleged
victims did not denounce the supposed acts of torture in a timely manner. Moreover,
the State indicated that once a first-instance judgment had been issued, on March
16, 2003, the records were sent to the Public Ministry for an investigation into the
acts of torture insinuated during the trial by those convicted. The State emphasized
that the victims did not provide evidence in this investigation to support their
allegations.
56.
The Commission notes that since the alleged victims were detained,
different State authorities, including the court with jurisdiction over the arrest, knew
about the alleged acts of torture that were committed at the time of the arrest and
subsequently. In fact, the file shows that various communications media broadcast
photos of the alleged victims in which they were obviously battered, as well as reports
by the then-Ombudsman about the purported use of excessive force in this case and
about those arrested being held incommunicado. The file further shows that since the
hearing on precautionary measures, held on December 19, 2001, one day after the
4 See, for example: I/A Court H.R., Ximenes Lopes Case. Judgment of July 4, 2006. Series C,
No. 149, para. 148; I/A Court H.R., Baldeón García Case. Judgment of April 6, 2006. Series C,
No. 147, pars. 92 and 93; IACHR, Report No. 14/04, Case 11.568, Luís Antonio Galindo
Cárdenas, Peru, February 27, 2004, para. 41; IACHR, Report No. 24/04, Petition 723/01, Tirso
Román Valenzuela Avila, Guatemala, February 26, 2004, pars. 30 and 31; IACHR, Case No.
11.509, Manuel Manríquez, Mexico. Report No. 2/99 of February 23, 1999, para. 58.
5 I/A Court H.R., Montero Aranguren et al. Case. Judgment of July 5, 2006. Series C, No.
150, para. 80.
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