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the State has not carried out a complete investigation, given that some state
authorities failed to fulfill their duty to collaborate with the examining judge in
regards to the judicial inspection of the books containing the “arrivals and
departures” records of the members of the San Benito Battalion of the extinct
National Police. In the same way, prosecutorial investigation no. 34-00-03, which is
open in order to investigate the possible participation of intellectual perpetrators in
the homicide of Mr. García Prieto and the identification of the possible third party
that may have been involved in the facts, the Court observes a lack of due diligence
by the police and judicial authorities of El Salvador to act on their own motion. The
Court also observes the delay of a determination by the judiciary which would
conclude the investigation of the events. Consequently, the Court finds that a
violation of the rights established in Articles 8(1) and 25(1) of the American
Convention has occurred to the detriment of José Mauricio García Prieto Hirlemann
and Gloria Giralt de García Prieto, in relation to Article 1(1) of the Convention.
*
*
*
117. The Commission and the common intervener alleged that the personal
integrity of the members of the García Prieto Giralt family has been affected by the
insufficient investigation into the homicide of Mr. García Prieto carried out by the
State. In response, the State maintained that the death of Ramón Mauricio García
Prieto Giralt was broadly investigated by the competent institutions.
118. This Court observes that in their testimony before a notary public (supra
para. 16(d) and 16(e)), Ile del Carmen García Prieto Taghioff and Lourdes Elizabeth
García Prieto Giralt described how their family has been affected by the lack of a
complete investigation into the events of their brother’s homicide. Likewise, in her
testimony before the Court (supra para. 17(a)), Gloria Giralt de García Prieto before
the Court stated that:
[…W]e have felt frustrated, sad, angry, it is a contrast of feelings, we feel that our future
is limited in a country that has the capacity necessary to pull us to pieces and that there
is no one to stop it, we feel definitively disintegrated as a family, I would not […] think
of bringing my children to live as a complete family in El Salvador, I would definitively
die from worry.
119. Moreover, with respect to José Mauricio García Prieto Hirlemann and Gloria
Giralt de García Prieto, expert witness and psychologist Mauricio José Ramón Gaborit
Pino indicated in his expert report (supra para. 16(i)) that:
[…t]he psychological impact on the life of Doña Gloria and Don Mauricio has been mainly
due to the denial of justice in the several actions brought to clarify the circumstances of
the death of their son […]
120. Given the foregoing, this Tribunal observes that although José Raúl Argueta
Rivas and Julio Ortiz Díaz were found guilty as perpetrators of the homicide of
Ramón Mauricio García Prieto, his parents have lived with feelings of impotence and
anxiety due to the lack of a complete investigation and because the prosecutorial
investigation No. 34-00-03 has yet to be resolved (supra para. 116).
121. Therefore, this Court finds that the State is responsible for the violation of the
right to humane treatment enshrined in Article 5 of the American Convention, in
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