IACHR Files Complaint Against Argentina for Violations of Due Process Before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

April 11, 2024

Washington, D.C. — On January 20, 2024, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) filed Case 11.755 against Argentina before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) for violations of due process committed in the criminal proceedings against Arturo Jorge Podestá and Carlos Alberto López de Belva in the exercise of their professional duties as lawyers.

Arturo Jorge Podestá and Carlos Alberto López de Belva were involved in a criminal trial for the crime of attempted fraud, arising from their involvement as lawyers in a case of damages related to the suspension of the concession of the municipal slaughterhouse of La Matanza. In the case in question, the City Council was found liable for breach of contract and ordered to pay a sum of money. As part of compliance with this sentence, the two lawyers made partial settlements based on an adjustment of the established sum owed due to the hyperinflation that Argentina was experiencing. However, an expert accounting report found that inaccurate calculations had led to a financial loss, resulting in an increase in the amount owed.

In 1991, San Martín Criminal Court No. 5 charged the petitioners with attempted fraud against the public administration. The judge made allegations that implied prejudice against the petitioners, ordered them to be taken into pretrial detention, and, in 1993, sentenced them to 33 months' imprisonment. Despite appeals alleging bias, the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Justice of the Province of Buenos Aires upheld the sentence.

In addition, the petitioners were sued for damages by two of the judges involved in the original case and were ordered to pay damages in October 2000. These decisions were upheld on appeal, and the extraordinary federal appeals were declared inadmissible by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation.

In Merits Report 291/21, the IACHR stated that although successive interventions by the same judicial authority and the same trial are not inherently incompatible with the impartiality of the judge, it is essential that judges avoid actions that suggest they hold prior opinions on cases.

In this case, the IACHR found that the decisions reached by the judge in 1991 when evaluating the evidence in one phase of the trial compromised his objective impartiality, which should have disqualified him from continuing with the case, especially when he imposed prison sentences at the end of the second phase of the trial. Consequently, it concluded that the guarantee of an impartial judge had been violated and held the State responsible for the violation of the right to due process.

Furthermore, the IACHR considers that the provision of Article 350 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Province of Buenos Aires, which limits the possibility of appealing a sentence of fewer than three years imprisonment, constitutes a restriction that violates the right to judicial protection as established in the American Convention on Human Rights.

Consequently, the IACHR concluded that the Argentine State is responsible for the violation of the rights to be tried by an impartial judge, to judicial protection, and to equality before the law established in articles 8.1, 25, and 24 of the American Convention, in relation to articles 1.1 and 2 of this instrument, to the detriment of Mr. Carlos Alberto López de Belva and Mr. Arturo Jorge Podestá.

As a result, the IACHR recommended the following measure to the State of Argentina:

1. Make full material and moral reparation for the human rights violations described in this report.

The IACHR is a principal and autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), whose mandate stems from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has the mandate to promote the observance and defense of human rights in the region and acts as an advisory body to the OAS on the matter. The IACHR is made up of seven independent members who are elected by the OAS General Assembly in their personal capacity, and do not represent their countries of origin or residence.

No. 069/24

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