This case concerns the extrajudicial execution of Mr. Almonacid Arellano, an elementary school teacher, union leader, and activist in the Chilean Communist Party. Augusto Pinochet's newly installed military regime perceived Mr. Almonacid Arellano as a threat and arrested him at his home in Rancagua on September 16, 1973. As Mr. Almonacid Arellano walked to the police truck, his captors shot him and he died in a hospital the next day. The First Criminal Court of Rancagua initiated an investigation into the case, but the case was ultimately dismissed on September 4, 1974. When Mr. Almonacid Arellano's family requested to have the case reopened in 1992, the courts rejected it because Decree No. 2.191 of 1978 granted amnesty to the perpetrators of those crimes occurring between September 11, 1973 and March 10, 1978. The Court found the State violated the victim's rights to a fair trial and to judicial protection under the American Convention on Human Rights.
Case Summary: Almonacid Arellano et al. v. Chile, Case Summary