CCPR/C/114/D/2395/2014 as a commander in the Navy, was responsible for implementing actions under this operation in the State party. 2.2 In 1984, in order to establish a democratic regime, the Armed Forces, the political parties and the Tupamaros National Liberation Movement reached an agreement called “the Club Naval Pact” which included the adoption of legal measures that were subsequently put in place with the adoption of the Amnesty Act (No. 15737) and the Expiry of the Punitive Powers of the State Act (No. 15848), on 8 March 1985 and 22 December 1986, respectively. 2.3 Act No. 15737 decreed “amnesty for all political offences, and ordinary and military offences related thereto, committed as from 1 January 1962 ”. In addition, Act No. 15848 established that “the exercise of the punitive powers of the State in respect of crimes committed prior to 1 March 1985 by military and police personnel, for political reasons, or in the performance of their duties or on orders from commanding officers who served during the de facto period, [had] expired ”. Act No. 15848 authorized the executive branch to decide if a case fell within the scope of the Act and provided that, if it did, the judge was to close the case. 2.4 The author claims that, between 1985 and 2005, both laws were enforced, and that the Supreme Court consistently upheld the constitutionality of Act No. 15848. Moreover, in two referendums held on the Act in 1986 and 2009, a majority voted against repeal (1986) and against annulment (2009). 2.5 The author claims that, as from 2005, the executive branch was controlled by a political party made up of members of the groups that the regime in power from 1973 to 1985 had fought against and that since then, the executive authorities have made use of the powers granted them by the Act itself in order t o investigate and prosecute the crimes committed by members of the Armed Forces and the police between 1973 and 1985; he points out that these crimes were not covered by Act No. 15848. The author states that the authorities of the State party have, on the other hand, enforced Act No. 15737, which, in his opinion, favours the members of the groups that fought against the civil-military regime. 2.6 Against this backdrop, criminal proceedings were brought against the author. On 11 September 2006, the author was charged, jointly with one other person, with the offence of deprivation of liberty and was placed in pretrial detention in Prison No. 8, Domingo Arena, by order of first-instance Criminal Trial Court (Nineteenth Rota) (“Court No. 19”). At trial, the Public Prosecution Service sought the author ’s conviction for the criminal offence of enforced disappearance in respect of 28 persons, allegedly committed in Argentina in 1976 as part of Operation Condor. The author ’s counsel maintained that the author was not criminally liable for the offences of deprivation of liberty or of enforced disappearance. As regards the latter charge, counsel argued that enforced disappearance was defined as an offence in the State party’s legislation 30 years after the facts giving rise to the proceedings and that its application therefore violated certain principles of criminal law, such as legal certainty and non-retroactivity of criminal legislation. Counsel also argued that the statute of limitations should apply, since the acts at issue had occurred more than 30 years before, or 20 years, if the period up to 1 March 1985 was not counted. Counsel further maintained that, in calculating the limitation period, no extension on grounds of alleged dangerousness could be admitted, since the subject was a person who had retired in 1978, was performing no military functions and was 69 years of age. Counsel also objected to the position of the Public Prosecution Service and argued , among other things, that the witnesses contradicted one another, that the charges were not duly substantiated by evidence and that, in any case, criminal liability for the facts being tried should lie with those who had captured the alleged victims in Argentina. GE.15-13662 3/13