Communication No. 577/1994 Submitted by: Rosa Espinoza de Polay Alleged victim: Victor Alfredo Polay Campos State party: Peru Declared admissible: 15 March 1996 (fifty-sixth session) Date of adoption of Views: 6 November 1997 (sixty-first session) special anti-terrorist legislation. Such a body consists of judges who are allowed to cover their faces, so as to guarantee their anonymity and prevent them from being targeted by active members of terrorist groups. Mr. Polay Campos was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment; it is claimed that his access to legal representation and the preparation of his defence were severely restricted. While the author does not specify the crime(s) of which her husband is convicted, it transpires from the file that he was convicted of “aggravated terrorism”. Subject matter: Trial and conditions of detention of convicted leader of terrorist group Procedural issues: Complaint pending another international instance before Substantive issues: Trial before “faceless courts” and breach of due process guarantees - Inhuman and degrading treatment and conditions of detention Articles of the Covenant: 2 (1), 7, 10 (1), 14 (1) (2) and (3) (b) and (d) Articles of the Optional Protocol and Rules of procedure: 2 and 5, paragraph 2 (a) 2.3 On 26 April 1993, he was transferred to the Callao Naval Base Prison near Lima. In this connection, the author forwarded a newspaper clipping showing Victor Polay Campos handcuffed and locked up in a cage. The author claims that, during the journey from Yanamayo to Callao, her husband was beaten and administered electric shocks. Finding: Violation [articles 7, 10, paragraph 1, 14, paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 (b) and (d)] 1. The author of the communication is Rosa Espinoza de Polay, a Peruvian citizen currently residing in Nantes, France. She submits the communication on behalf of her husband, Victor Alfredo Polay Campos, a Peruvian citizen currently detained at the Maximum Security Prison in the Callao Naval Base, Lima, Peru. She claims that he is the victim of violations by Peru of articles 2, paragraph 1; 7; 10; 14 and 16, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 2.4 The author further submits that her husband is held in a subterranean cell where sunlight only penetrates for 10 minutes a day, through a small opening in the ceiling. During the first year of his prison sentence, he was not permitted visits by any friends or relatives, nor was he allowed to write to anyone or to receive correspondence. A delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross has been allowed to visit him. The facts as submitted by the author 2.5 As to the requirement of exhaustion of domestic remedies, the author submits that her husband's lawyer appealed against conviction and sentence, but that the Tribunal's Appeal Section confirmed the decision taken at first instance. The author further submits that the lawyer, Dr. Eduardo Diaz Canales, was himself imprisoned in June 1993 solely for having her husband and that since then “everything has been paralysed”. On 3 June 1994, Mr. Polay Campos' mother filed with the Constitutional Court a recurso de amparo (request for habeas corpus) on his behalf with respect to his ill-treatment. This action was dismissed, according to the author, on an unspecified date. 2.1 The author's husband is the leader of the “Revolutionary Movement Túpac Amaru” (Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru). On 9 June 1992, he was arrested in Lima. On 22 July 1992, he was transferred to the “Miguel Castro Castro” prison in Yanamayo, near the city of Puno which is situated at an altitude of 4,000 metres. Conditions of detention at this prison are said to be inhuman. The author submits that for a period of nine months her husband was in solitary detention for 23 and a half hours a day, in a cell measuring 2 by 2 metres, without electricity or water; he was not allowed to write or to speak to anyone and was only allowed out of his cell once a day, for 30 minutes. The author further submits that the temperature in the prison is constantly between 0 and minus 5 degrees, and that the food is deficient. 2.6 On 3 August 1993, the Constituent Assembly of Peru re-established the death penalty for acts of terrorism. The author fears that this new provision will be applied with retroactive effect to her husband and that, accordingly, he might well be sentenced to death. 2.2 On 3 April 1993, Victor Alfredo Polay Campos was tried in the Yanamayo prison by a socalled “tribunal of faceless judges” established under 117