This paper describes AI’s concern about reports suggesting that the state prosecutor intends to drop charges against police officers allegedly responsible for the “disappearance” of student Ernesto Rafael Castillo Paez, last seen in October 1990 reportedly being bundled into the boot of a police car. Uniquely in Peru, a petition of habeas corpus submitted on his behalf on 25 October 1990 was declared justified; this ruling was upheld by a higher court but annulled by the Supreme Court in April 1991, a decision denounced as contravening habeas corpus law. The prosecution requested in July 1992 that the officers be charged with “resisting authority” only and that the investigation into Ernesto Castillo’s “disappearance” be suspended and the case archived.
