CED/C/10/D/1/2013
1.1
The authors of the communication are Ms. Estela Deolinda Yrusta and Ms.
Alejandra del Valle Yrusta, sisters of Mr. Roberto Agustín Yrusta, an Argentine national
born on 29 August 1980. The authors claim to be victims of violations by Argentina of
articles 1, 2, 3, 12 (1) and (2), 15, 17 (2) (c) and (d), 18, 20, 23 and 24 of the Convention.
The authors are represented by the Provincial Public Defender of Santa Fe, Gabriel Ganón.
1.2
The State party recognized the competence of the Committee to consider individual
communications on 11 June 2008, and the Convention entered into force for the State party
on 23 December 2010.
A.
Summary of information and allegations of the parties
The facts as submitted by the authors
2.1
In December 2005, Mr. Yrusta was sentenced to 8 years’ imprisonment for
aggravated robbery involving the use of a firearm and possession of a military weapon. He
was held in Reverend Father Luchesse Prison Complex No. 1 (Bouwer Prison) in the
Province of Córdoba. Over a period of more than three years while he was in prison, Mr.
Yrusta was subjected to torture and inhuman and degrading treatment by members of the
Córdoba Prison Service. The ill-treatment included long periods in buzones, or punishment
cells, the use of the “dry submarine” treatment (i.e. suffocation using a plastic bag),
beatings, threats, transfers and being shackled to a bed. In November 2012, Mr. Yrusta filed
a complaint against members of the Córdoba Prison Service with the Córdoba provincial
courts. Towards the end of 2012, Mr. Yrusta was interviewed for a television programme
called “ADN” (DNA in Spanish), during which he complained publicly about his illtreatment and torture. The authors assert that, from that time on, the ill-treatment and
torture inflicted on Mr. Yrusta intensified.
2.2
Fearing for his life, Mr. Yrusta asked the Córdoba prison authorities to transfer him
to the Province of Santiago del Estero, where some of his family members lived. Despite
his request, he was transferred to Coronda Prison Facility No. 1 in the Province of Santa Fe
on 16 January 2013. The authors consider that the transfer was carried out in a deceptive
manner, since the prison services in these two provinces failed to inform Mr. Yrusta, who
could not read, where he was being taken. They consider that Mr. Yrusta agreed to his
transfer in the belief that he was being transferred to the Province of Santiago del Estero.
2.3
On his arrival in Coronda, Mr. Yrusta was placed in buzones (isolation and
punishment cells), where he was again subjected to ill-treatment and torture. Members of
his family requested information from the prison services about his whereabouts on a
number of occasions but received no reply. This situation lasted for a period of more than
seven days, during which the authors consider that Mr. Yrusta was subjected to enforced
disappearance. When he was again able to contact his family, Mr. Yrusta told them that he
continued to be ill-treated and tortured daily, held in punishment cells, shackled and placed
under escort when leaving his cell to make telephone calls, as well as deprived of the health
care he needed.
2.4
On 7 February 2013 — 4 months before Mr. Yrusta was due for release on parole
and 10 months before the date set for his final release — Santa Fe prison service staff
notified his family that Mr. Yrusta had committed suicide by hanging himself in his cell
and that he had been found dead at 6 p.m. According to the autopsy report by the Santa Fe
Institute of Forensic Medicine, “the most plausible hypothesis is that the death of [Roberto
Agustín Yrusta] resulted from asphyxia caused by sudden compression of the neck by an
object with elastic properties (which was not furnished along with the body of the
deceased)”. Mr. Yrusta’s body was handed over to his family at 9 p.m. on 8 February 2013.
The authors report that the body displayed large blisters, severe swelling of the hands and
GE.16-05682
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