Procedure for mutual legal assistance

The procedure for obtaining mutual legal assistance operates by means of a petition, request or commission regatory which is sent from the petitioning or requesting State, to the petitioned or requested State; a State may be either a requesting or requested State, depending on the case.

Such requests are generally transmitted through diplomatic channels, unless the text of the Treaty itself specifies that requests are to be exchanged between the respective central authorities.

Where El Salvador is the requesting or petitioning State and the petition, request or commission rogatory is to be carried out abroad, the judge in question submits an application to the Corte Suprema de Justicia indicating the need to carry out the specified legal action in the foreign jurisdiction. If the action requested is in accordance with law, the Supreme Court approves and forwards the application to the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores through the Ministerio de Seguridad Pública y Justicia.

Where Article 139 of the Code of Criminal Procedures comes into play, the commission regatory must be translated into the language of the requested State pursuant to Article 392 of the Bustamante Code [Convention on Private International Law].

When El Salvador is the requested State and the request is sent through diplomatic channels, the commission rogatory is transmitted by the requesting State to the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores in order that the latter may forward it to the Ministerio de Seguridad Pública y Justicia, and thence to the Corte Suprema de Justicia which will determine whether it is in accordance with the applicable provisions of law and, if so, will then order that the action be carried out and notification to this effect be returned through the same channels.

Once the action has been carried out, notification to this effect is returned by the Corte Suprema de Justicia to the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores (again, through the Ministerio de Seguridad Pública y Justicia) so that it may be forwarded by diplomatic channels to the requesting State.

Commission or letters rogatory are not transmitted through diplomatic channels where there is an international treaty or convention which specifies direct exchange of requests between central authorities.

An example of this is the Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Penal Matters between Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, which names the Corte Suprema de Justicia as our Central Authority. El Salvador may act as either the requesting or requested State under that Treaty.

If El Salvador is the requesting State, the judge seeking assistance makes application to the Corte Suprema de Justicia as Central Authority, requesting that a legal action be taken within a State Party to that Treaty (in this case the requested State). If the Supreme Court determines that the request is in accordance with law, it will prepare and forward the relevant petition, request or commission rogatory to the Central Authority of the requested State.

If El Salvador is the requested State, the application for a petition, request or commission rogatory is comes directly from the Central Authority of the requesting State (which is a Party to the Mutual legal Assistance Treaty), and is received by the Corte Suprema de Justicia which, serving as El Salvador's Central Authority, reviews it to ascertain that it is in accordance with law. If so, it forwards the request to the respective authorities for action and, upon completion of that action, returns notification of its execution to the Central Authority of the requesting State.