Geneva, 8 August 2002 - In a statement by the Chairman, the Sub-Commission drew urgently the attention of United States authorities to the situation of Javier Suarez Medina, a Mexican national, detained on death row for thirteen years, who was scheduled for execution by lethal injection on 14 August, in the State of Texas. The Sub-Commission stated that Mr. Suarez Medina was barely 19 years old when he was sentenced to death, and a certain number of serious attempts to interfere with his rights to a defense had occurred during the process; that particularly, United States authorities had not complied with obligations of the 1963 Vienna Convention on consular relations which guaranteed consular assistance for foreign detainees. The Sub-Commission said those obligations had been strongly recalled by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in its advisory opinion on the right to information on consular assistance in the framework of the guarantees of due process of law of 1 October, 1999 and by the International Court of Justice in its judgement LaGrand (Germany vs. United States of America) of 27 June 2001. The Sub-Commission earnestly asked United States authorities to do anything to reprieve the execution of Mr. Suarez Medina and to re-examine his case in guaranteeing his right to benefit from consular assistance and his right to a fair trial.