3 6. On September 4 and 11, 2007, the Commission and the representatives filed, respectively, their observations on the acknowledgement of responsibility made by the State (supra para. 5). II PROCEEDING BEFORE THE COURT 7. The application filed by the Commission was served on the State on April 26, 2007, and on the representatives on April 27, 2007. During its proceeding before the Court, in addition to the main pleadings submitted by the parties (supra paras. 1, 4, and 5), the President of the Court3 (hereinafter, “the President”) ordered that the statements rendered in due time by the representatives, regarding which the parties had the opportunity to file their observations, be admitted as testimony by means of affidavits. Furthermore, taking into consideration the specific circumstances of the case, the President summoned the Commission, the representatives, and the State to a public hearing to hear the testimony of the alleged victim, of a witness, and of an expert witness, as well as the oral closing arguments of the parties on the merits and possible reparations and legal costs. 8. On October 9, 2007, the representatives informed that they had started a friendly settlement procedure with the State in order to reach an agreement which would be “signed prior to the hearing convened” and that, consequently, they “waiv[ed] their claim” for the alleged violation of the rights enshrined in Articles 8(2)(h) and 25 of the Convention and of the right to a hearing by an independent and impartial court as set forth in Article 8(1) thereof. Therefore, the representatives expressed their waiver to the testimony of the expert witness and of the witness who had been summoned to the public hearing (supra para. 7). 9. The public hearing was held in the city of Bogota, Colombia,4 on October 18, 2007, during the XXXI Regular Period of Sessions of the Court. At this hearing, the representatives, the Commission, and the State submitted a “memorandum of agreement” wherein the State ratified its acknowledgment of international responsibility (supra para. 5) and the representatives ratified their waiver of some of their claims (supra para. 8). 10. On November 8, 2007, the Court requested the State and the representatives to submit, together with their written closing arguments, evidence to facilitate the adjudication of the case.5 11. On November 27, 2007, the Commission and the State forwarded their respective briefs of closing arguments. On November 29, 2007,6 the representatives submitted their 3 Order of the President of the Court of September 18, 2007. 4 At this hearing there appeared: a) for the Inter-American Commission: Juan Pablo Albán-Alencastro, Lilly Ching Soto, and Alejandra Gonza; counsels, b) for the representatives of the alleged victims: Andrea Pochak, and c) for the State: Jorge Cardozo, Agent; Javier Salgado, Deputy Agent; Andrea Gualde; Julia Loreto; Josefina Comune; and Natalia Luterstein; counsels. 5 The evidence requested consisted of information and documents related to: a) the binding force of judicial decisions in Argentina, particularly of those adopted by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation; b) a copy of the judicial decisions concerning the freedom of thought and expression supporting the arguments submitted by the parties in relation to the adoption of international standards on human rights by the domestic courts, and c) the official exchange rates of the Argentine peso against the US dollar as relevant to the instant case. 6 On November 27, 2007, the representatives requested a three-day extension to submit their written closing arguments. On December 4, 2007, the representatives pointed out that they had requested an extension “as they understood that the communication sent by [the] Court on […] November 8, 2007 [(supra para. 10)] modified [O]rder of the […] President […] of September 18, [2007 (supra para. 7)],” which set November 27, 2007, as the non-renewable deadline to submit the brief of closing arguments. On December 5, 2007, the Court informed the representatives that, in accordance with the twelfth operative paragraph of Order of the President of