7 experts also offered by the Commission. Furthermore, the President informed the parties that immediately after this evidence had been received, they could present their final oral arguments on the merits of the case. 37. On September 28, 2000, the Commission informed the Court that, for reasons beyond their control, the witnesses Javier Díez Canseco Cisneros, Ángel Páez Salcedo and Vladimir Paz de la Barra, and the experts Beatriz Merino Lucero and Diego García Sayán, could not appear before the Court, and therefore requested that Enrique Oliveros Pérez, Luis Iberico Núñez, César Hildebrandt Pérez Treviño and Emilio Rodríguez Larraín should be summoned to give evidence. The same day, the Commission informed the Court that the witness Vladimiro Montesinos Torres had been in the Republic of Panama since September 24 that year and asked it to take the necessary steps before the State of Panama to ensure his presence at the public hearing on the merits. 38. The following day, the Secretariat granted Peru ten days to submit its comments on the substitution of witnesses and experts requested by the Commission. The comments were never submitted. 39. On October 2, 2000, the Secretariat requested the Commission to submit information on the measures it had taken to ensure that the witness, Vladimiro Montesinos, received the summons to the public hearing on the merits, and this was submitted on October 4 that year; as a result, the Secretariat subsequently took the necessary steps before Panama’s diplomatic authorities. 40. On October 12, 2000, the Inter-American Commission requested the Court to summon Leonor La Rosa Bustamante to give evidence in the public hearing on the merits. The Secretariat granted the State until October 23, 2000, to submit its comments on that request, but it did not do so. 41. On October 24, 2000, the President annulled the summons of the witnesses Javier Díez Canseco Cisneros, Ángel Páez Salcedo and Vladimir Paz de la Barra, and the experts Beatriz Merino Lucero and Diego García Sayán (supra paras. 36 and 37); and summoned Enrique Oliveros Pérez, Luis Iberico Núñez, César Hildebrandt Pérez Treviño, Emilio Rodríguez Larraín and Leonor La Rosa Bustamante to give evidence in the public hearing on the merits, to be held at the seat of the Court on November 20 and 21, 2000. 42. On October 31, 2000, the Inter-American Commission accredited the persons who would represent it in the public hearing on the merits. 43. On November 13, 2000, the Inter-American Press Association submitted a brief in the capacity of amicus curiae. 44. On November 20 and 21, 2000, the Court received the statement of the witnesses and expert witnesses proposed by the Commission at a public hearing. There appeared before the Court: for the Inter-American Commission: Hélio Bicudo, delegate Claudio Grossman, delegate Christina M. Cerna, advisor