3 4. On July 12, 2007 the representatives of thirty-seven of the forty-four alleged victims,4 Mr. Carlos Ayala Corao and Mrs. Margarita Escudero León, Ana Cristina Núñez Machado and Nelly Herrera Bond (hereinafter, the “representatives”), submitted the brief containing pleadings, motions and evidence (hereinafter, “brief containing pleadings and motions”), under the terms of Article 23 of the Rules of Procedure. The representatives alleged that the facts of the instant case are such that constitute the “subject-matter of the case” as “a series of facts that are not included in the Commission’s application [which would] be directly related to the facts claimed to be in breach of the American Convention, [which] should be appraised [...] as part of the 'context' in which the facts contained in the application occurred or as facts that aggravated the [alleged] violations […]”. The representatives requested the Court to declare that the State is responsible, apart from the violations alleged by the Commission, for the violation of Article 21 (Right to Property) of the Convention, to the detriment of two shareholders of Globovisión, in relation to some facts that they alleged “have caused damage and have deprived the television station and its shareholders from the use and enjoyment of the equipment" of said station. Furthermore, they argued that the State has violated Article 24 (Right to Equal Protection) of the Convention, in relation to Article 13 therein, for alleged restrictions imposed on Globovisión journalist teams in order to access official sources of information. In turn, in the final arguments they requested the Court to declare that the State is responsible for the violation of Articles 5, 13, 8 and 25 "in relation to" Article 1,2 and 7 of the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Woman ("Convention of Belem do Pará"). Finally, the requested the Tribunal to order the State to adopt a series of measures of reparation. 5. On September 11, 2007, the State submitted a brief containing preliminary objections, the answer to the complaint and observations to the brief of pleadings and motions (hereinafter, “answer to the complaint”). In said brief, the State raised four preliminary objections, namely, “untimeliness in the filing of the arguments and evidence contained in the brief of pleadings, motions and evidence submitted by the [alleged] victims”, the “inadmissibility of the new arguments and allegations contained in the autonomous brief signed by the alleged victims”; the “prejudice in the roles played by some judges of the Court” and the lack of exhaustion of domestic resources. The State requested the Court to adjudge and declare that the alleged violations of the rights enshrined in Articles 5, 8, 13, 21, 24 and 25 of the Convention, attributed to the State by the Commission and the alleged victims, to be inadmissible and inexistent. Consequently, it requested the Court to reject the application and the autonomous brief of pleadings, as well as each one of the claims made and reparations requested. The State appointed Mr. Germán Saltrón Negretti as Agent and Mr. Larry Devoe Márquez as Deputy Agent.5 II COMPETENCE 4 According to the powers –of- attorney submitted by the Commission, said accredited representatives have acted on behalf of thirty-seven of the alleged forty-four victims. The Commission expressed that since the alleged victims Alfredo José Peña Isaya, Félix José Padilla Geromes, José Natera, Miguel Ángel Calzadilla, Orlando Urdaneta, Yesenia Thais Balza Bolivar and Zullivan René Peña Hernández, who have not yet appointed a representative for the proceeding of the case before the Court at the moment of the filing of the application, the Inter-American Commission, in its capacity of guarantor of the general interest within the Inter-American system, provisionally assumes the defense of their interest. During the processing of the case, the representatives stated that one more of the alleged victims, Mr. José Natera, was also being represented by them. 5 State's brief of June 5, 2007.