5 9. On March 10, 2008, the parties forwarded their respective briefs with final arguments. As requested by the Court, the State transmitted with this brief, inter alia, a transcript and recording of statements made by Salvatore Mancuso on January 15 and May 15, 2007, “in relation to General Alfonso Manosalva,” as well as a copy of a payment authorization dated February 14, 2008, issued by the Ministry of the Interior and Justice, relating to the settlement agreement signed by the State and some of the alleged victims on April 26, 2007, and approved on September 28, 2007. 10. On April 23, 2008, the representatives forwarded two statements made by Francisco Enrique Villalba Hernández in February and March 2008, which contained information allegedly related to the case and, therefore, asked the Court to accept these statements as supervening evidence under Article 44(3) of the Court’s Rules of Procedure. The State and the Commission were asked to submit any observations they deemed pertinent by May 26, 2008, at the latest. Also, in this communication, the representatives asked the Court “to reiterate its request that the State of Colombia forward the entire tape recording and typed transcript of the statement (versión libre) made by the paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso without editing and without altering the sequence.” 11. On May 23, 2008, the Court informed the State that it was considering the request made by the representatives in the abovementioned communication of April 23, 2008 (supra para. 10). The Court also asked the State to forward the complete recording and transcript referred to in that communication by June 23, 2008, at the latest. 12. On June 3, 2008, the State presented observations on the statements made by Francisco Enrique Villalba Hernández that were remitted by the representatives on April 23, 2008 (supra para. 10), and reiterated that “it was neither appropriate nor necessary to send Mr. Mancuso's entire statement, which, in addition to being extensive, was not related to the facts of the instant case and was confidential.” Nevertheless, on January 16, 2007, the State forwarded to the Court the “transcript of parts of the statement made by Salvatore Mancuso Gómez in the context of Law 975 of 2005,” which had not been forwarded previously, (supra para. 9), but it did not provide the corresponding tape recording. Consequently, the State was requested to forward this recording by June 27, 2008, at the latest. 13. On June 6, 2008, the State presented “new information on progress made in relation to ensuring justice in the case.” In this regard, on the instructions of the President of the Court, the Commission and the representatives were granted until June 27, 2008, to submit any observations they deemed pertinent. 14. On June 27, 2008, the Commission submitted observations on the “new information on progress made in relation to ensuring justice in the case” offered by the State on June 6, 2008 (supra para. 13). The same day, the representatives presented their observations on the briefs of the State of June 3 and 6, 2008 (supra paras. 12 and 13). 15. On July 7, 2008, the State sent two copies of the tape recording of the parts of the statement made by Salvatore Mancuso Gómez that it had already forwarded to the Court (supra paras. 9 and 12). 16. On July 31, 2008, the State asked, first, that the Court “not take into account the new allegations presented by the representatives [in the brief of June 27, 2008, (supra para. 14)] in violation of the [Court’s] Rules of Procedure”; second, “that, should it decide to take into account the observations of the petitioners, it consider and include in the case file […] the supplementary observations that the Colombian State […] submitted in this brief