7. The State sent its comments on August 20, 1998; they were forwarded to the petitioner on August 27, 1998, replied to by the petitioner on October 27, 1998, and resent to the State on November 19, 1998. The State submitted its comments on January 19, 1999. On March 1, 1999, the Commission granted the parties a hearing at its 102nd regular session. III. POSITIONS OF THE PARTIES A. The petitioner’s position 8. For the purposes of this report, the aim of which is to examine the petition’s admissibility, the petitioner’s allegations can be summarized as follows: 9. The Permanent Assembly for Human Rights (the petitioner) stated that Elba Clotilde Perrone and Juan José Preckel worked at the General Tax Directorate, at that time an agency of the Treasury Secretariat, attached to the executive branch’s Ministry of the Economy, until they were illegally arrested in the city of Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires province, on July 6, 1976. In 1977 they were placed in the custody of the national executive without having faced trial and after suffering torture and other degrading treatment. During this period, which was characterized by a breakdown in the national legal system brought on by the de facto government that was in power, Ms. Perrone and Mr. Preckel were secretly kept under arrest at different military facilities. 10. In Ms. Perrone’s case, this situation lasted until October 16, 1982–six years, three months, and ten days. She was then released, albeit under surveillance, and on July 25, 1983, she was unconditionally released from the national executive’s custody. Through negotiations conducted by the German embassy and Amnesty International, Mr. Preckel obtained a passport that enabled him to leave the country, which he did on September 7, 1979. His exile lasted until December 1984, when he returned to Argentina through the efforts of the aforesaid institutions and the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migrations. While they were in the illegal situation that kept them from working, they were absent from their jobs; consequently, the administrative proceedings described in Article 36 of Decree 1798/80 were initiated. These proceedings were ultimately closed on October 6, 1983, with the restoration of the democratic regime, after it had been decided that they were not guilty of the charges. The distress the complainants suffered as a result of all these circumstances, which is 3