7 33. On June 24, 2004, the representatives advised that they desisted from submitting the following testimonies and expert reports; Oscar Abel García Arroyo, Rodrigo Asturias, Alberto Bovino and Ana Deutsch (supra para. 29). 34. On July 2, 2004, the representatives communicated that “Sydney Shaw Arrivillaga was prohibited from leaving Guatemala.” On July 3, 2004, the President remitted a note to the Minister of External Affairs of Guatemala, requesting “his collaboration to ensure the appearance of [Mr. Shaw Arrivillaga]” at the public hearing to be held commencing on July 5, 2004. 35. On July 3, 2004, the President also remitted a note to the parties informing them of the request he had made to the Minister of External Relations of Guatemala (supra para. 34). He also stated that, should it not be possible for Mr. Shaw Arrivillaga to appear before the Court at the said public hearing, the representatives could present his statement made before notary public (affidavit) by July 12, 2004, at the latest. 36. On July 3, 2004, the State submitted a brief in which it declared that: a) It acknowledged the facts invoked in the application of the Inter-American Commission and in the petitioners’ brief with requests, arguments and evidence, and accepted the State’s international responsibility for the human rights violations committed against Jorge Carpio Nicolle, Juan Vicente Villacorta, Alejandro Ávila Guzmán, Rigoberto Rivas and Sydney Shaw, owing to the events that occurred on July 3, 1993. b) It requested the Court, in the context of the contentious proceeding, to obviate the hearing on merits and continue on to establish the corresponding measures of reparation, in order to discuss and argue the claims of the Commission and the representatives of the alleged victims. c) It asked the Inter-American Court whether the financial reparations to the next of kin of the victim [could] be made by the State in 2005, owing to the country’s actual fiscal deficit. […] In view of the foregoing, it requested that the nature of the hearing convened be changed, and circumscribed to examining and determining the reparations, and for reasons of procedural economy, only those witnesses and expert witness related to this aspect should be called to give testimony. 37. On July 5 and 6, 2004, the Court received the statements of the witnesses and the report of the expert witness proposed by the Inter-American Commission and by the representatives, at a public audience. The Court also heard the final oral arguments of the parties. There appeared before the Court: for the Inter-American Commission: Susana Villarán, delegate Santiago Canton, delegate María Claudia Pulido, adviser Juan Pablo Albán, adviser Lilly Ching, adviser, and Michael G. Thomas, adviser; for the representatives: