4. Without prejudging the merits of the case, in this report the Commission concludes that it is competent to examine the instant petition regarding the alleged violations of the rights to life, to a fair trial, to equal protection, and to judicial protection, pursuant to articles 4, 8, 24, and 25 of the American Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter “American Convention” or “Convention”) in connection with article 1(1) of same. The Commission also decides to notify the parties of this decision, to publish it and to include it in its Annual Report to the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS). II. PROCESSING BEFORE THE COMMISSION 5. The petition is dated April 24, 2002 and was received by the IACHR on May 15, 2002. The petitioners submitted additional information on September 6, 2002 and requested information on the status of the petition’s processing on November 10, 2002. The Commission requested additional information from the petitioners on December 13, 2002, which was submitted by them on April 29, 2002 and January 23, 2003. The Commission again requested additional information from the petitioners on April 23, 2003, which was submitted on May 7, 2003. 6. The relevant parts of the petition were forwarded to the State on June 4, 2003, granting it two months to submit its observations. On September 15, 2003 the State requested a 30-day extension to submit its response to the petition. On September 23, the Commission requested the State to present its observations as soon as possible. On December 1, 2003 the Commission reiterated to the State that it should submit its observations to the petition. The petitioners requested information on the status of processing on July 10, 2003, October 30, 2003, and April 10, 2004. 7. The State submitted its observations to the instant petition on June 9, 2004. The State’s observations were duly forwarded to the petitioners on June 29, 2004. The petitioners presented their observations, dated July 20, 2004, to the State’s response and submitted additional information on July 27, 2004. The petitioners requested information from the Commission on the processing of their petition on December 24, 2004 and July 20, 2005. 8. On March 16, 2005, the IACHR received a February 18, 2005 communication from the Inter-American Court, in which it forwarded a communication from Vinicio Poblete Tapia, received by the Court on 2