-6State filed a preliminary objection based on the presumed failure to exhaust domestic remedies, described the facts, and contested all the alleged violations. 8. Observations on the preliminary objection. On November 13 and 16, 2014, the representatives and the Commission, respectively, presented their observations on the preliminary objection filed by the State. 9. Public hearing. On December 10, 2014, the President of the Court issued an order2 in which he convened the State, the representatives and the Inter-American Commission to a public hearing on the preliminary objection and eventual merits, reparations and costs, in order to hear the final oral arguments of the parties and the final oral observations of the Commission on these issues. Also, in this order, he required that the statements of three presumed victims, four witnesses and seven expert witnesses be received by affidavit, and these were submitted by the representatives and the Commission on January 12, 2015. The representatives and the State were able to submit questions and comments to the deponents offered by the Commission and, in the case of the State, to those offered by the representatives. The Commission was able to submit questions to an expert witness offered by the representatives. The above-mentioned order also summoned one presumed victim, two expert witnesses proposed by the representatives, and one expert witness proposed by the Commission to testify at the public hearing. In view of the withdrawal of the expert witness proposed by the Commission and a request by the representatives, on January 26, 2015, the Court decided to summon to the public hearing an additional expert witness proposed by the representatives who had initially been summoned to testify by affidavit.3 The public hearing took place on February 2 and 3, 2015, during the Court’s 107th session held in San José, Costa Rica.4 During this hearing, the State presented various documents and the Court’s judges asked for specific information and explanations. 10. Amicus curiae. The Court received amicus curiae briefs from: (1) Gilma Tatiana Rincón Covelli, a collaborator of the Justice and Democracy Research Unit of the Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá, Colombia; (2) Corporación Fundamental, Centro para la Justicia y los Derechos Humanos, Chile; (3) Magistrats Européens pour la démocratie et les libertés (MEDEL), Jueces para la Democracia, Unión Progresista de Fiscales, Spain, and Neue Richter Vereinigung, Germany; (4) Asociación por los Derechos Civiles (ADC) and Asociación Civil por la Igualdad y la Justicia (ACIJ), Argentina; (5) Roberto Garretón Merino; (6) Red Iberoamericana de Jueces (REDIJ), and (7) the International Affairs Committee of the National Lawyers Guild, United States of America, on January 25, and February 2, 11, 13 and 18, 2015. 2 Cf. Case of López Lone et al. v. Honduras. Order of the President of the Court of December 10, 2014. Available at: http://www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/asuntos/lopezlone_10_12_14.pdf 3 Expert witness Gabriela Knaul, proposed by the Commission and accepted by the President of the Court in his order of December 10, 2014, advised that she would be unable to attend the hearing, and the Commission therefore withdrew this expert opinion. As a result, the representatives asked the Court to summon expert witness Leandro Despouy to testify at the public hearing. Expert witness Despouy had been summoned to testify by affidavit. In an order of January 26, 2015, the Court decided to summon this expert witness to the hearing. Cf. Case of López Lone et al. v. Honduras. Order of the Court of January 26, 2015. Available at: http://www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/asuntos/lopezlone_26_01_15.pdf 4 There appeared at this hearing: (a) for the Inter-American Commission: José de Jesús Orozco Henríquez, Commissioner; Edison Lanza, Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression; Silvia Serrano Guzmán, Ona Flores and Jorge H. Meza Flores, lawyers of the Executive Secretariat of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights; (b) for the presumed victims: Oduemi Yeseli Arias, from the Association of Judges for Democracy; Marcia Aguiluz, Paola Limón, Alfredo Ortega, Esteban Madrigal and Sandra González from the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), and (c) for the State: Jorge Abilio Serrano Villanueva, Assistant Attorney General and Agent for this case; María Luisa Ramos, Justice of the Supreme Court of Justice, Deputy Agent; Eblin Rosely Andino Sabillón, Human Rights Adviser, attached to the Office of the Assistant Attorney General, and Lilian Malexy Juárez, Legal Officer from the Multilateral Policy Directorate of the Secretariat of State for Foreign Affairs.