II. PROCESSING BEFORE THE COMMISSION SUBSEQUENT TO THE ADMISSIBILITY REPORT 6. On July 24, 2008, the Inter-American Commission adopted Admissibility Report No. 52/08. The report was forwarded to the parties in a communication of July 29, 2008. The processing of the case up to that time is detailed in that report. In its communication, the IACHR requested that the petitioners present their additional observations on the merits, in accordance with Article 38.1 of its Rules of Procedure. Additionally, the Commission made itself available to the parties with a view to reaching a friendly settlement of the matter under Article 48(1)(f) of the American Convention. 7. In a communication dated August 15, 2008, the petitioner expressed his willingness to begin a friendly settlement process. The communication was forwarded to the Venezuelan State on August 28, 2008. 8. On October 2, 2008, the State presented its observations on the merits and dismissed the request for a friendly settlement. These observations were forwarded to the petitioner on October 15, 2008. 9. On October 7, 2008, the Commission received the petitioner’s observations on the merits. They were forwarded to the State on October 15, 2008, and the IACHR asked the State to present the observations it deemed appropriate within 2 months. 10. On July 6, 2009, the petitioner submitted a communication reporting that on March 4, 2009, the Ninth Trial Court for the Enforcement of Judgments of the Criminal Judicial Circuit for the Caracas Metropolitan Area ordered his full release, given that he had fully complied with his sentence. This information was forwarded to the State on July 16, 2009, in order for it to present the observations it deemed pertinent. On July 22, 2009, the petitioner submitted additional comments about his situation. That same day, the communication was forwarded to the Venezuelan State. On August 14, 2009, the Venezuelan State asked the IACHR for an extension of the deadline to present its observations to the new information submitted by the petitioner. On August 28, 2009, the Commission granted the State a 30-day extension. 11. On April 19, 2010, the petitioner forwarded a document to the Commission specifying the harm he alleged to have suffered as a consequence of the Venezuelan State’s actions, and attached additional documentation in support of his initial petition. This information was forwarded to the State on April 27, 2010; the attachments and an additional copy of the communication were forwarded on May 4, 2010. 12. On May 17, 2012 the Inter-American Commission asked the petitioner and the State to provide additional documentation. On June 18, 2012, the petitioner replied to the Commission’s request and submitted the requested information. This communication was forwarded to the State on June 26, 2012. For its part, the Venezuelan State replied to the IACHR’s request on June 26, 2012, and the petitioner was informed of the reply on July 2. On March 12, 2013, the petitioner submitted additional information about the attachments sent in the electronic version of June 18, 2012. On January 26, 2015, the information presented by the petitioner was forwarded to the State. III. POSITIONS OF THE PARTIES A. Position of the petitioner 13. The petitioner stated that, in the exercise of his right to freedom of expression, he wrote an opinion column in the newspaper Así es la Noticia for several years. On May 23, 2003, he published a piece in that paper which, he maintains, referred to a report from the Office of the Superintendent of Savings Banks. The column reportedly implicated William Lara, then-president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, in the misappropriation of Bs. 1,701,723,317.25 from the Assembly’s Workers’ and Retirees’ Savings Bank. The petitioner explained that the publication of this article led to his criminal prosecution and that on February 28, 2005, the Seventh Trial Court for the Enforcement of Judgments of the Criminal Judicial Circuit found him guilty of ongoing aggravated defamation and sentenced him to two years and three months in prison, the