II PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE COURT 6. Notification to the State and the representatives. The submission of the case was notified to the representatives of the presumed victims and to the State on May 16 and June 4, 2014, respectively. 7. Brief with motions, pleadings and evidence. On July 15, 2014, Carlos Antonio Pop AC, the Asociación de Abogados y Notarios Mayas de Guatemala, and the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights (hereinafter “the representatives”), submitted their brief with motions, pleadings and evidence (hereinafter “motions and pleadings brief”) to the Court, in accordance with Article 40 of the Rules of Procedure. 8. Answering brief. On November 21, 2014, the State presented its brief with preliminary objections, answering the submission of the case, and with observations on the motions and pleadings brief (hereinafter “answering brief”), in accordance with Article 41 of the Rules of Procedure. 9. Observations on the preliminary objections. On February 4, 2014, the representatives and the Commission presented their respective observations on the preliminary objections submitted by the State, in accordance with Article 42(4) of the Rules of Procedure. 10. Public hearing. In an order of March 19, 2015,1 the President of the Court, (hereinafter “the President”) called the parties to a public hearing, which was held in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, on April 21 and 22, 2015, during the Court’s fifty-second special session,2 and required several statements to be received in this case. 11. Helpful evidence. In the annexes to a brief of March 25, 2015, the State forwarded “the file documents containing the procedural actions taken from May 2012 to date,” that were requested as helpful evidence in an order of the President of March 19, 2015 (supra para. 10). 12. Information on the detention of a presumed victim following the public hearing. In a communication of May 18, 2015, the representatives reported the “capture” of Jorge Rolando Velásquez Durán, as the alleged result of “his statements during the […] public hearing.” Consequently, they asked that, based on Article 53 of the Rules of Procedure, the Court “require […] the State […] to provide information on this fact.” In a note of the Secretariat of May 19, 2015, the State was asked to remit its observations on the information presented by the representatives. In a brief of May 26, 2015, the State reported that the arrest and detention of Mr. Velásquez [had been] ordered […] [because] an action [had been] opened against [him …] on September 11, 2001,” during which an order had been issued annulling the warrant for his arrest; however, this had not been processed, leading to the detention of Mr. Velásquez. The State also indicated that, once “the legal situation of Jorge Rolando Velásquez had been corroborated, he had been released immediately.” The State stressed that this was an isolated incident and that no reprisals of any kind were being taken against him. The representatives and the Commission forwarded their observations on the State’s brief on June 8 and 10, 2015, respectively. In this regard, the representatives stated that, following Jorge Velásquez Durán’s The order of the President of the Court of March 19, 2015 is available at: http://www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/asuntos/velasquez_19_03_15.pdf 2 There appeared at this hearing: (a) for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights: James Cavallaro, Commissioner; Silvia Serrano Guzmán and Jorge Meza, Executive Secretariat lawyers; (b) for the representatives of the presumed victims: Carlos Antonio Pop, Kerry Kennedy, Santiago A. Canton, Angelita Baeyens, Wade McMullen and Christina Fetterhoff, and (c) for the State: Rodrigo José Villagrán Sandoval, Agent; César Javier Moreira Cabrera, Legal Advisory, and Steffany Rebeca Vásquez Barillas, Deputy Agent. 1 6