43 discard the presence of actual or possible malice (with regard to the crimes charged).” 55 95(t) On November 12, 1999, the Criminal Court of the First Judicial Circuit of San José delivered a verdict convicting Mr. Mauricio Herrera Ulloa and declared that the articles of May 19, 20 and 21, and of December 13, 1995 “were written and published fully mindful of the offensive nature of their content and for the sole purpose of dishonoring and besmirching the reputation of Mr. Félix Przedborski.” His was convicted on four counts of the crime of publishing offenses constituting defamation under Article 152 in relation to Article 146 of the Costa Rican Penal Code; the court further held that the defense of justification (exceptio veritatis) was dismissed. The court sentenced Mr. Mauricio Herrera Ulloa to a forty-day fine for each crime, at ¢2,500.00 (two thousand five hundred colones) per day, for a total of 160 days in fines. In application of the rule of concurso material (where a number of related crimes are combined to reduce the penalty that would have been required had each separate crime carried its own weight), “the fine [wa]s reduced to be three times the maximum per count”; in other words, the fine was reduced from 160 to 120 days, for a total of ¢300,000.00 (three hundred thousand colones). The Criminal Court of the First Judicial Circuit of San José also ordered Mr. Mauricio Herrera Ulloa to publish the “Now Therefore” portion of the conviction in the newspaper “La Nación”, in the section called “El País”, in the very same print face used in the impugned articles.” 56 95(u) The November 12, 1999 conviction (supra para. 95 (t)) upheld the suit for damages, sentencing Mr. Mauricio Herrera Ulloa as a writer for the newspaper “La Nación” and the newspaper itself “for publishing defamatory articles.” The court held them to be jointly and severally liable and ordered them to pay ¢60,000,000.00 (sixty million colones) for the moral damage caused by the articles that appeared in “La Nación” on May 19, 20, 21, and December 13, 1995. In the case of “La Nación,” the court ordered that it take down the “link” at the La Nación Digital website on the internet between the surname Przedborski and the impugned articles; it ordered the newspaper to establish a “link” at La Nación Digital between the articles in question and the operative part of the judgment. Finally, the Costa Rican court ordered Mauricio Herrera Ulloa and “La Nación” to pay court costs in the amount of ¢1,000.00 (one thousand colones) and personal damages in the amount of ¢3,810,000.00 (three million eight hundred ten thousand colones). 57 95(v) In the wake of the criminal and civil judgment that the Criminal Court of the First Judicial Circuit of San José handed down against him on November 12, 1999, 55 Judgment No. 000540-99 of May 7, 1999, of the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of Costa Rica (file on preliminary objections and possible merits, reparations and costs, volume I, annex g) to the written brief of pleadings, motions and evidence of the alleged victims’ representatives, folio 354). 56 Judgment Number 1320-99 of November 12, 1999, of the Criminal Court of the First Judicial Circuit of San José, Group Three, San José (file of annexes to the application, volume II, annex 8, “Now, Therefore” of the Judgment, folios 920 and 1216 to 1218). 57 Judgment Number 1320-99 of November 12, 1999, of the Criminal Court of the First Judicial Circuit of San José, Group Three, San José (file of annexes to the application, volume II, annex 8, “Now, Therefore” of the Judgment, folios 1214 and 1217).