2 Convention, to the detriment of Mauricio Herrera Ulloa and Fernán Vargas Rohrmoser by its criminal conviction of Mr. Herrera Ulloa on four counts of publishing insults constituting defamation of a public official. His conviction carried with it all the attendant consequences under Costa Rican law, including civil liabilities. 3. The facts submitted by the Commission concern violations alleged to have been committed by the State by virtue of the November 12, 1999 conviction. That conviction was a consequence of the fact that on May 19, 20 and 21, and December 13, 1995, the newspaper “La Nación” had carried a number of articles by journalist Mauricio Herrera Ulloa that partially reproduced several articles from the Belgian press. The Belgian press reports had attributed certain illegal acts to Félix Przedborski, Costa Rica’s honorary representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Austria. The November 12, 1999 judgment, delivered by the Criminal Court of the First Judicial Circuit of San José, found Mr. Mauricio Herrera Ulloa guilty on four counts of publishing insults constituting defamation and ordered him to pay a fine; La Nación was ordered to publish the “Now Therefore” portion of the court’s judgment. The court also upheld the claim for civil damages. It found Mr. Mauricio Herrera Ulloa and La Nación jointly and severally liable and ordered them to pay a compensation for the moral damage caused by the articles carried in La Nación, and to pay court costs and personal damages as well. The judgment also ordered La Nación to remove the link at the “La Nación Digital” website between the surname Przedborski and the impugned articles, and to create a link between those articles and the operative part of the court’s judgment. Finally, the Commission pointed out that under Costa Rican law, Mr. Herrera Ulloa’s conviction met that his name was entered into the Judiciary’s Record of Convicted Felons. In addition to the foregoing, the Commission reported that on April 3, 2001, the Criminal Court of the First Judicial Circuit of San José issued an order demanding that Mr. Fernán Vargas Rohrmoser, legal representative of the “La Nación” newspaper, pay the penalty the court imposed on that newspaper in the November 12, 1999 judgment, warning that failure to do so might constitute the crime of contempt of authority. 4. The Commission also asked the Court to order the State to award compensation for the damages caused to the alleged victims; to nullify and eliminate all the consequences that followed from Mr. Mauricio Herrera Ulloa’s conviction, and the effects the court’s judgment had vis-à-vis Mr. Fernán Vargas Rohrmoser; to vacate the order to remove the link at the “La Nación” Digital website between the surname Przedborski and the impugned articles; to eliminate the link between those articles and the operative part of the court’s decision to convict; to remove Mr. Herrera Ulloa’s name from the Judiciary’s Record of Convicted Felons; and to vacate the order to establish a link at the “La Nación” Digital website between the articles and the operative part of the judgment. The Commission also asked the Court to order the State to amend its criminal laws to comport with the provisions of the American Convention. Finally the Commission asked the Court to order the State to pay the legal costs and expenses incurred by the alleged victims. II COMPETENCE