is relevant to the specific case; 88 thus the said report of the Inter-American Commission
(infra footnote 132), which is also a public document that has been referred to by the
representatives in the case sub judice and regarding which the State has been able to
comment, is admissible as evidence in this sense. Consequently, the Court incorporates
both these documents.
126. Evidence of supervening facts. Under Article 57(2) of the Rules of Procedure, the
Court admits as evidence of supervening facts (supra para. 13 and infra para. 146), the
documents containing the following: judgment TC/0168/13, Decree No. 327-13, Law No.
169-14, and Decree No. 250-14. It also admits other documents presented by the parties
under this heading that will be described below.
127. Photographs. During the public hearing, the State presented, for the first time,
several photographs that, according to the State, corresponded to several siblings and to
the father of Willian Medina, which it showed to Mr. Medina Ferreras, questioning him
about them. 89 The Court recalls that evidence must be presented in keeping with Article
57(2) of the Rules of Procedure. In this case, the State did not justify its presentation
outside the appropriate procedural moment, so that the Court considers its presentation
time-barred, and it cannot be admitted as evidence.
128. Video. During the public hearing on October 8 and 9, 2013 (supra para. 12), the
State showed a video concerning Willian Medina Ferreras in which someone, who says he
is an official of the Central Electoral Board, appears interviewing several individuals who
state that they are descendants of the alleged parents of Mr. Medina Ferreras. In this
regard, the State indicated that the presentation consisted of two videos which were both
shown. One was recorded “on September 26, 2013,” in “the sector of La Ciénaga, Santo
Domingo, National District,” and the other was recorded “one day later,” on September
27, “in the city of Barahona, in the province of the same name.” According to the State,
“these videos were recorded because the [alleged] identity theft of Wilnet Yan, or Willia[n]
Medina Ferreras, as he called himself, had been discovered a few days before the
hearing.” The State also affirmed that the videos were prepared for the proceedings
before the Inter-American Court, “merely and exclusively as part of the oral arguments,”
and that, “in principle, they d[id] not form part” of any domestic proceedings.
Nevertheless, contrary to this, the State provided information on domestic proceedings
dating from at least September 12, 2013, that included the interviews shown in the video
(infra paras. 207 and 208), and indicated that “the investigation consisted in comparing
the birth certificates of the real children of Abelardo Medina and Consuelo Ferreras with
that of Mr. Willia[n] Medina Ferreras.” Lastly, it asked that the video “be […] incorporated
into the body of evidence” of the case.
129. Both the representatives and the Commission objected to the presentation of the
video. The former considered that it “was evidence that did not form part of the body of
88
Cf. Case of the Moiwaina Community v. Suriname. Preliminary objections, merits, reparations and costs.
Judgment of June 15, 2005. Series C No. 145, paras. 43 and 86.1 to 86.20, and Case of García Lucero et al. v.
Chile, paras. 35 and 55.
89
The Court notes that one of the photographs, corresponding to Abelardo Medina, appears in a document of
June 28, 2006, entitled “Printout of the citizens’ data,” issued by the Central Electoral Board, based on its master
list of those registered, and that this document was presented by the Commission as part of Annex 38 of the
Merits report. However, this photograph is in a different format from the ones presented by the State during the
hearing, because the one that appears in Annex 38 presented by the Commission is in a reduced format and
incorporated into a page of a document that includes other information. This document does not include, in any
format, the other photographs used by the Dominican Republic during the hearing. Therefore, the fact that the
photograph of Abelardo Medina appears in the said document does not change the consideration that the
photographs shown to Mr. Medina Ferreras during the public hearing were presented for the first time during that
procedure.
38
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