recommendations, but had not received any response from the State and no measure had been taken to comply with the said recommendations. 4. Submission to the Court. On November 14, 2018, the Commission submitted this case to the Court due to “the need to obtain justice for the victims in this case, owing to the failure to comply with the recommendations.”3 5. The Commission’s requests. Based on the foregoing, the Inter-American Commission asked the Court to find and declare the international responsibility of the State for the violations contained in its Merits Report and to order the State, as measures of reparation, to adopt those included in the said report. The Court notes with concern that 18 years have passed in the case of Mr. Fernández Prieto and 14 years in the case of Mr. Tumbeiro between the lodging of the initial petition before the Commission and the submission of the case to the Court. II PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE COURT 6. Notification to the State and the representatives. The submission of the case was notified to the State and to the representatives of the presumed victims on February 4, 2019. 7. Brief with pleadings, motions and evidence. On April 1, 2019, the National Public Defense Service (hereinafter “the representatives”) presented their brief with pleadings, motions and evidence (hereinafter “pleadings and motions brief”) pursuant to Articles 25 and 40 of the Court’s Rules of Procedure. The representatives alleged that the State was responsible “for the violation of the rights to personal liberty, to protection of privacy, honor and dignity, and to judicial control, comprehensive review, and effective judicial protection established in Articles 7(1), 7(2), 7(3), 7(5), 8(1), 8(2)(h), 11(1), 11(3) and 25 of the Convention, together with the obligations established in Articles 1(1) and 2 of this instrument, to the detriment of Carlos Alberto Fernández Prieto and Carlos Alejandro Tumbeiro,” as well as for the violation of Articles 1(1) and 24 of the Convention to the detriment of Carlos Alejandro Tumbeiro. In addition, they asked that the Court order the State to adopt various measures of reparation. 8. Answering brief. On July 3, 2019, the State submitted to the Court its brief answering the Commission’s submission of the case, together with its observations on the pleadings and motions brief (hereinafter “answering brief”). In this brief, the State contested the alleged violations and the requests for measures of reparation of the Commission and the representatives. 9. Public hearing. On February 12, 2020, the President issued an order calling the parties and the Commission to a public hearing on the merits and eventual reparations and costs. 4 Also, in this order, two expert witnesses proposed by the representatives were summoned to provide their opinions during the public hearing and two witnesses proposed by the representatives and one expert witness proposed by the Commission were required to submit their statements by affidavit, and these were presented on March 5, 2020. The public hearing The Commission appointed Commissioner Luis Ernesto Vargas Silva and Executive Secretary Paulo Abrão as its delegates, while Silvia Serrano Guzmán and Erick Acuña Pereda, lawyers of the Commission’s Executive Secretariat at the time, acted as legal advisers. 3 Cf. Case of Fernández Prieto et al. v. Argentina. Call to a hearing. Order of the President of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of February 12, 2020. Available at: http://www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/asuntos /fernandez_prieto_12_02_2020.pdf 4 4