6 addressed the considerations that make it necessary to reject all the preliminary objections filed by the State, and they stated their agreement with said arguments. 28. On August 28, 2002, the representatives of the next of kin of the victim filed a brief in which they objected to Francisco Villagrán Kramer as Judge ad hoc in the instant case. 29. On October 3, 2002, the State reported that it had appointed Arturo Martínez Gálvez as Judge ad hoc in the instant case, in substitution of Francisco Villagrán Kramer. 30. On November 8, 2002, the Secretariat asked the Commission and the representatives of the next of kin of the victim to submit a definitive list of witnesses and expert witnesses, respectively, to consider summoning them to a public hearing. 31. On November 21, 2002, the representatives of the next of kin of the victim filed a brief in which they reiterated their offer of six expert witnesses: Mónica Pinto, Katharine Doyle, Bernardo Morales, Alicia Neuburger, Iduvina Hernández, and Javier Llobet Rodríguez, and they desisted from the offer of the following six expert witnesses: Christian Tomuschat, Allan Brewer-Carias, Rodolfo Robles Espinoza, Héctor Rosada, Francisco Chávez Bosque, and Frank La Rue. They also reiterated their offer as witnesses of the following eight persons: Helen Mack Chang, Monsignor Julio Cabrera Ovalle, Virgilio Rodríguez Santana, Rember Larios Tobar, Clara Arenas Bianchi, Henry Monroy Andrino, Lucrecia Hernández Mack, and Carmen de LeónEscribano Schlotter, and they desisted from offering the testimony of Rubio Caballeros Herrera. They also offered, for the first time, Nadezhda Vásquez Cucho as a witness. Finally, said representatives requested that Gabriela Vásquez Smerilli appear as a witness rather than as an expert witness, as they had originally proposed. 32. On November 21, 2002, the Commission filed a brief in which it reiterated its offer of expert witness Mónica Pinto and it desisted from its offer of the other expert witnesses proposed. The Commission also reiterated its offer of the following seven witnesses: Helen Mack Chang, Monsignor Julio Cabrera Ovalle, Virgilio Rodríguez Santana, Rember Larios Tobar, Clara Arenas Bianchi, Henry Monroy Andrino, and Lucrecia Hernández Mack, and it desisted from its offer of witness Rubio Caballeros Herrera. For the first time, it proposed Nadezhda Vásquez Cucho as a witness. Finally, the Commission included as a witness in the definitive list Gabriela Vásquez Smerilli, whom they had originally offered as an expert witness. 33. On November 22, 2002, the Secretariat forwarded to the State the definitive list of witnesses and expert witnesses proposed by the Commission and the representatives of the victim, and granted them until the 27th of that same month and year to submit whatever observations they deemed pertinent. 34. On November 27, 2002, Guatemala submitted its observations on the offer of witnesses and expert witnesses made by the Commission and the representatives of the next of kin of the victim. Guatemala stated that it had no objections to the witnesses, but that regarding the expert witnesses it could not state its position because it did not have any background on them, for which reason it asked the Court to forward the curricula vitae of the expert witnesses proposed “to be able to state its position on [their] participation.” In said brief, the State also reserved the right to offer and propose its witnesses and expert witnesses in the instant case, before the ruling on the preliminary objections raised. On November 29, 2002, the Secretariat,