43. The State added that the petitioners asserted that the verdict infringed upon the presumption of innocence, and to uphold that assertion they singled out certain expressions in the judgment and quoted them out of context, such as “the Mapuche people,” “aggravated groups,” and belligerent groups.” However, the State countered that the paragraphs quoted by the petitioners serve to provide context to the events surrounding the crime with which they were charged, and cannot be interpreted in isolation. 44. In Summary, the state argued that all of the petitioners’ arguments seek to challenge a single whereas clause in the judgment, the one which gives context to the events investigated. However, they said nothing about the rest of the whereas clauses in which the judges addressed each and every piece of evidence presented against the defendants at trial, as well as the evidence presented by the defense, the assessment of which convinced the judges that the defendants were involved in the crimes, such that they were therefore ultimately convicted. 45. The State then addressed the alleged violation of due process rights based on the court not allowing the identity of the protected witnesses to be revealed. Witness protection rules are established in the criminal procedure code, in the aforementioned law 18,314, and in law 19,366 on drug trafficking. The legal grounds for protecting certain witnesses are none other than a risk to one’s life or physical integrity, which is what was considered when these measures were requested by the Public Ministry. The State recalled that the Convention guarantees the defense’s right to examine witnesses present in the court, a right which the defense fully exercised. 46. The State asserted that the protected witnesses did not give testimony with their faces covered—the pejoratively named “faceless witnesses”—but that they were behind a screen facing the courtroom. Furthermore, the identity of the protected witnesses had been previously corroborated and reported to the defense attorneys before they gave testimony. The testimony had also been turned over to the defense attorneys in advance so that they could study it before the trial and be prepared to cross-examine the witnesses. The State added that the petitioners’ allegation that the substantial evidence in the trial consisted of the testimony of two “faceless witnesses,” does not reflect the truth. A mere reading of the judgment shows that the court heard, received, and assessed the testimony of more then thirty witnesses and experts. Furthermore, the testimony of those witnesses did not make it possible to verify the facts for which they were testifying, that is, involvement of the defendants in the Nancahue tree farm fire, as was indicated in whereas clause 14 of the judgment. 47. Regarding the allegation that the court lacked jurisdiction, the State asserts that this analysis does not stand because it is based on an erroneous interpretation of the rules. 48. Regarding the alleged violation of Article 9 of the Convention, freedom from ex-post facto laws, the State asserted that the acts which the defendants were accused of committing were established as crimes in Chilean criminal legislation, specifically Article 7 of law 18,314. 24 49. Finally, and after referring to the criminal procedure reforms in Chile, the State requested that pursuant to Article 47.b and c the petition be declared inadmissible because it is manifestly unfounded, as the facts of the case do not depict acts that constitute a violation of the rights guaranteed by the American Convention. IV. ADMISSIBILITY 24 Article 7 of Law 18,314 establishes: An attempt to commit a terrorist act covered by this law shall be punished with the minimum sentence indicated by law for the consummated crime. If this only consists of one degree, the provisions of Article 67 of the Criminal Code shall be applied, and the attempted crime will receive the minimum sentence. A serious and credible threat to commit any of the aforementioned crimes shall be punished as an attempt at same. Conspiracy to commit these crimes shall be punished the sentence corresponding to the consummated crime, reduced by one or two degrees 9