I INTRODUCTION TO THE CASE AND PURPOSE OF THE DISPUTE 1. Proceedings before the Court. On October 16, 2019, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter also “the Inter-American Commission” or “the Commission”) submitted the case of “Emilio Palacio Urrutia et al.” against the Republic of Ecuador (in hereinafter also “the State” or “Ecuador”) to the Court’s jurisdiction. According to the Commission, the case is related to a series of human rights violations arising from the criminal proceedings brought by the then President of Ecuador, Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado (hereinafter, also "the then President" or "the former President”) which led to the conviction of the journalist Emilio Palacio Urrutia and the directors of the El Universo newspaper, Nicolás Pérez Lapentti, César Enrique Pérez Barriga and Carlos Eduardo Pérez Barriga, “due to the publication of a opinion article on a matter of high public interest regarding the events surrounding a political crisis that occurred in Ecuador in September 2010, and the actions of former President Rafael Correa and other authorities in the context of said crisis.” The Commission concluded that the State violated the right to freedom of thought and expression and the principle of legality and retroactivity, the rights to judicial guarantees and judicial protection, in relation to the general obligations provided in articles 1(1) and 2 of the Convention, to the detriment of Emilio Palacio Urrutia, Carlos Nicolás Pérez Lapentti, Carlos Eduardo Pérez Barriga and César Enrique Pérez Barriga (hereinafter, also “the alleged victims”). 1. Proceedings before the Commission. The proceedings before the Commission were as follows: 2. a) Petition. On October 24, 2011, Emilio Palacio Urrutia, Carlos Nicolás Pérez Lapentti, Carlos Eduardo Pérez Barriga, César Enrique Pérez Barriga, Hernán Pérez Loose and Jorge Alvear Macías presented the initial petition before the Commission. b) Admissibility Report. On October 27, 2015, the Commission approved Admissibility Report No. 66/15, in which it notified the parties of admissibility and made itself available to reach a friendly settlement. c) Merits Report. On March 19, 2019, the Commission approved Merits Report No. 29/19 (hereinafter also “Merits Report”), in which it reached a series of conclusions and made several recommendations to the State. d) Notification to the State. The Commission notified the State of the Merits Report in a communication dated April 16, 2019. The Commission granted Ecuador a period of two months to report on compliance with the recommendations. On June 16, 2019, the State presented its report on compliance with recommendations and requested an additional extension. On July 15, 2019, the Commission granted a new extension to the State, expiring on October 16, 2019. On October 3, 2019, the State presented a new report on compliance with recommendations. In its report of October 3, 2019, the State did not request a new extension to comply with the recommendations of the Merits Report. 3. Submission to the Court. – On October 16, 2019, the Commission submitted to the Court all the facts and human rights violations in the case. It did so, as indicated, 4