8 9. Access to the Legal Assistance Fund. In an Order of the President7 of the Court (hereinafter “the President”) of January 8, 2013, the request submitted by the presumed victims, through their representatives (supra para. 7), for access to the Court’s Assistance Fund was declared admissible. 10. Observations on the preliminary objections. On February 21 and 22, 2013, the representative and the Commission, respectively, presented their observations on the preliminary objection presented. 11. Summons to a public hearing. By an order of April 10, 2013, the President convened the parties to a public hearing, which took place on May 15, 2013, during the ninety-ninth regular session of the Court, held at its seat,8 and ordered the reception of diverse statements in this case. 12. Amici curiae. On Mary 30, 2013, the Court received two amicus curiae briefs: (a) one submitted by Sorina Macricini, Cristian González Chacó and Bruno Rodríguez Reveggio, of Notre Dame Law School, of which section VIII and the following parts were in English. The Court received the corresponding translation on June 10, 2013, and (b) one submitted by Christine M. Venter, Ana-Paolo Calpado and Daniella Palmiotto, of Notre Dame Law School, in English. 13. Final written arguments and observations. The representative forwarded its final written arguments on June 15, 2013, and the State on June 15 and 18, 2013. In addition, at that time, the State responded to the questions posed by the judges during the public hearing and the representative referred, in general, to the context. On June 15 also, the Commission transmitted its final written arguments. On June 18, 2013, the State advised that, “owing to a clerical error in the numbering and citations of the footnotes,” it had amended its brief with final arguments, which it had first uploaded to the “Dropbox” internet site, and therefore asked the Court to verify that the new document appeared on that site. On June 19, 2013, in a communication of the Secretariat of the Court (hereinafter “the Secretariat”), the State was informed that the President would be advised for the pertinent effects, and advised “that once a document has been presented to the Court it cannot continue to be amended.” On June 20, 2013, the State advised that both versions of the final written arguments were available on the internet site that had been provided so that the Court could compare the two briefs, and repeated that a clerical error had been made. The briefs with arguments and observations were forwarded to the parties and to the InterAmerican Commission on July 2, 2013, and the President granted them until July 15, 2013, at the latest, to submit any observations they deemed pertinent on the annexes to the said briefs. In this case, the Court admits the second brief with final arguments uploaded to the “Dropbox” internet site, because the changes made are of a clerical nature relating to the numbering of the footnotes, and will take this into consideration for the effects of this Judgment. 14. Observations on the annexes attached to the final arguments. On July 15, 2013, both the Commission and the representative presented their observations on the annexes submitted by the State together with the final written arguments; however, they also made other observations. In a communication of the Secretariat of July 17, 2013, on the instructions of the President, the representative and the Commission were advised that, in the case of aspects that exceeded the observations on the documents annexed to the State’s arguments, the pertinence of considering them would be decided by the Court at the appropriate procedural opportunity. In addition, on July 15, 2013, the State presented, 7 8 Judge Diego García-Sayán’s mandate as President ended on December 31, 2013. There appeared at this hearing: (a) for the Inter-American Commission: Dinah Shelton, Commissioner, Elizabeth Abi-Mershed, Deputy Executive Secretary, and Silvia Serrano Guzmán, legal adviser; (b) for the representative of the presumed victims: Giovana Lemus Pérez, Pamela González Ruiz and Sonia Acabal Del Cid of REDNOVI, and (c) for the State: Rodrigo Villagrán Sandoval and Irini Villavicencio Papahiu.