14 so as not to release any person until that order [had been] referred to the Superior Court, in strict compliance with Article 121 of the Law on Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (communication from the Public Prosecutor of Pichincha of July 13, 1995, and communication Number 510-CSQ-P-96 of the President of the Superior Court of Justice of Quito); v. on July 24, 1995, the President of the Superior Court of Justice of Quito ruled [the] petition [of the Public Prosecutor of Pichincha of July 13, 1995] to be in order, inasmuch as the norm previously invoked in this type of violation is mandatory, since it deals with the crime of drug trafficking, governed by the Special Law on Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances [... and that] the order of release granted to accessories and to those whose cases were provisionally suspended should also be reviewed. Consequently, the units were revised by the First Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of Quito on July 31, 1995 (order of the President of the Superior Court of Justice of Quito of 10:00 a.m. on July 24, 1995; order of the President of the Superior Court of Justice of Quito of 10:00 a.m. on July 31, 1995); w. on April 16, 1996, the First Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of Quito ordered Mr. Suárez-Rosero's release (order of the First Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of Quito of 10.00 a.m. on April 16, 1996). That order was complied with on April 29, 1996 (official communication Number 861-CSQ-P-96 of the President of the Superior Court of Justice of Quito on April 29, 1996; testimonies of Rafael Iván Suárez-Rosero, Margarita Ramadán, and Carlos Ramadán); x. the President of the Superior Court of Justice of Quito, in his judgment of September 9, 1996, decided that Mr. Suárez-Rosero is an accessory [.] to the crime of illegal trafficking in narcotic and drugs and psychotropic substances, defined and punishable under Art. 62 of the Law on Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, and that, pursuant to the provisions of Arts. 44 and 88 of the Criminal Code, he was [.] sentenced to two years' imprisonment which he [was to] serve at the Men's Social Rehabilitation Center in [the] city of Quito, and that the time he has remained in preventive [.] detention would be deducted from that sentence. Mr. Suárez-Rosero was also fined two thousand times the minimum living wage (judgment of the President of the Superior Court of Justice of Quito of 4.00 p.m. on September 9, 1996), and y. at no time was Mr. Suárez-Rosero summoned to appear before a competent judicial authority to be informed of the charges brought against him (testimony of Rafael Iván Suárez-Rosero). VIII Preliminary Considerations on the Merits 35. Once the Court has indicated the proven facts it regards as significant, it must examine the arguments of the Inter-American Commission and of the State in order to determine the State's international responsibility for the alleged violation of the American Convention.