45. On September 13, 1995, the 11th Court gave the Guayas Seventh Transit Prosecutor (hereinafter “the Prosecutor”) 48 hours to issue an opinion regarding the case. There is no record of a response to this request. 46. On September 30, 1996, the 11th Court closed the preliminary proceedings and ordered that the records be sent to the Prosecutor to issue a legal ruling. 47. On March 4, 1997, the Prosecutor issued his ruling. 20 He noted that there was sufficient evidence to believe Mr. Carranza had participated in a “criminal act” of homicide. He declined to charge the other person who had been linked to the trial (supra para. 36) due to a lack of merit. 48. On March 7, 1997, the Court notified Mr. Carranza’s lawyer of the formal charges and set a period of six days for a response. The Court received no information indicating there was any response to said notification of charges. 49. On April 14, 1997, the 11th Court initiated the trial stage, accepting the prosecutor's formal charges. 50. On March 30, 1998, the Guayas Fourth Criminal Court (hereinafter “Criminal Court”) took over the case. 51. On July 23, 1998, the Criminal Court summoned the parties for a public hearing to be held on the 27th day of the same month. The hearing was postponed several times. 21 It finally took place on December 1, 1998. C) The sentence and serving the sentence On December 15, 1998, the Criminal Court issued a guilty verdict, sentencing Mr. Carranza to “six years of ordinary imprisonment.” The Commission 52. and the State noted that Mr. Carranza did not present any appeal against said judgment. 53. The State noted that on March 29, 1999, the Criminal Court stated that Mr. Carranza “[had] completed the sentence of six years of [o]rdinary [i]mprisonment and that with a sentence discount of 755 days granted to him,” he had completed the sentence imposed. The following April 6th, Mr. Carranza’s release form was sent to the Men’s Social Rehabilitation Center of Guayaquil. VII 20 Although the representative asserted that this occurred on April 21, 1997, the evidence shows that the document has a date of March 4, 1997 (cf. Prosecutor's formal charges of March 4, 1997. Evidence file, annex 19 to the response, folios 563 to 567). 21 On July 27, 1998, Mr. Carranza refused to attend the hearing due to illness. The Criminal Court delayed the hearing until the following August 4th. It is not recorded what took place on that date or the reason why the hearing might have been suspended, but on August 11, 1998, the Criminal Court delayed the hearing and on the 24th of the same month called for it to be held two days later. On August 26, 1998, the Prosecutor asked the Criminal Court to be excused from the hearing because he had been notified of another public hearing on August 21st. On the 31st of that month, the Criminal Court set the following September 3rd as the hearing date. It did not take place on that day because the President of the Criminal Court was in a meeting with members of the Supreme Court of Justice. On September 17, 1998, the hearing was convened for the 21st of the same month. However, as the State noted, on November 27, 1998, the Criminal Court convened the public hearing for December 1st of that year. It is not recorded why the hearing was not held on September 21, 1998. 12