4 IV PROVISIONAL MEASURES 14. In accordance with Article 63(2) of the American Convention, Article 76 of the Commission’s Rules of Procedure at that time, and Article 25 of the Rules of Court, on March 28, 2001 the Inter-American Commission submitted a request seeking provisional measures on behalf of Mssrs. Mauricio Herrera Ulloa and Fernán Vargas Rohrmoser. The Commission based its request on the “imminence of the impending enforcement of the civil damages ordered [...] and [the] fact that the State disregarded the Commission’s own request for precautionary measures seeking a stay of execution of the judgment” which would have irreparably violated the right to freedom of expression of Mr. Herrera Ulloa and Mr. Vargas Rohrmoser and would have rendered moot any decisions that the Commission and the Court might adopt on the matter. 15. On April 6, 2001, the President of the Court (hereinafter “the President” or “the President of the Court”) requested the State, “as an urgent measure, to abstain from executing any action that would alter the status quo of the matter until [the] public hearing has been held and the Court is able to deliberate and decide on the admissibility of the provisional measures requested by the Commission.” 1 16. On May 23, 2001, the Court confirmed the President’s April 6, 2001 order and requested the State to refrain from taking any action that might alter the status quo of the matter until such time as a report was presented and the Court was able to deliberate on the matter and arrive at a decision. 17. On September 7, 2001, the Court called upon the State to adopt forthwith those measures necessary to suspend the entry of Mauricio Herrera Ulloa’s name in the Judiciary’s Record of Convicted Felons until such time as the bodies of the interAmerican system had arrived at a final decision on his case. The Court also asked the State to stay the court order for La Nación to publish the “Now Therefore” portion of the November 12, 1999 conviction handed down by the Criminal Court of the First Judicial Circuit of San José, and to stay the order to create a link at the La Nación Digital website between the impugned articles and the operative part of that court judgment. 2 18. On December 6, 2001, the Court asked the State to continue to apply the provisional measures called for in the Court’s September 7, 2001 order and to continue to withhold Mauricio Herrera Ulloa’s name from the Judiciary’s Record of Convicted Felons. 3 19. On July 30, 2002, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica sent the InterAmerican Court a letter rogatory from the Criminal Court of the First Judicial District of San José, dated June 27, 2002, in which the San José Criminal Court requests that 1 Cf. Case of “La Nación”. Provisional Measures. Order of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of April 6, 2001, operative paragraph 3. 2 Cf. Case of “La Nación”. Provisional Measures. Order of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of September 7, 2001, operative paragraphs one and two. Cf. Case of “La Nación”. Provisional Measures. Order of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of December 6, 2001, operative paragraph two. 3