4 State and to the Commission, and informed them that they had 30 days time to submit whatever observations they deemed pertinent. 17. On November 1, 2002 the Commission submitted its observations on the brief containing pleadings, motions, and evidence submitted by the representatives. 18. On November 1, 2002 the State filed three preliminary objections1 and its reply to the application. In said brief it asked the Court, based on the preliminary objections filed, to find the application submitted by the Commission inadmissible. 19. On November 5, 2002, the Secretariat, under instructions by the President, granted the Commission and the representatives of the victims and their next of kin 30 days time to submit their written pleadings on the preliminary objections filed by the State. 20. On November 11, 2002 the representatives of the victims and their next of kin submitted their written pleadings on the preliminary objections filed by the State, and asked the Court to find them inadmissible. 21. On November 27, 2002 the Commission submitted its written pleadings on preliminary objections, in which it requested that said objections be rejected. 22. On January 22, 2004 Arturo Martínez Gálvez, who had been appointed by the State as ad hoc judge, irrevocably resigned that position. On January 23, 2004 the Secretariat, under instructions by the President, granted the State 30 days time to appoint a new ad hoc judge. 23. On February 3, 2004 CALDH appointed Lucy Turner and Juan Pablo Pons as representatives of the victims and their next of kin, substituting Carlos Loarca and Frank La Rue.2 24. On February 19, 2004 the President issued an Order in which he instructed the Commission, pursuant to Article 47(3) of the Rules of Procedure, to submit the testimony of Benjamín Manuel Jerónimo and Eulalio Grave Ramírez through statements before a notary public, and likewise the expert opinions of Luis Rodolfo Ramírez García and José Fernando Moscoso Möller, no later than March 11, 2004, and that they should be forwarded to the representatives to the State for them to submit such observations as they deem pertinent. Said Order also summoned the Inter-American Commission, the representatives of the victims and their next of kin and the State to a public hearing at the seat of the Court, beginning on April 23, 2004, to hear their final oral pleadings on preliminary objections and possible merits, reparations, and legal costs, as well as the statements of the witnesses and the expert opinions of the expert witnesses proposed by the Commission. 1 The preliminary objections filed by the State were the following: “Non-exhaustion of Domestic Remedies, Lack of a Determination on the Arguments of the State regarding alteration of and modifications to the Content of the Report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights that gave rise to filing of the Application before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and Erroneous and Extensive Interpretation of the Acknowledgment Made by the State of Guatemala.” 2 During the processing of the instant case, CALDH made some changes in the appointment of its representatives before the Court.