9 Mónica Pinto; expert witnesses proposed by the representatives of the next of kin of the victim: Katharine Doyle; Alicia Neuburger; Iduvina Hernández; and Henry El Khoury Jacob. 44. At the start of the public hearing, on February 18, 2003, the Stated desisted from all the preliminary objections and reiterated what it stated in the brief submitted before the beginning of that hearing (supra para. 42). The Commission and the representatives of the next of kin of the victim, in turn, referred to the statement by Guatemala. 45. On February 18, 2003, the Court issued an Order in which it decided to receive the waiver by the State of the preliminary objections it had filed, and to continue the public hearing summoned in the Order of the President of November 30, 2002, as well as the procedural actions pertaining to the proceedings on the merits and possible reparations in the instant case. 46. On the second day of the public hearing, on February 19, 2003, after the first four witnesses, the Agent for Guatemala stated before the Court the decision of the State to withdraw from the public hearing and to return during its conclusion “to state its final position regarding this hearing.” In this regard, the President stated that: [w]ith respect to what the Agent has stated, I merely wish to read the provision of the Rules of Procedure of the Court in case of inaction. The Rules of Procedure provide, in Article 27, paragraph 1, that when a party abstains from acting the Court will, on its own motion, further the proceedings until their completion. And in paragraph two, “when a party enters a case at a later stage of the proceedings, it shall take up the proceedings at that stage.” Therefore, we await the presence of the State to present its final position at the appropriate time in these public hearings. After this, the Agents of the State withdrew from the public hearing, which continued that same day with the testimonies and expert opinions ordered and presentation of a video recording of an interview with Noel de Jesús Beteta Álvarez. On the following day, February 20, 2003, the Agents of the State appeared once again at the public hearing to make their final oral pleadings. The representatives of the next of kin of the victim and the Commission, in turn, presented their final oral pleadings. The Commission also presented a copy of Communiqué No. 032-2003 of February 19, 2003 of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs entitled “[e]l Estado de Guatemala contribuye a la justicia en el Caso Mack Chang aceptando la responsabilidad institucional ante la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos” [“[t]he State of Guatemala contributes to justice in the Mack Chang Case accepting its institutional responsibility before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights”]. 47. On February 24, 2003, the State submitted a brief in which it reported on the “true scope of the acceptance of responsibility by Guatemala in the Myrna Mack Chang case.” In this regard, on February 25, 2003, the Secretariat, following the