5 19. On January 6, 1997, the Commission presented its submissions, which reiterated the pleadings contained in the application and stated that there was no doubt that the persons who had brutally abused and murdered Ms. Benavides Cevallos were State agents, that the State had not acknowledged its responsibility in these events and that the measures that had been taken did not comply with the obligations pending in the instant case. 20. On January 29, 1997, the State presented a copy of file from the criminal proceedings conducted in the Supreme Court of Justice of Ecuador into the events in the instant case. 21. On March 6, 1997, Ecuador requested that the President extend the deadline for presenting its rejoinder to the Commission’s additional written pleadings until May 20 of that year. The President granted the requested extension. 22. On May 19, 1997, Ecuador presented its rejoinder, wherein it stated that: [it has] ensured a thorough investigation into the arbitrary imprisonment, torture and death of Professor Consuelo Benavides and adopted the measures necessary to guarantee reparations for the injury caused to the Benavides Cevallos family, including, as stated, compensation for material and moral damages to her parents who, under Ecuadorian law, are her sole legitimate heirs. 23. On June 24, 1997, the Commission petitioned the Court to schedule a hearing on the merits of the case as soon as possible and to forward to the Commission a copy of the proceedings in criminal trial No. 19-92, which the Supreme Court of Justice had conducted into the events that motivated this case. 24. On January 22, 1998, Amnesty International filed an amicus curiae brief2. 25. On March 13, 1998, the Commission informed the Court that at its 98th. regular session, it had met with representatives of the State, who had presented a friendly settlement proposal. It further informed the Court that it would examine that proposal bearing in mind the petitioners’ observations, and that in its view that analysis ought not prejudice the proceedings in the instant case. 26. On March 30, 1998, the President summoned Ecuador and the Commission to a public hearing to be held at the seat of the Court on June 11 of that year, for the purpose of taking testimony from the witnesses and experts offered by the Commission. 27. On June 1, 1998, the State informed the Court that it had reached an agreement with the parents of Ms. Benavides Cevallos and that it would present a notarized copy of the document containing that agreement. It requested that the 2 As is the practice of the Court with documents of this nature, the brief filed by Amnesty International was not formally introduced into the case file.