24 Art. 94.- The public servant impeached shall exercise the right to his or her defense personally on the date and time indicated, arguing before the National Congress in respect of the infractions of which he or she is accused, and for no more than eight hours. Subsequently, the accusing legislators who have presented the respective censure motion shall state the bases for their accusations for two hours each, in the order of the dates on which they proposed the censure motion. Then, the impeached public servant shall offer a rebuttal for no more than four hours. Upon the conclusion of the public servant’s presentation, he or she may leave the hall, and the President of the National Congress shall declare that the debate has begun, in which all the legislators may register and state their reasoning for 20 minutes. Upon the conclusion of the debate, whoever is chairing the session shall order that a nominal vote be taken in favor of or against the censure. Art. 95.- The censure motion shall be considered approved by the absolute majority of all members of the National Congress. 72 87. According to this law, it is not possible to clearly grasp how the resolution to terminate the judges of the Constitutional Court of November 25, 2004, could have had as its objective to cure the illegality in the judges’ appointment, based on application of the straight-party voting mechanism, considering the time elapsed and the lack of other actions aimed at questioning or determining the application of this voting system. 88. In effect, the information available indicates that the straight-party voting mechanism is not expressly provided for in Ecuador’s domestic legislation, but has been used from time to time by the Congress. Without prejudice to the Congress’s authority to decide on its own voting mechanisms, there is no knowledge of legislative, administrative, or judicial actions that have been attempted to call into question or regulate the scope and admissibility of the straight-party voting mechanism after the designation of the judges of the Constitutional Court on March 19, 2003. 89. Based on the foregoing, the Commission concludes that at the time of the facts of the instant case, the Constitution established the duration of the term for judges of the Constitutional Court to be one uninterrupted term of four years, and the mechanism for removing the judges from their positions, impeachment. Scrutiny of the above-mentioned laws indicates that without prejudice to the Constitution expressly establishing that the judges could not be tried or held liable for the content of the judgments they issue or their opinions, the domestic legal order did not expressly establish the grounds for which they could be impeached. D. Right to a fair trial and to freedom from ex post facto laws (Articles 8 and 9 of the American Convention), in relation to the obligations to respect the rights and adopt provisions of domestic law (Articles 1(1) and 2 of the American Convention) 90. The relevant part of Article 8 of the American Convention provides: 1. Every person has the right to a hearing, with due guarantees and within a reasonable time, by a competent, independent, and impartial tribunal, previously established by law, in the substantiation of any accusation of a criminal nature made against him or for the determination of his rights and obligations of a civil, labor, fiscal, or any other nature. 2. Every person accused of a criminal offense has the right to be presumed innocent so long as his guilt has not been proven according to law. During the proceedings, every person is entitled, with full equality, to the following minimum guarantees: 72 Article amended by Law No. 129, published in Official Gazette. Supplement 995 of July 24, 1996. Available at: http://www.oas.org/juridico/spanish/mesicic2_ecu_Annex32.pdf.