6 of the Court (hereinafter “the Legal Assistance Fund”) to cover specific costs related to producing evidence during the proceedings. They also asked that the State be required to reimburse those expenses to the Legal Assistance Fund “without detriment to the amounts that the Court may establish for costs and expenses for the [alleged] victims and their representatives, which must be reimbursed directly to them.” Furthermore, on December 1, 2010, the representatives informed the Court why they could not cover the said costs in this case, and included an estimate of the costs of producing evidence. In this regard, in an Order of March 4, 2011,5 the President of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (hereinafter “the President of the Court” or “the President”), in exercise of the authority vested in him under Article 3 of the Court’s Rules of Procedure on the Operation of the Legal Assistance Fund6 (hereinafter “the Rules of Procedure of the Fund”) decided to declare that the request submitted by the alleged victims through their representatives was admissible and to grant the necessary financial assistance for the presentation of a maximum of three testimonies; also, that the amount, destination and specific purpose of this assistance would be defined when ruling on the production of the testimonial and expert evidence and, if applicable, the opening of the oral proceedings. 9. In an order of April 14, 2011,7 the President of the Court required that the testimony of six alleged victims proposed by the representatives and four expert witnesses, two proposed by the representatives and two by the Commission, be received by affidavit. The State did not offer witnesses or expert witnesses. The representative and the State were able to formulate questions for the alleged victims and the expert witnesses before they gave their testimony or prepared their expert opinions, respectively, as well as submit observations on them. Only the representatives submitted questions.8 The President also convened the parties to a public hearing to receive the testimony of an alleged victim and two expert witnesses proposed by the representatives, as well as the final oral arguments of the representatives and the State, and the final observations of the Inter-American Commission on the merits and possible reparations and costs in this case. Lastly, the President decided that the financial assistance from the Legal Assistance Fund (supra para. 8) be allocated to cover the necessary travel and accommodation expenses for the deponents to be able to appear before the Court and give their testimony at the said public hearing. 10. On May 5 and 11, 2011, the representatives and the Commission forwarded the statements made before notary public. On May 13, 2011, the State presented its observations on the statements submitted by the representatives. On May 23, the representatives stated that they had no observations to make on the statement provided by the Commission, and the State did not submit any observations in this regard within the corresponding time frame. 5 See http://www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/asuntos/Contreras%20_04_03_11.pdf 6 Rules of Procedure of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on the Operation of the Victims’ Legal Assistance Fund, approved by the Court on February 4, 2010, and in force as of June 1, 2010. 7 8 See http://www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/asuntos/contreras%2014%20_04_11.pdf In application of the provisions of Article 50(5) of the Court’s Rules of Procedure and in keeping with the Order of the President of April 14, 2011 (supra para. 9 and second operative paragraph), on April 26, 2011, the representatives forwarded the written questions to be answered by the expert witnesses proposed by the InterAmerican Commission when they giving their testimony before notary public (affidavit). For its part, the State did not formulate questions for the individuals who were to give their testimony before notary public within the corresponding time frame.