taken in regard to the case from 1999 to 2006, signed as required by law,
by the
Investigating Registrar of the Court in Ouagadougou, together with nine reports
comprising twenty-two pages of hearings, adversarial procedures and submissions,
totalling sixty-three procedural acts which form part of the process of addressing the
matter between the period of suspension of the hearing of the principal accused and the
appeal proceedings.
31. By letter dated 28 April 2013, the Applicants responded to the Registrar's letter
mentioned in paragraph 29, reiterating their position that the matter had been stayed
between 2001 and 2006, and producing a copy of the definitive directive dated 13 July
2006 by the Prosecutor of Faso to terminate proceedings, as well as a copy of the
summons dated 28 April 2006 issued to the Counsel to appear for the hearing of Madam
Genevieve Zongo.
32. On 21 June 2013, the Court delivered its ruling, as follows:
"On these grounds,
THE COURT, unanimously,
1. Upholds the objection to the Court's jurisdiction ratione temporis with respect to
the violation of the right to life, based on the 13 December 1998 murder of Norbert
Zongo, Abdoulaye Nikiema known as Ablasse, Ernest Zongo and Blaise llboudo;
2. Overrules the objection to its jurisdiction rationae temporis in regard to the
allegation of violation of the rights of the Applicants to have their cause heard by a
Judge on the basis of the judicial acts and procedures which occurred during
treatment of this matter at national level;
3. Overrules the objection to the Court's jurisdiction rationae temporis on allegations
of violations of human rights in regard to the obligation to guarantee respect for
human rights, the right to equal protection of the law and equality before the law,
and the right to freedom of expression and the protection of journalists as long as
these allegations are directly linked to the allegation of violation of the right of the
Applicants to have their cause heard by competent national courts.
11
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