INTRODUCTION 

1. Claimants hereby submit their full briefing on the Application for Provisional Measures of July 8, 2014, as per the calendar set, on July 10, 2014, by Ms. Polasek, Acting Secretary-General of ICSID, for the exchange of pleadings on provisional measures, pursuant to Article 47 of the ICSID Convention and Rule 39 of the ICSID Arbitration Rules. 

2. This is a textbook case of an abuse of power by a sovereign State, through the taking of retaliatory measures against foreign investors, in direct and exclusive reaction to the exercise, by the latter, of their legitimate right to initiate international arbitration proceedings. 

3. Indeed, two days before the filing of Claimants’ Request for Arbitration, the date of which had been communicated to Respondent both orally and in writing in the course of negotiations, criminal proceedings were launched in the Slovak Republic,1 leading to the seizure and confiscation of all the original paper records (including privileged documents) and computer software of Rozmin sro (“Rozmin”), Claimants’ Slovak Republic-incorporated investment vehicle. No copies were made or provided to the investors. Nor was any proper inventory of the documents and items seized prepared or handed to them. 

4. These retaliatory and self-serving measures were taken by the Slovak Republic in reaction to Claimants’ legitimate exercise of their right to initiate ICSID arbitration proceedings against the Slovak Republic. They were intended, and have in any event had the effect, to deprive Claimants of records necessary to put their case, to place the State in a privileged position with a full access to all of Claimants’ files including legally privileged materials, and to intimidate Claimants and their potential witnesses.