Alfaro was sentenced to seventeen years in prison in the National Penitentiary. 12. Regarding those charged as abettors, the petitioners state that on August 20, 2001 the judge ruled for the dismissal with prejudice of the charges against two of them, Mr. Miguel Facussé Barjúm and Mr. Irene Castro without having before heard them and without having carried out any procedures related to them. The petitioners further state that this court ruling was appealed on August 27, 2001, and that in its judgment of November 14, 2001, the Court of Appeals overturned the dismissal due to the lack of testimony received from the alleged abettors. Both men charged with abetting lodged a recurso de amparo [petition for the protection of constitutional rights] before the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice. On August 8, 2003 this Chamber denied the petition on the grounds that the testimony of the alleged abettors had not been heard, and returned the case to the Juez de Letras Seccional de Tocoa [Judge of the First Instance of Tocoa].6 The petitioners state that the same Chamber took nearly two years to resolve the appeal (from November 2001 to August 2003), which entails, as a logical consequence, a delay in the administration of justice. 13. The petitioners stress that, in all, more than six years have elapsed since the opening of the proceedings without a definitive judgment having been reached against all the responsible parties. This lapse of time is beyond the limits of what is reasonable. They claim that the Code of Criminal Procedure provides that “the procedures of the preliminary inquiry ... shall not last more than one month...” and that in the separate proceedings against the abettors this phase has been ongoing for six years. Moreover, the case does not present the complexity alleged by the State, given that one of the perpetrators of the execution has been punished and two of those charged as abettors have been acquitted with unprecedented celerity. In this respect, they note that on a single day, October 14, 2003, the Juzgado de Letras Seccional de Tocoa [Court of the First Instance of Tocoa] processed and decided upon several procedures: it received a petition for the voluntary appearance of the alleged abettors Messrs. Miguel Facussé Barjúm and Irene Castro; it ruled the dismissal with prejudice, of their charges, ruling, moreover, that this decision should have the effects of res judicata, and authorized the provisional release of both. The petitioners 6 Judgment of the Supreme Court of Justice, Constitutional Chamber, August 8, 2003, Annex 1 of the petitioners’ brief of April 23, 2004, received by the IACHR on the 24th day of the same month and year. 5