4 however, they were not investigated. They say that it was not until 1998, 15 years after Mr. Deras’s murder that the Public Prosecution Service (Ministerio Público) brought charged three military officials as suspects in his murder. That proceeding was divided into separate parts because two of the officials were fugitives of justice, although no steps were taken to capture them. 20. The petitioners say that in the course of the investigation, family members and witnesses testified to the authorities and provided detailed descriptions of each of the facts alleged in this petition. As regards the military official who was put on trial, they say that he was acquitted at first instance but later, in 2005, convicted at second instance and sentenced to 12 years in prison for the crime of murder. In that regard, they allege that thanks to negligence on the part of the court, he was granted unconditional release despite the fact that the Public Prosecution Service had filed an appeal against that decision within the statutory time limit. As a result, the only official so far convicted for the murder of Herminio Deras remains at large. 21. Based on the foregoing, they say that the authorities have failed to carry out a diligent investigation to clarify the facts and that there has been an unwarranted delay in the judicial proceeding to punish those responsible. They claim that the deeds remain unpunished and that the Deras family has not been guaranteed access to justice or received adequate reparation. 22. In the course of the processing of the petition, the petitioners informed about the difficulties encountered in obtaining copies of the judicial record of the criminal investigation. In that regard, on December 15, 2006, they said that their attorneys had been unable to obtain a complete copy of the record of the proceedings before the Supreme Court of Justice because part of the record was missing, and they indicated that they would take legal action against the judicial branch of Honduras. B. Position of the State 23. In its initial response, the State did not challenge the admissibility of the petition and submitted information on the judicial proceedings initiated at the domestic level to investigate and clarify the death of Herminio Deras García. 24. The State referred to the different stages of the criminal proceeding, saying that “the corresponding proceedings before the lower court [Juzgado de Letras], appellate court [Corte de Apelaciones Seccional], and Supreme Court” had been exhausted. It said that although the authorities had known about the facts since 1983, the investigation was not launched immediately, and that it had made no significant progress in the course of the first 15 years. The State noted that in 1998, the Public Prosecution Service filed an indictment against Marco Tulio Regalado Hernández,3 a former member of the armed forces who had belonged to an intelligence battalion referred to as "Squad 3-16,” and that after the case was reactivated by the prosecutor’s indictment, on March 17, 2004, the Third Lower Court for Criminal Matters (now the Criminal Court of First Instance in and for San Pedro Sula) issued a decision acquitting him at first instance. Subsequently, on May 23 2005, the Sectional Court Of Appeals in and for San Pedro Sula admitted an appeal filed by the Public Prosecution Service against the acquittal and convicted Marco Tulio Regalado Hernández for the murder of Herminio Deras García. The State added that the conviction was upheld in a cassation hearing on March 8, 2007. 3 According to information provided by the State in the proceeding before the IACHR, the judicial proceeding was initiated against this official and two other individuals. However, a pretrial detention order was only issued for the aforementioned official as "sufficient evidence" was not found against the other two involved.