Alexis Díaz Loreto; and 8 (fair trial) and 25 (equal protection) of Octavio Ignacio Díaz Álvarez, Robert Ignacio Díaz Loreto, David Octavio Díaz Loreto and their family members, all pursuant to Article 1(1) of the Convention. B. The State 32. The State informed that the Attorney General’s Office, through the 23 rd District Attorney’s Office with full jurisdiction at the national level and the 9 th District Attorney’s Office of the Judicial District of the state of Aragua, began inquiries on January 6, 2003, the date they first knew of the death of Roberto Ignacio Díaz Loreto and David Octavio Díaz Loreto. 33. It states that said authorities took the necessary steps in determining what had happened and in identifying the liability of the perpetrators and accomplices, as a result of which charges were filed by the aforementioned Attorney’s Offices before the Fifth Trial Court overseeing the Judicial Circuit for Criminal Cases of the state of Aragua, on June 13, 2003. 34. The State specified that the Attorney General’s Office has accused officer Saúl Ricardo Ramos Mora of the crime of intentional homicide of Roberto Ignacio Díaz Loreto and, of being an accomplice (en grado de complicidad correspectiva) in the intentional homicide of David Octavio Díaz Loreto and Octavio Díaz Álvarez. It also stated that Rafael Antonio Barrero Araque, Luís Di Camilo Colmenares, José Francisco Maldonado, Jorge Luis Alvarado Hernández, Erick Gilberto Torrealba Urbina, and Jesús Ramón Franco Martínez [had been charged with the crime of being an immediate accessory (cooperador inmediato) to the intentional homicide of Roberto Ignacio Díaz Loreto and an accomplice in the intentional homicide of David Octavio Díaz Loreto and Octavio Díaz Álvarez. 35. According to the State, on January 7, 2003, the Fifth Trial Court overseeing the Judicial Circuit for Criminal Cases of the state of Aragua admitted in full the charges brought by the Attorneys’ Offices and the evidence they submitted and ordered the preventive arrest of the accused. The State indicated that oral and public hearings commenced on January 18, 2006 and ended on April 25, 2007 with the acquittal of the accused. 36. The State added that on July 19, 2007, the Attorney General's Office appealed the aforementioned judgment; that on October 4, 2007 oral hearings were scheduled for the parties to appear before the Court of Appeals of the Judicial Circuit for Criminal Cases of the state of Aragua; and that said hearings were postponed to February 14, 2008. 37. The State argued that, accordingly, the petition should be declared inadmissible because domestic remedies had not been exhausted and because the criminal proceedings had shown respect for effective judicial protection and the other rights and guarantees provided for under domestic law and in the international human rights instruments ratified by Venezuela. IV. ADMISSIBILITY A. Competence 7