committed by Antonio Alonso Martínez, Jaime Alberto Peña Casas, Pedro Palomino Antury, and Elías Sandoval Reyes, against all victims except Hernán Lizcano Jacanamijoy, and personal injuries against minor Enio Quinayas; it declared an estoppel of the investigation regarding Pablo Lugo Herrera because it was established that this accused person had not “incurred in criminal conduct in connection with the facts investigated” and regarding Carlos Arturo Oliveros Vargas because ha was deceased; it ordered continuation of preventive detention for Antonio Alonso Martínez and Jaime Alberto Peña Casas; and it ordered this same measure against Pedro Palomino Antury and Elías Sandoval Reyes.55 On March 21, 2000 partial closing of the investigation was ordered with respect to accused persons Pedro Antonio Palomino Antury, Elías Sandoval Reyes, Antonio Alonso Martínez, and Jaime Alberto Peña Casas for the crime of aggravated homicide.56 On May 10, 2000 the Attorney General of the Republic asked the Public Prosecutors’ Office to declare partial nullity of the previous resolution and to issue a resolution accusing Antonio Alonso Martínez, Elías Sandoval Reyes, and Jaime Alberto Peña Casas as coauthors of aggravated homicide.57 On May 30, 2000 the Public Prosecutors’ Office issued a “temporary injunction regarding assessment of the merits of the preliminary proceedings” in which it decided: to order the immediate release of Pedro Antonino Palomino Antury; to indict Antonio Alonso Martínez, Jaime Alberto Peña Casas, and Elías Sandoval Reyes as alleged co-perpetrators of the crime of aggravated homicide with conspiracy, without the right to be released on bail, and therefore extinguishment of penal action was interrupted; and to order the “unity of the trial process broken”, for which reason the investigation continued with respect to the remaining 37 accused persons under a new “case file” No. 876 UDH.58 With respect to the other 37 persons accused, on April 6, 2000 the Delegate Public Prosecutor of the Human Rights Unit took over the hearing of this new investigation under case file No. 876 UDH. On September 6, 2000 the National Human Rights Unit deemed that more than nine years had elapsed from the opening of the investigation under criminal jurisdiction, for which reason the maximum pre-trial investigative period had been exceedingly surpassed without there being evidence to establish the merits of the preliminary proceedings with respect to the 37 persons accused, and it therefore declared the pre-trial proceedings closed. This resolution was “declared firm” on April 16, 2002, for which reason on May 30 of that same year the Public Prosecutors’ Office issued a resolution “assessing the merits of the preliminary proceedings,” in which it ordered estoppel of the investigation in favor of the 36 persons accused “due to lack of evidence regarding their participation in the hors de combat homicides committed;” it declared the penal action extinguished, in their favor, due to lapsing of the time to bring prosecution with respect to the crimes of personal injuries and aiding kidnapping; and it declared the penal action extinguished, in connection with those same crimes, due to the death of one of the 55 Cf. December 7, 1999 Order of the Special Public Prosecutor of the National Human Rights Unit of the Office of the Solicitor General of the Republic in preliminary proceedings No. 348 U.D.H.. 56 Cf. March 21, 2000 Order of the Special Public Prosecutor of the National Human Rights Unit of the Office of the Office of the Solicitor General of the Republic in preliminary proceedings No. 348 U.D.H.. 57 Cf. May 10, 2000 brief of the 18th Government Attorneys’ Office Judicial Criminal II of the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic to the Delegate Public Prosecutor appointed before the Criminal Judges of Specialized Circuits, requesting an indictment Order. 58 Cf. May 30, 2000 Order on assessment of the merits of the preliminary proceedings and indictment by the Special Public Prosecutor of the National Human Rights Unit of the Office of the National Director of Public Prosecutors’ Offices of the Office of the Solicitor General of the Republic, in preliminary proceedings No. 348 U.D.H..