case file of the criminal proceedings begun on April 1996 before the First District Criminal Judge in Chinandega. 12. information. On October 25, 2007, the petitioner submitted additional 13. By communication dated November 6, 2007, the State submitted its comments to the communication forwarded to it on September 27, 2007, and sent a copy of the requested criminal proceedings on November 21 of that year. The Commission forwarded the State’s comments and a copy of the case file to the petitioner on December 3, 2007, granting a one-month deadline for submitting his respective comments. 14. On December 6, 2007, the Commission forwarded to the State the information submitted by the petitioner on October 25, 2007, granting it one month to submit its comments, which were received by the Commission through communication dated January 14, 2008, and notifying the petitioner about said communication on January 23, 2008. 15. On February 13, 2008, the petitioner presented his observations to the communication forwarded on December 3, 2007, and of which the State was notified of on February 14, 2008. 16. In addition, the IACHR received information from the petitioners on December 29, 2008 and received observations from the State as well on April 28, 2008 and April 27, 2009. III. A. POSITIONS OF THE PARTIES Petitioner 17. The petitioner states that on April 14, 1996, Patricio Fernando Roche Azaña and Pedro Bacilio Roche Azaña, two brothers of Ecuadorian nationality, along with some 30 other people of different nationalities, were traveling through the Republic of Nicaragua toward their final destination in the United States of America. With that objective in mind, upon arriving at the Nicaraguan city of Chinandega, they were transferred to a van that would take them into the Republic of Honduras. At approximately 8:00 pm on that day, as they were traveling along the road that would take them to the border, he claims that: suddenly, and simply because they believed us to be immigrants or foreigners, the Nicaraguan police arrived (as they call the Chinandega Municipal Police) and, in a brutal and inhuman way, 3