a year, only the first 10 days are allotted for taking a statement from the principal victim or injured party in the crime under investigation.”3 21. He further contends that, based on the number of injured, it can be concluded that at least 17 rounds were fired, and the fact that none of those shots hit sensitive parts of the vehicle instead of the passengers’ bodies indicates the abuses committed by the police officers. 22. As a consequence of the incident and subsequent trial, the petitioner alleges that the State violated the alleged victims’ rights enshrined in Articles 1.1, 4.1, 5.1, 22.1, and 22.4 of the American Convention, and in Article XVII of the American Declaration, in conjunction with Articles 24 and 8.1 of the Convention. 23. As regards the complaint’s admissibility, the petitioner believes that the judgment issued by the Chinandega First District Criminal Court was the final judicial decision and that it exhausted all available remedies under domestic law. 24. Finally, the petitioner reports that none of the judicial decisions handed down during the proceedings were ever directly notified to Patricio Fernando or his family by the State. The petitioner reports that Patricio Fernando first learned of the Nicaraguan court decision in August 1998, when his mother informally receive a copy of the judgment adopted by the Chinandega District Criminal Jury Court from an official of the Ecuadorian foreign ministry. Four months after learning of the decision, the petitioner, on behalf of Patricio Fernando and his deceased brother, lodged their petition with the IACHR. B. State 25. The State indicates that, after investigating the incident described by the petitioner, it was able to verify that on April 14, 1996, approximately 30 individuals of Peruvian, Ecuadorian, and Colombian nationality illegally entered Nicaraguan territory through its border with Costa Rica, en route to the United States. On that day,, they boarded a minibus with tinted windows to conceal the quantity of passengers in order to travel through Nicaragua to its northern border with Honduras. On the highway they encountered a police checkpoint that ordered the vehicle to stop; the driver ignored the order and instead accelerated in an attempt to flee. 3 Communication from the petitioner, received September 18, 2007. 5