78 Investigations Department, and five other persons who occupied various positions and ranks in the Asunción Police. While the case were being processed, four of the defendants died, one of whom – the former Head of the Asunción Police Investigations Department – had been convicted in first instance, and another four former officials have been convicted in first or second instance. The convicted men were declared to have incurred civil responsibility. On February 11, 2003, the Second Chamber of the Court of Appeal granted the remedies of appeal and annulment filed by two of the accused and by the complainant against the appeal judgment and agreement and forwarded the case file to the Supreme Court of Justice, where it is pending a final decision. The case is open at the preliminary proceedings stage with regard to three persons. (c) In the case of the brothers Rodolfo and Benjamín Ramírez Villalba, the proceedings were instituted in 1989 by their brother, Julio Darío Ramírez Villalba, against 11 persons, 10 of whom are the same as those accused in the two preceding cases; the other accused is another former Police official. On September 1, 1999, the Fourth Criminal Court of First Instance convicted five former officials and the former Head of the Asunción Police Investigations Department, who died subsequently. During the proceedings, the detention was ordered of one of the accused, Eusebio Torres, who was a fugitive from justice and he was declared in contempt of court. After having ordered his preventive detention for the purpose of extradition in July 1993, the Fifth Criminal Court of First Instance declared the accused Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda “in contempt of court and willfully disobedient of court orders.” Then, in June 2001, it requested his extradition (infra para. 126). Actually, the criminal proceedings are before the First Chamber of the Criminal Court to decide three remedies of appeal and annulment that have been filed. The preliminary proceedings continue open with regard to the accused, Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda, Sabino Augusto Montanaro and Eusebio Torres, and the extradition request for the former is being processed before the Brazilian courts; however, he died recently, and Mr. Montanaro has been granted asylum in Honduras. 114. From the above, it is clear that the criminal proceedings are still open 17 years after they were instituted. In this regard, the State accepted the existence of a “serious judicial delay” or “the existence of a judicial delay in delivering judgment” and stated that “it acquiesced partially [regarding] the violation of the rights to a fair trial and judicial protection” in the three cases referred to (supra para. 41). 115. Despite the foregoing, Paraguay alleged that this judicial delay “was due to shortcomings of the former penal system under which the proceedings were instituted” and which, as of 1989, with the fall of General Stroessner and the reestablishment of democracy, has been making constant progress to respect and safeguard human rights effectively”; it considered that, this progress includes, “of great importance for the instant case, […] the reform of the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedural Code in 1997 and 1998, respectively, which it categorized as “naturally slow, owing to their complexity.” In accordance with the State’s partial acquiescence, the Court has already decided that the dispute has terminated with regard to the violation of the above-mentioned Articles, as regards the duration of