8 delay in appearing was explained by the General Cuadra when on April 24, 1992, he sent a note to the judge in the case declaring that some of the soldiers summoned did not appear on the personnel and officers' files, others because they were not active soldiers or because they had been removed, for which reason he requested more detailed information so as to be able to locate them. In that letter he reiterated what the Public Relations Department of the Sandinista Popular Army had said concerning the scope of the powers for summoning soldiers who have not the slightest connection with the case being investigated and which rather confirms our impression that this is a case of harassment designed to keep the case on a single line of investigation which is, coincidentally, the same as that pursued by a part of the media. The Government also pointed out that the deadline for evidence-gathering had been extended at the request of the Attorney-General on August 16, 1991, so that justice had not been obstructed; indeed, all the time needed for collecting evidence had been available in the case. d. That the inquiry had been exhaustive and the procedural activity in the Seventh Court of the Criminal District of Managua, the Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court of Justice conformed to the rules in force in Nicaragua. The duration of the police inquiry and the judicial proceeding was in keeping with the complexity of the case, the large number of investigative measures, the plethora of witnesses that gave statements, and the petitions of the parties to the case. e. That owing to the thousands of petitions heard by the Nicaraguan courts of justice, the time spent on this Case was normal for criminal cases in the country, as shown by the certification accompanying the brief on preliminary objections. That the fact that the case was heard in courts of first and second instances, had been appealed, had been the subject of a request by the Assistant Attorney-General for an extension of the legal term for inquiry proceedings to procure certain evidence, and had been the subject of debate on jurisdiction and the continuous petitions by the victim's father show that there had been neither unwarranted delay in the administration of justice nor any denial of justice. f. That the report issued by the Venezuelan experts lacked probative value and could not have legal effects inasmuch as it had not been produced during the judicial process nor did it meet the requirement of contradiction or bilaterality, and had usurped the role of the Nicaraguan courts in indicating those possibly responsible for the death of the youth Genie-Lacayo. The State therefore did not accept that the experts (who are auxiliaries of justice) should replace the Nicaraguan courts and indicate the possible perpetrators without possessing the competence to do so. g. That Decrees 591 and 600 were in force at the time the case was tried and Nicaragua's judicial authorities "were obliged to apply them under pain of committing abuse of power for the denial of justice." The decrees stipulated "military courts for military personnel" and no civilians had been accused in the instant Case. Those decrees did not ignore rights or judicial guarantees; the accused had their attorneys and were able to participate in all stages of the judicial proceedings. Equal treatment had not been withheld and due legal process had been observed. The case had been processed in the Office of the Military Judge Advocate from January 18, 1994, when the Secretary of the Supreme Court of Justice submitted the file. The military investigating prosecutor had been appointed on January 28 and on January 31 the