authorities.” In light of that, it requests that the petition be ruled inadmissible. 44. In turn, the petitioner maintains that the acquittal of February 27, 1997, handed down by the First District Criminal Judge of the department of Chinandega, exhausted the domestic remedies in this case. 45. From the criminal case file provided by the State, the InterAmerican Commission observes that the allegations in the case at hand were investigated by the Nicaraguan courts and criminal charges were filed as a public action brought by the Office of the Attorney General for Justice. The Commission further notes that the petitioner did not participate in those criminal proceedings, either personally or through legal representatives. 46. The Inter-American Commission has ruled that when an alleged crime involving State officials is committed, the State is obliged to bring and pursue criminal proceedings to their final consequences and that, in such cases, this is the best way to clarify the facts, adjudicate any possible responsibility, and set the corresponding criminal punishments, in addition to enabling other forms of monetary compensation to be established. 5 It is through such criminal proceedings that adequate and effective remedies are exhausted in such matters. 47. Pursuant to this, and because ex officio proceedings were brought and prosecuted by the competent authorities of the State in accordance with the law, the remedies provided by domestic law were exhausted with the acquittal of the alleged perpetrators on February 27, 1997. Consequently, the acquittal judgment irrevocably completed the procedural avenues that existed, as a result of which, at the time the petition was lodged with the IACHR, there were no remedies remaining to be exhausted. 48. Based on the terms of Article 46 of the Convention, Article 31 of its Rules of Procedure, and its review of the case file, the Commission concludes that, with the acquittal of the alleged perpetrators on February 27, 1997, by the First District Criminal Judge of Chinandega, the requirement of exhaustion of available domestic law was met in this case. 2. Timeliness of the petition 49. Under the terms of Article 46.1.b. of the Convention, for a petition to be admissible it must be lodged within a period of six months 5 See Report Nº 52/97, Case 11.218, Argues Sequeira Mangas, Nicaragua, paras. 96-97; Report Nº 57/00, Case 12.050, La Granja - Ituango, Colombia, October 2, 2000, para. 40. 10