39. In this regard it should be noted that when domestic legal remedies are not available either in law or in fact, the provision requiring their exhaustion is waived. 15 Article 46(2) of the Convention specifies that this exception applies if the legislation of the State in question does not offer due legal process for protecting the rights allegedly violated, if access to domestic legal remedies by the party alleging the violation has been hindered in any way, or if there has been an unwarranted delay in rendering a judgment on those domestic remedies. 40. In the case at hand, in order to provide an appropriate recourse for remedying the alleged human rights violations--the murder of Ramón Mauricio García Prieto-Giralt and the threats and intimidation suffered by the victim’s parents and wife and their lawyers--it fell to the State, particularly in its capacity as the instigator of punitive action, to begin proceedings aimed at identifying, trying, and punishing all the parties responsible for committing those crimes and to diligently pursue all the procedural stages until their conclusion. 41. The undisputed facts indicate, however, that more than four years have passed since the incident 16 and that a sentence has been handed down against only one of the physical perpetrators, Mr. José Raúl Argueta Rivas. On 24 January 1998 Mr. Julio Ismael Ortiz Díaz was placed in preventive custody, but his trial is still at the preparatory and evidence-gathering stage. 17 Furthermore, the third suspected killer--Sgt. Carlos Romero Alfaro, alias "Zaldaña"-has still not been indicted. 18 42. The Commission would like to note, as the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has pointed out, that the rule of prior exhaustion of domestic remedies allows the State to resolve problems in accordance with its domestic laws before being confronted with an international proceeding. This is particularly true in international human rights law, because the latter "reinforces or complements" domestic jurisdiction (American Convention, Preamble). 19 43. This rule, according to the Court, has implications that are provided for in the Convention. One of these is the obligation assumed by states parties to provide the victims of human rights violations with effective domestic legal remedies (Article 25 of the Convention) and another is that those remedies must be substantiated in accordance with the rules of due legal process (Article 8(1) of the Convention). All of this is in keeping with the scope of Article 1(1) of the Convention, which establishes the State’s obligation of ensuring, with respect to all individuals subject to its jurisdiction, the free and full exercise of the rights enshrined in the American Convention on Human Rights. 20 44. Now, "the international protection of human rights," referred to in Article 46(1) of the Convention, "is founded on the need to protect the victim from the arbitrary exercise of governmental authority." 21 The exceptions provided for in Article 46(2) of the Convention are intended to guarantee international action when the remedies of domestic law and the domestic justice system are not effective in guaranteeing respect for victims’ human rights. 15 See Advisory Opinion OC-11/90 of 10 August 1990, Exceptions to the Exhaustion of Domestic Remedies (Arts. 46(1), 46(2)(a) and 46(2)(b) of the American Convention on Human Rights), Ser. A, No. 11, paragraph 17. 16 The incident occurred on June 10, 1994. 17 As stated in a note from the Prosecutor’s Office to the Head of the Organized Crime Investigation Department, the arrest of Julio Ismael Ortiz Díaz was based on a statement by Mrs. Carmen Elena Estrada de García-Prieto who, at an identity parade, identified Julio Ismael Ortiz Díaz as the second participant in her husband’s murder. This note also refers to the statement of witness Héctor Armando Estrada, who claimed that the convict Argueta Rivas told him that an individual called René Díaz Ortiz, who according to information provided by the Prosecutor’s Office also went by the name of Julio Ismael Díaz Ortiz, had participated in the attack (page 690). The Criminal Judge upheld the classification of the crime as murder. 18 According to the petitioners, as far back as October 1994 Argueta Rivas had, while under detention at the Santa Ana Penal Center, informed the victim’s father-in-law that the other participants had been "Zaldaña" and René Díaz Ortiz. The petitioners also report that on 22 July 1996, during the public hearing held to determine the legal situation of the accused, Mr. Argueta Rivas again referred to "Carlos Romero Alfaro, aka ‘Zaldaña,’ a former national civil police officer and member of the Criminal Investigation Division (DIC)" as having participated in the incident (page 76). In spite of this, Zaldaña has not yet been indicted for the murder. 19 Inter-Am.Ct.H.R., Velásquez Rodríguez Judgment, 29 July 1988, Series C, No. 4, paragraph 61. 20 21 Ibid., paragraph 62. Inter-Am.Ct.H.R., Godínez Cruz Case, Judgment of 26 June 1987, Series C, No. 3, paragraph 95. 6