circumstances, have made use, inter alia, of the free legal services of the Bolivarian University and of the Human Rights Office of the Legal Aid Corporation, the latter a public service offered by the Chilean State. In this respect, the petitioners’ economic circumstances have not prevented them from obtaining access to legal remedies and therefore they are not exempt from the obligation of exhausting them. 49. Regarding the second reason that would prevent them from exhausting domestic remedies, i.e., the alleged unjustified delay in the investigations, it is the opinion of the Commission that, pursuant to article 31(3) of its Rules of Procedure, the State has the burden of proving that certain domestic remedies continue to offer an effective reparation for the alleged harm. 50. In this respect, the State has contended that the investigation is not over, that there is no final judgment, and that the proceedings are following their course and await new and better facts. The State has said that the apparent delay in the investigation is justified by the complexity of the matter, since expert witnesses are needed and there are difficulties in obtaining sufficient evidence. The State also affirms that several months went by between the death of the alleged victim and the filing of the criminal complaint by the petitioners. It also affirms that the petitioners have not acted to appropriately move the process forward, to the degree that on certain occasions several months have gone by without any action on their part in the proceedings. 51. However, the State has not provided the Commission with specific information as to what concrete steps, if they exist, the petitioners must take in order to exhaust domestic remedies. The State has not provided, either, information explaining the delay in the resolution of the case, which continues to be in the stage of preliminary investigation. In any event, the State has not refuted the petitioners’ arguments that several of procedures they requested were not ordered to be carried out by the court and that among those that were ordered not all have been carried out, despite the fact that more than seven years have elapsed since the complaint was filed. 52. The Commission notes that once the petitioners filed a criminal complaint stating the facts of the case, and requested a series of investigative procedures, the matter was in the hands of the judicial system and it is its responsibility to ensure due investigation of the complaint. The Commission also notes that the facts alleged took place in a public hospital, and the relevant information is held by the State, 13