199. The State claimed that “all of the proceedings concerning this case are open and, although at different procedural stages, have a good and concrete perspective of clarification.” 200. Uruguay added that the Expiry Law is not an obstacle to the proceedings (infra para. 242), and that “the doubts that might be raised regarding the interpretation of statutory limitations by the [domestic] courts have not had a decisive impact in any case and less so in the cases being examined.” It also manifested that “neither the guarantee of non bis in idem, nor of res judicata […] has been raised to oppose compliance of the obligation to investigate.” 201. The Court takes note of the progress pointed out by the State with respect to the investigations involved in the case, and with respect to the lack of effectiveness of the Expiry Law (infra paras. 241 to 243). It also notes the State’s assertion that the legal provisions on prescription have not had an impact of the proceedings relating to this case. 202. Notwithstanding the positive assessment that those aspects merit, the Court has determined that the State has not complied with its obligation to investigate, diligently and within a reasonable time, the extrajudicial executions of Diana Maidanik, Silvia Reyes and Laura Raggio and the forced disappearances of Óscar Tassino Asteazú and Luis Eduardo González. The respective investigations and criminal proceedings continue although there has not yet been an effective determination of responsibilities for the serious violations of human rights and, where appropriate, the application of the corresponding sanctions. While there has been progress in identifying the presumably responsible persons, there has not yet been a determination of personal responsibility. The witness Perciballe, the Special Prosecutor, mentioned that in some cases “in the preliminary stage there have been objections” of prescription and unconstitutionality and for that reason, these cases “have been very extensive in terms of time.”230 203. The Court, therefore, holds, in view of the proven facts and in accord with the declared violations, that the State must continue the investigations to identify, prosecute and, where appropriate, punish those responsible for the extrajudicial executions of Diana Maidanik, Silvia Reyes and Laura Raggio, as well as for the forced disappearances of Óscar Tassino Asteazú and Luis Eduardo González González 204. Since the Court has already concluded that the Expiry Law lacks effectiveness because it is incompatible with the American Convention and the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons, to the extent that it can impede an investigation and the possible sanction of those responsible for serious human right 230 The Special Prosecutor also mentioned, as an example, that in the investigation into the Tassanio case, “the defense of one of the officials, who is currently imprisoned pending trial, on three occasions raised an objection to the unconstitutionality of Law 18,831.” He also stated that “on different occasions [the Office of the Special Prosecutor] had to find different strategies to prevent cases from being suspended,” which were “responded to in different ways.” The expert Chargoñia pointed out that according to information from the Office of the Special Prosecutor, of 140 cases only 23 “are being tried” and in only 14 has there been a conviction, which means that “84% of the cases involving crimes against humanity are slowed down at the pre-trial phase, a phase prior to a trial that is, in turn, adversely affected by the avalanche of appeals with an obvious dilatory purpose on the part of the accused and their defense.” In addition, he mentioned that ”pretrials in cases of serious violations of human rights have an average duration of 10 years,” which is “considerably more” than the “pre-trials for ordinary offenses.” He explained that there is also “a constant delay between the request for prosecution and the judicial decision,” the difference between one and the other “in some cases are months and in other cases years.” 53