12 TSALIKIDIS AND OTHERS v. GREECE JUDGMENT THE LAW I. ALLEGED VIOLATION OF ARTICLE 2 OF THE CONVENTION 36. Relying on Article 2 of the Convention, the applicants complained that the State authorities had failed to carry out an effective investigation into the death of Mr Tsalikidis. Article 2 reads, in so far as relevant, as follows: “1. Everyone’s right to life shall be protected by law ...” 37. The Government contested that argument. A. Admissibility 1. The parties’ submissions 38. The Government argued that the part of the application relating to the alleged deficiencies in the initial preliminary investigation conducted in 2005-2006 (E2006/1200) should be rejected as having been lodged out of time. The initial investigation was terminated on 20 June 2006 by order no. 80/2006 issued by the public prosecutor at the Athens Court of First Instance. Following an appeal against it by the first applicant, on 25 September 2006 order no. 565/2006 was issued by the public prosecutor at the Athens Court of Appeal, rejecting the appeal. In the Government’s view, any deficiencies relating to the initial preliminary investigation should have been raised within six months of the date of last order completing the investigation. Any other interpretation would mean that applicants would be allowed to raise complaints about alleged deficiencies in the initial investigation even years later by submitting new evidence – whether real or fake – to the domestic authorities. 39. The Government also raised an objection concerning admissibility under Article 35 § 2 (b) of the Convention in respect of either the whole application or at least the part of the complaint relating to the initial preliminary criminal investigation. In particular, the Government pointed out that the first applicant had previously lodged application no. 13207/07 with the Court, which had been declared inadmissible. Even though they were not in position to scrutinise the similarity between that application and the application currently under examination – since the former had never been communicated to them – the Government submitted that the Court should consider whether the two applications were substantially similar and if that was the case, dismiss the current application or at least its relating to the initial criminal investigation under Article 35 § 2 (b) of the Convention. 40. The Government also raised two objections of non-exhaustion of domestic remedies. Firstly, they argued that it was only the first applicant