82 GIULIANI AND GAGGIO v. ITALY JUDGMENT and of the inquiry conducted by the parliamentary commission (see paragraphs 107-117 above). Furthermore, the Genoa questura was the subject of an administrative inspection (which identified problems in the organisation of the law-enforcement operations and “potentially punishable” incidents) and the Public Safety Department of the Ministry of the Interior proposed taking disciplinary action against several police officers and the Genoa questore (see paragraph 140 above). 311. It remains to be determined whether the applicants were afforded access to the investigation to the extent necessary to safeguard their legitimate interests, whether the proceedings satisfied the requirement of promptness arising out of the Court's case-law and whether the persons responsible for and conducting the investigation were independent from those implicated in the events. 312. In that connection the Court observes that it is true that under Italian law the injured party may not apply to join the proceedings as a civil party until the preliminary hearing, and that no such hearing took place in the present case. Nevertheless, at the stage of the preliminary investigation injured parties may exercise rights and powers expressly afforded to them by law. These include the power to request the public prosecutor to apply to the investigating judge for the immediate production of evidence (Article 394 of the CCP) and the right to appoint a legal representative. In addition, injured parties may submit pleadings at any stage of the proceedings and, except in cassation proceedings, may request the inclusion of evidence (Article 90 of the CCP – see Sottani, cited above, where these considerations led the Court to conclude that the civil limb of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention was applicable to criminal proceedings in which the applicant participated as an injured party but not as a civil party). 313. It is not disputed in the instant case that the applicants had the option to exercise these rights. In particular, they appointed experts of their own choosing, whom they instructed to prepare expert reports which were submitted to the prosecuting authorities and the investigating judge (see paragraphs 64-66 above), and their representatives and experts participated in the third set of ballistics tests (see paragraph 57 above). Furthermore, they were able to lodge an objection against the request to discontinue the proceedings and to indicate additional investigate measures which they wished to see carried out. The fact that the Genoa investigating judge, making use of her powers to assess the facts and the evidence, refused their requests (see paragraph 104 above) does not in itself amount to a violation of Article 2 of the Convention, particularly since the investigating judge's decision on these points does not appear to the Court to have been arbitrary. 314. The applicants complained in particular that they had not had enough time to appoint an expert of their choosing ahead of the autopsy on 21 July 2001. They also complained of the “superficial” nature of the autopsy report and the impossibility of conducting further expert medical