Global site navigation

Local editions

Ex-top prosecutor remanded in Mexico disappeared students case
World

Ex-top prosecutor remanded in Mexico disappeared students case

by  AFP 2 min read
Mexico's former attorney general Jesus Murillo Karam is the most senior figure arrested in connection with a controversial investigation into the disappearance of 43 students in 2014
Mexico's former attorney general Jesus Murillo Karam is the most senior figure arrested in connection with a controversial investigation into the disappearance of 43 students in 2014. Photo: Omar TORRES / AFP/File
Source: AFP

PAY ATTENTION: Click “See First” under the “Following” tab to see Legit.ng News on your Facebook News Feed!

Mexico on Saturday remanded in custody a former attorney general in connection with a controversial investigation he led into the disappearance of 43 students in 2014 -- one of the country's worst human rights tragedies.

The "preventive detention" of Jesus Murillo Karam was imposed "to guarantee his appearance" at a Wednesday court hearing, according to a judicial source, where it will be determined whether he will be tried on charges related to the case.

Murillo Karam, who was arrested on Friday, is the most senior figure detained so far in connection with the case, which shocked the nation and generated international condemnation.

Arrest warrants have also been issued for dozens more suspects including military personnel, police officers and cartel members, prosecutors announced.

They are accused of involvement in organized crime, forced disappearance, torture, homicide and obstruction of justice, they said.

Read also

Mexico arrests ex-top prosecutor over disappearance of 43 students

The teaching students had commandeered buses in the southern state of Guerrero to travel to a demonstration in Mexico City before they went missing.

PAY ATTENTION: Share your outstanding story with our editors! Please reach us through info@corp.legit.ng!

Investigators say they were detained by corrupt police and handed over to the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel which mistook them for members of a rival gang, but exactly what happened to them has been hotly disputed.

According to the official report presented in 2015, cartel members killed the students and incinerated their remains at a garbage dump.

Those conclusions were rejected by independent experts and the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, as well as families of the victims.

Murillo Karam is considered the architect of the so-called "historical truth" version of events presented in 2015 by the government of then-president Enrique Pena Nieto that was widely rejected, including by relatives.

The former heavyweight of the once-dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), was arrested for the crimes of forced disappearance, torture and perverting justice, the attorney general's office said.

Source: AFP

Authors:
AFP avatar

AFP AFP text, photo, graphic, audio or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. AFP news material may not be stored in whole or in part in a computer or otherwise except for personal and non-commercial use. AFP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions in any AFP news material or in transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages whatsoever. As a newswire service, AFP does not obtain releases from subjects, individuals, groups or entities contained in its photographs, videos, graphics or quoted in its texts. Further, no clearance is obtained from the owners of any trademarks or copyrighted materials whose marks and materials are included in AFP material. Therefore you will be solely responsible for obtaining any and all necessary releases from whatever individuals and/or entities necessary for any uses of AFP material.

Hot: