Mexican Diplomat: Just Because Someone Gets Tortured Doesn't Mean He's Innocent Roque Planas - The Huffington Post
go to original May 27, 2016

Mexico’s ambassador to the Organization of American States, Luis Alfonso de Alba, speaks at the Wilson Center on the report of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts addressing the disappearance 43 students in Mexico. (Mandel Ngan/Getty Images)

A Mexican diplomat condemned his government’s human rights failings this week, but cautioned that just because someone is tortured doesn’t mean that person is innocent.

Speaking at a panel at the Wilson Center, Mexico’s ambassador to the Organization of American States, Luis Alfonso de Alba, acknowledged that the investigation into 43 students who were abducted last year had been plagued by allegations that suspects and witnesses were tortured. At the same time, he insisted that some of the more than 100 people jailed in connection with the country’s highest-profile human rights case might be guilty.

“In our country there are people, like myself, who think that any declaration obtained using torture nullifies the [judicial] process,” Alonso de Alba said. “But that — and I want to highlight this — that doesn’t mean that the person is innocent. What it means it that we have to redo the process and in some cases, evidently, that person will be freed because there’s no evidence against him except that which was extracted through torture.”

“But let’s not automatically associate innocence with these people,” he added, saying that doing so could lead the Mexican public to view “the protection of human rights as an eventual obstacle to the implementation of justice.”

Alfonso de Alba delivered the remarks alongside four members of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ group of experts, which provided international support for the investigation into attacks on the students.

Read the rest at The Huffington Post

Related: NGO's Warn of 'Counter-Reform' to Mexico's Law Against Torture (Mexico Voices)

Related: Human Rights Watch to Mexico: Response to Torture Video Falls Short (Human Rights Watch)

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