In Ayotzinapa Missing Students Case, Suspects Renew Allegations of Torture Mark Stevenson - The Associated Press
go to original May 12, 2016

A group of experts who investigated the disappearance of 43 students in Mexico have said goodbye to the group's families. (Al Jazeera English)

Within weeks of the September 2014 disappearance of 43 college students, Mexican authorities had rounded up scores of suspects and announced they had solved the case.

At a hastily called news conference, prosecutors showed video of drug gang members confessing to taking the students from police, then slaughtering them and incinerating the bodies at a junkyard and dumping the evidence in a river.

Two independent, international teams of experts subsequently cast doubt on the official investigation. Now, the government case has suffered another blow: Accusations of torture.

In previously unseen court documents obtained by The Associated Press, 10 of the suspects described a chillingly similar script: First the questions, then the punches, electric shocks and partial asphyxiations with plastic bags; then, finally, the threats to kill their loved ones unless they confessed to stories that backed up the government's line.

Some said they were given planted evidence or prefabricated stories to support the government's conclusions.

Medical reports published last month by the Inter-American Human Rights Commission appear to confirm the allegations of torture. Of the 10 case files obtained by the AP, the group reviewed five, and it found credible evidence of torture in all of them.

Read the rest at The Fulano Forum

Families of 43 Mexican Students Slam Government Probe (PressTV)

Related: Mexico Justice System: Police and Prosecutor Dysfunction the Problem, Not Due Process (Mexico Voices)

Related: Other View: Mexico's Faltering Efforts to Fight Corruption (Bloomberg View)

Related: Ambassador to the UK Says Mexico Is Committed to Investigating Missing Students (The Guardian)

Related: The Lonely Struggle of Missing Mexican Students’ Parents (Daily Times)

Related: What Happened That Night in Iguala? A Timeline (El Daily Post)

Related: Outside Experts Blast Mexican Prosecutor in Students Case (Associated Press)

Related: The Guardian View on Mexico’s Missing Students: Justice Indefinitely Deferred (The Guardian)

Related: Mexico Ombud's Office Probing Alleged Torture of Detainees in Missing 43 Case (EFE)

Related: Mexican Government May Have Tampered with Evidence: New Forensics Report on the Ayotzinapa 43 (Peoples' World)

Related: Mexican Official Defends Evidence in Students' Case (State of the State Ks)

Related: Mexico’s Torture-Marred Investigation May Not be Enough to Convict Anyone in Missing 43 Students Case (The Huffington Post)

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!