The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled this Wednesday that Mexico “is responsible” for violating the guarantees of two men who spent more than 17 years in preventive detention
Text: RFI / AFP
“Mexico is responsible for the violation of the rights to personal integrity, personal liberty, judicial guarantees, equality before the law and judicial protection” of Daniel García and Reyes Alpízar, who were arrested in 2002, the Court determined. .
García and Alpízar were arrested in the framework of the investigations for the murder of María de los Ángeles Tamés, councilor of Atizapán de Zaragoza, municipality of the State of Mexico (center).
They were interrogated and an “arraigo” measure was issued while the investigation progressed, for which they were placed in pretrial detention.
Once the investigation was over, the criminal process began and both remained imprisoned under that figure “for more than 17 years,” said the Inter-American Court, based in San José.
In 2022 both were sentenced to 35 years in prison for murder. The sentence was appealed.
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In addition to arraigo, in Mexico there is informal preventive detention, which, unlike justified preventive detention, is ordered by a judge and not by a prosecutor, without a request from the Public Ministry, based on the accusation of a crime provided for in the norm.
The Inter-American Court determined that Mexico must “render without effect in its internal legal system the provisions related to pre-trial detention” and “adapt its internal legal system on informal preventive detention”, among other measures of reparation.
Following the ruling, the Mexican government announced in a statement that it will take the necessary steps to adapt its laws to the American Convention on Human Rights.
“The Mexican State will carefully analyze the resolutions of the sentence issued by the Inter-American Court, with the aim of being in a position to comply with its provisions,” he added.
40% of the almost 227,000 prisoners recorded in Mexico are in pretrial detention, some for several years, according to an estimate last September by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
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That body asked to eliminate the automatic modality, existing since 1917, considering that it violates the presumption of innocence, due process and equality before the law.
In its judgment, the Court indicated that informal pretrial detention contravenes the American Convention on rights, since no mention is made of the purpose of the measure or procedural dangers to be prevented.
The Supreme Court of Mexico is looking for a way to repeal this restrictive measure to resolve the cases of more than 92,000 people in pretrial detention in the country.
Despite the criticism, the president of Mexico, the leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador, maintains that the norm, which he considers key in the fight against crime and impunity, can only be modified by Congress.
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