Jessica Xanthomilla
Newspaper La Jornada
Monday, August 22, 2022, p. eleven
Daniel García Rodríguez and Reyes Alpízar Ortiz have been fighting for more than 20 years to regain their freedom and access justice, after being accused of the murder of the councilor of Atizapán de Zaragoza, state of Mexico, María de los Ángeles Tamez Pérez in 2001. Their The case was taken to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Coridh), which will hold a public hearing on August 26 in which representatives of the Mexican State will participate.
David Peña, his lawyer, announced that the figure of informal preventive detention will be reviewed there, after his clients spent more than 17 years imprisoned without sentence in the Barrientos prison, as well as the unconventionality of the arrest, the torture they suffered, as well as the misuse of power that existed by having evidence that there was a political interest behind it.
For Daniel, it all began in February 2002, when he worked as private secretary for Antonio Domínguez, former PAN mayor of Atizapán. At that time, the PRI Arturo Montiel governed the entity; he was detained without an arrest warrant, they dragged him down and suffered psychological torture. “They told him that if he didn’t plead guilty ‘we’re going to screw every one of the men in your family’.”
After began the fabrication of crimes
also against Daniel’s relatives, including his father. Also, since it was missing the executing arm
of the homicide they arrested Reyes, who did not even know Daniel, and also suffered physical torture very serious
.
Since 2019 they continue their trial in freedom with an electronic bracelet that prevents them from leaving the state of Mexico; last March they were sentenced to 35 years in prison, which was contested.
“We contextualized that there was a political interest in the case at that time to hit the PAN and later for preservation, for the issue of public image, because it was ‘we (the PRI government) do solve’, and finally to cover up all the crap what they did,” said Peña.
In 2017, the UN Arbitrary Detention Group spoke out for his release. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has also recognized violations of its guarantees.
Peña explained that what is resolved in the Coridh could have an impact beyond what would be in the sentence. If the arraigo is declared unconventional, it would lead to its elimination from the Constitution, and in the case of preventive detention, the need for it to conform to certain criteria could be established.
