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    Senior Member butterbean's Avatar
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    REPORT: TORTURE USED TO EXTRACT CONFESSIONS (MEXICO)

    http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/pls/impre ... abla=miami

    Report: Torture Used To Extract Confessions


    BY ALFREDO CORCHADO/The Dallas Morning News
    May 12, 2005

    CIUDAD JUÃ?REZ An independent review has found that some suspects in the killings of women in this border city were tortured into confessing, casting serious doubts on continuing investigations.

    "The findings confirm what many in Juárez have said for years: The culprits remain free," said Guadalupe MorfÃÂ*n, the federal commissioner appointed by President Vicente Fox to coordinate local and federal investigations. "These killers continue to be a threat to women and the public at large. All the while, innocent people remain behind bars."

    MorfÃÂ*n ordered the review, which was overseen by the Mexican Human Rights Commission.

    Since 1993, more than 340 women, most of them young, have been killed in the Juárez area and the city of Chihuahua. About 120 of them showed signs of having been sexually assaulted. A number of the bodies were found in shallow graves just outside Juárez.

    MorfÃÂ*n dismissed the state of Chihuahua's previous investigation of the slayings as a "facade, an apparent cover-up."

    A spokeswoman for the state prosecutor's office, Claudia Bañuelos, declined comment.

    The Dallas Morning News has published stories detailing problems with the state's handling of the killings, including allegations that the investigations were bungled by corrupt or inept law enforcement and judicial authorities. The newspaper also has reported that informants told authorities a group made up of renegade police and drug traffickers kidnapped and killed women during sex parties that often followed drug-smuggling runs across the Texas-Mexico border.

    MorfÃÂ*n said at least three people accused in the killings American Cynthia Kiecker and her husband, Ulises Perzabal, and David Meza were tortured while in custody.

    REVIEWS NEEDED

    She added that the case of Abdel Latiff Shariff, the first suspect arrested in Juárez and a man some have labeled a serial killer, should be reviewed. His 1995 conviction is "dubious," she said.

    And she said Victor Javier GarcÃÂ*a Uribe, alias "El Cerillo," sentenced to 50 years in prison for killing eight women, should be released because all authorities have on him "is a confession taken under torture. ... There is no element to keep him behind bars."

    MorfÃÂ*n said that the cases showed "a troubling pattern." She criticized the state's investigative efforts during the administration of the previous governor, Patricio MartÃÂ*nez. But she praised the current administration of Gov. José Reyes Baeza for "having the courage to look into these cases, and we hope this sends a message that these illicit acts will not be tolerated anymore."

    That willingness to re-examine the cases "will help restore legitimacy to the state government, the attorney general's office and the judicial system in general," she said.

    Some human rights activists said they remain skeptical that the latest findings will cause the release of any jailed suspects.

    PRESUMED GUILT

    "In Mexico, just proving that you were tortured isn't enough to invalidate your confession," said Laurie Freeman, Mexico associate with the Washington Office on Latin America. "You have to prove you're not guilty. You have to prove your confession isn't true, because in Mexico you are considered guilty until proven innocent."

    Dante Almaraz, GarcÃÂ*a Uribe's Juárez attorney, agreed.

    "One thing is freeing an American women and her husband (Kiecker and Perzabal) because of intense pressure from the U.S. government," he said, "and another thing is freeing a defenseless bus driver who's nothing more than a convenient scapegoat for the messy lies in Juárez. If the state lets El Cerillo go, then the theater falls apart."

    Chihuahua state authorities have jailed 16 men in connection with the killings and are now seeking to discipline rogue detectives and prosecutors for alleged misconduct in the investigation.
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  2. #2
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    And we are surprised for what reason?
    http://www.alipac.us Enforce immigration laws!

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