A former attorney general in Mexico was remanded in detention on Saturday in relation to a contentious investigation he oversaw into the 2014 disappearance of 43 students, one of the biggest human rights catastrophes in the nation.
According to a judicial source, Jesus Murillo Karam’s “preventive custody” was put in place “to assure his attendance” before a court hearing on Wednesday, when it will be decided if he would be charged on charges associated with the case.
The most senior individual imprisoned thus far in relation to the case, which stunned the country and sparked worldwide outrage, is Murillo Karam, who was arrested on Friday.
According to the prosecutors, arrest warrants have also been filed for a large number of other individuals, including military people, police officers, and cartel members.
They said that they were charged with participation in organized crime, torture, forced disappearances, murder, and obstruction of justice.
Before going missing, the teaching students had taken control of buses in the southern state of Guerrero so they could go to a protest in Mexico City.
Investigators claim they were taken into custody by dishonest police and given to the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel, who mistakenly believed they were members of a rival gang, although the precise circumstances of their transfer are highly contested.
The pupils were murdered by cartel members, who then burned their corpses in a landfill, according to the official report that was released in 2015.
Independent specialists, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights office, and the victims’ relatives all disagreed with such findings.
The so-called “historical truth” account of the events, which was put up by the administration of the outgoing president Enrique Pena Nieto in 2015 but was roundly rejected, even by family members, is credited to Murillo Karam.
According to the attorney general’s office, a former PRI heavyweight was detained for crimes including torture, forced disappearances, and perverting the course of justice.
Approximately 100,000 individuals were reported missing in Mexico’s violence-stricken country in May, according to government figures. 75% of people are males.