(CENCOS/IFEX) – The Attorney General’s Office has issued arrest warrants against five public employees involved in the illegitimate detention of journalist Lydia Cacho. A representative of the office of the special prosecutor for crimes against journalists (Fiscalía Especial para la Atención de Delitos Contra Periodistas, FEADP), confirmed with CENCOS that warrants have been issued for […]
(CENCOS/IFEX) – The Attorney General’s Office has issued arrest warrants against five public employees involved in the illegitimate detention of journalist Lydia Cacho.
A representative of the office of the special prosecutor for crimes against journalists (Fiscalía Especial para la Atención de Delitos Contra Periodistas, FEADP), confirmed with CENCOS that warrants have been issued for the arrest of five public employees involved in Cacho’s December 2006 detention and the violation of her other human rights during that detention. Their names have not been publicly released in order to avoid prompting their flight from justice.
Cacho’s detention was an illegitimate and arbitrary act, in reprisal for revelations she made in her book “Los Demonios del Edén”, about a pedophile ring and the connections to it of American Jean Succar Kuri and Mexican businessman Kamel Nacif. Tapes leaked to the media also pointed to Puebla state Governor Mario Marín’s involvement in Cacho’s detention.
The arrest warrants are presently before a district judge. Cacho’s case was originally submitted to FEADP by the special prosecutor for crimes of violence against women on 10 December 2007, in the hope that the case would be handled promptly.
Cacho’s case has exemplified how difficult it is to have justice done in cases of free expression violations in Mexico. CENCOS encourages swift action act on the arrest warrants in this case, and to apprehend the perpetrators and bring them to justice. Such action is required to demonstrate that crimes against journalists cannot be committed with impunity in Mexico, and to demonstrate the will of the government to defend the fundamental right to free expression.
Updates the Cacho case: http://ifex.org/en/content/view/full/92339
