E/CN.4/1994/31
page 82
386. Pablo María Jonathan Molinet Aguilar, an 18-year-old student, was
arrested on 24 March 1992 at Salamanca, Guanajuato, by members of the State
judicial police. He was reported to have been severely beaten, threatened
with death and forced to sign a blank confession. In spite of this, the
government procurator’s office formally accused him of murder. In view of
these circumstances, a complaint was lodged with the National Human Rights
Commission in March 1992, which issued, one year later, a recommendation
calling upon the authorities of the state of Guanajuto to carry out an
investigation of the claims that Mr. Molinet was the victim of illegal
detention and torture.
387. The Special Rapporteur was also informed of an incident which took place
on 29 March 1993 in the town of San Isidro el Ocotal in the municipality of
San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, in which 13 members of the Tzotzil
indigenous community were arrested by members of the army and accused of the
murder of two soldiers. According to the information received, the
above-mentioned members of the indigenous community were forced, under torture
and without an interpreter, to confess their participation in the acts of
which they were accused. Though upon their release without charges two days
later all of them showed marks of the treatment to which they had been
subjected, none of the persons responsible seem to had been prosecuted nor the
victims indemnified.
388. On 11 October 1993 the Government sent the Special Rapporteur a copy of
the recommendation issued by the National Commission for Human Rights on
12 May 1993 on the above case, according to which, the arbitrary detention of
and the ill-treatment inflicted upon the above-mentioned members of the
Tzotzil community by agents of the judicial police were established. It was,
therefore, recommended that legal proceedings should be initiated against the
latter.
Urgent appeals
389. The Special Rapporteur sent an urgent appeal to the Government
on 4 May 1993 on behalf of Luis Alfonso Luz Flores and José Martín
Escarcega Solís, reported to have been kept in incommunicado detention
since 22 April 1993 at the treatment area of the South Remand prison,
Mexico City. Fears were expressed that they might be subjected to torture.
390. On 26 July 1993 the Government informed the Special Rapporteur that
Luis Alfonso Luz Flores, a prisoner at the South Remand prison was classified
on the basis of his criminal record as a persistent offender with signs of
verbal and physical aggressiveness, poor self-control, strong criminal
proclivities, poor social adaptability and serious anti-social tendencies. As
for José Martín Escarcega Solis, the Government stated that he was imprisoned
in the same cell as Luis Alfonso Luz Flores and that he was sentenced to six
years in prison in 1991 for robbery. On 25 April 1993, 284 "Roche 2" pills
were confiscated from the two prisoners, who admitted that the pills belonged
to them. For this reason they were taken to the special treatment area and a
complaint was filed with the Attorney-General’s Office on 6 May 1993. Medical
certificates dated 25 April 1993 were attached stating that Escárcega Solis
bore no marks of recent injuries, whereas Luz Flores had a light scar on the
left shoulder.
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