The criminal process to clarify the disappearance in 2014 of the 43 normalista students from Ayotzinapa remains at an impasse, due to the precarious state of health of the former attorney Jesus Murillo Karamthe cancellation of the arrest warrants that had been issued against 21 soldiers, as well as the inexperience of the new specialized prosecutor for the case.
From the outset, the legal situation of Murillo Karam, who remains detained in justified preventive detention, could change in the coming days after the former official was admitted to intensive care for heart problems and the risk of a brain clot.
To this is added that the former official has a definitive suspension in an amparo trial that protects you so that the final accusation against you is not carried out.
According to the defense of the former attorney, consulted by HIGH LEVELis still pending resolution of the appeal filed against the order linking to the process, while requesting that the accused take the process stopped at his home, due to the ailments he presents, is already being considered.
Jesús Murillo Karam, 74, is accused by the Attorney General of the Republic (FGR) for allegedly committing the crimes of forced disappearance, torture and against the administration of justice.
These crimes were allegedly committed by the former attorney general during the investigation into the disappearance of the 43 normal school students from Ayotzinapa, as he was the hierarchical superior of personnel of the former Attorney General’s Office (PGR) who participated in the investigations and arrests, carried out between 2014 and 2015, in which evidence would have been fabricated and confessions induced through torture.
It should be clarified that if the former official becomes physically incapacitated or dies, obviously the process would be cancelled.
stopped trial
In addition to the fact that -for the time being- Jesús Murillo Karam is unable to appear in person before the Control Judge of his case, due to his hospitalization, the Sixteenth District Court of Amparo in Criminal Matters of Mexico City granted him, at the end of September, the definitive suspension in an amparo trial ordered the cancellation of the last stage of the criminal process against the former official.
In other words, the process of the former prosecutor can be followed until its intermediate stage, in which the FGR must formalize the accusation and present evidence, although the opening of the trial cannot be carried out, which is the last stage of any criminal process.
In that vein, this week the constitutional hearing of that amparo trial is scheduled, in which the defense of Murillo Karam tries to reverse his arrest and prosecution.
In turn, the new head of the Special Investigation and Litigation Unit for the Ayotzinapa case of the FGR (UEILCA), Rosendo Gomez Piedra, It has barely started, with some setbacks, its accreditation before the courts of the case and in those that carry the amparo trials promoted by the former attorney.
For example, the UEILCA requested the consultation of the electronic file of the amparo promoted in the Sixteenth District Court of Amparo in Criminal Matters of Mexico City, but the request was denied because the staff of said Unit does not even have the respective registration before the Judicial Power of the Federation.
“Regarding the request to be authorized to consult the electronic file through the user ***** (sic) there is no place to provide conformity, by virtue of the fact that it is not noted that the aforementioned username is registered, ”the amparo court determined last week, according to the records of the file whose copy it possesses HIGH LEVEL.
Added to these drawbacks is the FGR’s withdrawal of 21 arrest warrants that had previously been requested and granted against the same number of soldiers, who were presumed to have participated in the disappearance of some of the normalistas.
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Conclusion of the GIEI
All the trials that are being carried out in the current federal administration to clarify the disappearance of the 43 students from the Isidro Burgos Normal School in Ayotzinapa are carried out based on the investigations undertaken by the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic, through the Special Investigation and Litigation Unit for the Ayotzinapa case (UEILCA).
These inquiries have been carried out with the information provided by the Truth Commission in this case, which is directed by Alejandro Encinas, Undersecretary of the Interior.
Additionally, the investigation folders had been reinforced with the data and supervision of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), a group of experts that is expected to no longer accompany the Mexican authorities, due to the resistance of the Secretary of National Defense (Sedena) to deliver information.
In fact, the members of the GIEI considered at the end of September that the judicialization of the case of Jesús Murillo Karam was done in a hurry, Therefore, “there is a risk that a conviction will not be achieved later, despite the existence of evidence and proof of the participation” of the former prosecutor, Francisco Cox, one of the members of the GIEI, said at the time.
The collaboration mandate of the Group of Experts ended on the last day of last month, and although an extension was requested, until today it has not been reported whether the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will continue to have the support and advice of these experts.
Thus, eight years after the forced disappearance of the 43 normalistas from Ayotzinapa, the case has not progressed, making it increasingly difficult to know what really happened to the young people, and who would be responsible for having participated in their disappearance.
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Surya Palacios Journalist and lawyer, specialist in legal analysis and human rights. She has been a reporter, radio host and editor.