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20 Mexico gov't officials probed in alleged extrajudicial killings case


    Mexico City, Jan 15 (EFE).- The top prosecutor in the central state of Mexico said a score of government officials are under investigation for alleged irregularities in relation to the events of June 2014 in the municipality of Tlatlaya, where soldiers killed 22 purported drug-gang members.

    Alejandro Jaime Gomez Sanchez said in a press conference Wednesday that the National Human Rights Commission, or CNDH, Mexico's equivalent of an ombud's office, has leveled allegations against a number of public servants involved in the investigation into the killings.

    None has been dismissed from his or her post "on the principle of presumption of innocence," and all have shown a willingness to cooperate, he added.

    He said they include prosecutors with Mexico state's Attorney General's Office and state police officers, as well as forensic experts in different disciplines.

    The main source of information are the three witnesses in the case "and the work carried out by the federal Attorney General's Office in its preliminary inquiry," the prosecutor added.

    Referring to the alleged alteration of the crime scene, Gomez said that is "attributable in part to the soldiers themselves and in part to some of the public servants within the whole investigation" by the Mexico state AG's office.

    A total of 22 civilians died in Tlatlaya on June 30, 2014, in what the army says was a shootout with drug-gang members but the CNDH and witnesses have termed a massacre.

    Seven soldiers face criminal proceedings in the case for the alleged extrajudicial execution of eight people.

    Separately, the Federal Institute for Access to Information and Data Protection, or IFAI, has ordered the federal AG's office to turn over investigators' reports on the deaths of the 22 people in Tlatlaya.

    Mexico's top prosecutor's office had responded to a request for that information by saying it would remain confidential for 12 years, the IFAI said in a statement, adding that it overruled that decision because the case involves serious human rights violations and by law the information cannot be kept secret.

    In justifying its ruling on the matter, the IFAI noted that the CNDH on Tuesday modified its case file on the Tlatlaya killings as an investigation into grave rights violations.

    The institute said, however, that people's names could be removed from the documents due to their confidential nature.