Prosecutors Seek 82-Year Sentence for Former Attorney General of Mexico

"Morogris" for Borderland Beat

Jesus Murillo Karam was the Head of Mexico's Attorney General's Office (PGR, now FGR) during the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto (2012–2018).

Federal prosecutors are seeking an 82-year prison sentence for Jesús Murillo Karam, the former Attorney General of Mexico.

Murillo Karam is currently facing charges related to forced disappearance, torture, and allegations of working against the administration of justice. The proposed sentence, if imposed, would be unprecedented for someone who once led Mexico's prosecution system.

Murillo Karam faces charges connected to the disappearance of 43 rural students in Guerrero in 2013. Additionally, he is undergoing a separate criminal trial for the crime of torture against Felipe Rodríguez Salgado, also known as "El Cepillo," a suspected hitman of Guerreros Unidos, the gang responsible for the mass kidnapping.

Prosecution evidence suggests that Murillo Karam ordered officials to torture El Cepillo to extract a confession regarding his involvement and to manipulate some of the details surrounding the events that unfolded on the night and subsequent days of the kidnapping.

Murillo Karam is presently at the medical center in Tepepan prison due to health complications. His trial is anticipated to commence in April of this year. His defense team has pushed the trial date until then to continue to gather more evidences in favor of their client.

Background

According to Mexican government's version of the story, referred by the former FGR chief as the Verdad Historica (English: Historic Truth), Guerreros Unidos gang members kidnapped and killed the students in September 2014 after they mistook them for rival gangsters.

The incident started when the students hijacked several buses in the area before a protest, a tradition that had long been practiced by the school and tolerated by some of the bus companies.

As they traveled back from Iguala to Ayotzinapa, where the school is based, they were intercepted by the police. The incident quickly devolved into a chaotic night that involved law enforcement and gangsters.

After a long standoff with the police, several students were arrested and reportedly handed over to Guerreros Unidos.

By dawn the next morning, 6 students were confirmed dead in Iguala, dozens more were wounded. But 43 more had vanished.

The government alleges that the students were killed and their bodies were then disposed in a garbage dump and burned in a large fire. However, several independent investigations have cast doubts on the official report's findings.

Independent investigators said that the investigation was "deeply flawed", starting by the fact that many of the detainees were confirmed to have been tortured to confess.

In addition, they claimed to have satellite images on the day of the students' disappearance that showed there had been no fire that night. Critics say that the remains of the first two students identified were found at the rubbish dump in question or planted there by authorities.

Murrillo Karam, prosecutors say, forced suspects into confessing a distorted version of what happened that day.

Sources: Reporte Indigo; El Financiero; Borderland Beat Archives