Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (FGR) has asked the country’s justice system for an 82-year prison sentence for Jesus Murillo Karam, former attorney general, for his alleged involvement in crimes of torture, forced disappearance, and obstruction of the administration of justice related to the Ayotzinapa case.
The FGR filed an indictment through the Special Investigation and Litigation Unit for the Ayotzinapa Case, requesting 60 years in prison for Murillo Karam for forced disappearance, 12 years for torture, and 10 years for obstruction of justice. This was confirmed by the former prosecutor’s lawyer, Javier López, in an interview with Animal Politico.
Murillo Karam is pointed out as the intellectual author of the so-called “historical truth,” a version that tried to hide the responsibility of the Mexican State for the disappearance of 43 students from the Normal School of Ayotzinapa in 2014, during the mandate of Enrique Pea Nieto. It is accused of manipulating evidence and diverting investigations to support the official version. In addition, the Attorney General’s Office has claimed that he participated in the torture of Felipe Rodrguez Salgado, known as “El Cepillo,” a member of the Guerreros Unidos criminal group implicated in the students’ disappearance.
Murillo Karam was arrested in August 2019 and charged with torture in April of this year. He is the highest-ranking former official subject to judicial proceedings in the Ayotzinapa case. In parallel, the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador has requested that Israel extradite Tomás Zerón, former director of the defunct Criminal Investigation Agency (AIC), also accused of committing torture against witnesses.