Chihuahua— The Attorney General’s Office (FGR) and the judge in charge of the case reclassified the crime of torture to cruel and inhuman treatment for which Francisco GA, former head of Operation Justice during the government of Javier Corral, was charged.
In addition to the change in the charge, which drastically reduces the penalty if he is found guilty, the interim hearing has been postponed six times; this Friday, July 19, the hearing necessary to proceed with the trial, delayed since last year, has been scheduled again.
For torture, the specialized law provides for a sentence of 10 to 20 years in prison. On the other hand, for cruel and inhuman treatment, the penalty is three months to three years in prison, which is minimal compared to the main crime established by the General Law to Prevent, Investigate and Punish Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment (General Law).
The former prosecutor headed the special unit of the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) that investigated the corruption cases of the César Duarte government. His work, at the end of Corral Jurado’s administration, led to observations by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), through the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture, carried out in December 2021.
Based on these observations, on December 15, 2021, a complaint was filed with the FGE for the alleged commission of the crime of torture, in the compilation of investigation files in the period between 2017 and 2018.
The complaint named Francisco GA and other FGE investigative agents under his command as the alleged perpetrators, against the victims who by law can only be identified with the reserved identity codes JJBP1, DEF, JOA, DCV, WPOAS, MAMA6.
The complaint gave rise to investigation file 19-2021-24935 and criminal case 2834, filed before a Control Court of the State Superior Court of Justice (TSJ).
Thus, on November 21, 2022, an arrest warrant issued by the state justice system against Francisco GA was executed in the city of Delicias, for the possible commission of the crime of torture against the victim JJBP1.
Days later, Control Judge Hortensia García linked the former FGE official to the process and determined the precautionary measure of justified preventive detention, considering that due to his ties to security and law enforcement personnel due to his years of service, he could put the lives of the victims at risk and hinder the corresponding investigation.
The legal representation of the torture complainants reported that after being brought to trial in the common courts and faced with the possibility that the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) would take over the investigation, the victims asked the FGE to have the agency continue the case.
The victims’ fear, their representatives reported, was that there would be no justice if the case was transferred to federal court, since several of the defendant’s former collaborators worked at the FGR.
Very efficient FGR… to free the accused
The victims’ concern about the possible involvement of the FGR was well-founded, because on November 25, 2022, the same defendant Francisco GA submitted a document to the FGR in which he denounced himself for the crime of torture, while claiming to be a victim or offended party, when he was directly accused.
Thus, on December 14, 2022, the legal representation of the victims of torture was notified by the FGR that it had exercised its power to attract the investigation, due to the complaint filed by the accused himself.
On December 15, the victim filed an appeal against the FGR’s decision, which was heard by the 12th District Court in Chihuahua. The federal court denied the provisional suspension, which the legal representatives of those affected considered was due to the influence of Corral Jurado.
The victims’ lawyers consider that the FGR’s appeal contains omissions and acts of bad faith, since it bases the decision to take the file on article 22, section IV, first paragraph of the General Law, but deliberately omits what is established in the second and third paragraphs, which justify this measure basically at the request of the affected party.
Days later, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office went to the Aquiles Serdán Prison, where Francisco GA had been held since November, to request an interview with him as a witness, despite the fact that he was a defendant reported by the victims along with other former officials of Javier Corral’s administration.
Thus, on January 11, the hearing was held where the FGR proposed to a federal judge the attraction of the investigation file that had been resolved in December, which the judge ended up validating.
According to the legal representation of the offended parties who denounced the former prosecutor, the FGR was very efficient, but in expressly releasing the accused.
On March 7, 2023, after several legal actions by the victims to try to prevent the case from being brought to trial, federal elements went to the State Prosecutor’s Office to order the formal delivery of the investigation file; on the eighth day, they obtained a hearing before the federal court for the review of precautionary measures, which resulted in the change of the justified preventive detention, which had been ordered by the state court, to that of the defendant’s periodic signature, giving him the opportunity to carry out his process in relative freedom.
When the precautionary measure was changed, the deadline for investigation was set for May 22, but on May 16, the FGR requested an extension for three more months, which was granted by the federal court.
It went from torture to mistreatment
When the new deadline closed – a necessary step to call for an intermediate hearing and set the terms of an oral trial – at the end of August, the FGR presented its indictment in which it reclassified the crime against Francisco GA, changing torture to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
The crime of torture contemplated in the General Law is provided for in article 24. It is defined as that which is committed by a public servant causing physical or psychological pain or suffering to a person, “in order to obtain information or a confession, for the purposes of criminal investigation, as a means of intimidation, as personal punishment, as a means of coercion, as a preventive measure, or for reasons based on discrimination.”
The law provides for a penalty of 10 to 20 years in prison and a fine of 500 to 1,000 days; in addition, it provides for “disqualification from holding any public office, employment or commission for up to the same period of imprisonment imposed,” once the prison sentence has been served.
However, for the crime of cruel treatment, the same General Law states: “any public servant who, in the exercise of his or her duties, as a means of intimidation, as punishment or for reasons based on discrimination, ages, mistreats, degrades, insults or humiliates a person, will be subject to a penalty of three months to three years in prison and up to a fine of two hundred days.”
This reclassification promoted by the FGR would be beneficial for the accused if he is found criminally responsible.
In light of this, the victims’ representatives have requested since September 20, 2023, that an intermediate hearing be held to discuss the reclassification and the fact that there is a resolution from a District Court, for an injunction filed by the accused himself, in which the existence of the crime of torture is recognized.
However, to date, the intermediate hearing against Francisco GA for the crime of cruel and inhuman treatment has not been able to be held, because his defense has requested on six occasions to postpone it, considering that it is not prepared with all the evidence, which is doubted by the victims’ representation, since in a previous document to request the same hearing, he cites more than 60 witnesses, among which appear the former governor Javier Corral and the former attorney general of the State, César Augusto Peniche.
The victims’ representatives suspect that it was Corral Jurado himself who, based on influences in the federal justice system and the FGR, managed to prevent the holding of the intermediate hearing, so that the federal Control Judge would grant a suspension of the trial and thereby achieve impunity for the former prosecutor.
The new date for the intermediate hearing, unless it is changed by another request for deferral, is this coming Friday; the crime, although not serious according to the legal definition, is not susceptible to an alternative outcome, according to the National Code of Criminal Procedure, so the representation of those affected considers it urgent to debate both the arguments for the reclassification and the beginning of the trial against the accused.
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