A judge has handed down the first ever guilty verdict for “torture” in Jalisco.
Two municipal police officers in Tala arrested Alfonso Hernandez on October 22, 2014 after he admitted stealing six ears of corn and a squash from a field adjoining a property they suspected he had broken into.
Hernandez was shackled, whisked off to police headquarters and dumped in a cell, in which he was interrogated by the officers, a task that is chiefly the domain of investigators and not beat cops.
According to court documents, both officers admitted slapping, punching and poking Hernandez with a rifle during the “interrogation.”
The prisoner later collapsed and was taken to hospital where he died. An autopsy confirmed that he succumbed from internal injuries.
After a year of deliberations, a district judge sentenced Ricardo Uribe and Jose Luis Vela to 12 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter and, significantly, an extra year for torture, as well as one more for “abuse of authority.”
Although the State Commission for Human Rights had previously issued a slew of findings that seemed to confirm the widespread practice of torture by police officers, none had ever gone to trial. Civic groups now hope the groundbreaking ruling will deter officers from engaging in a practice that authorities have habitually turned a blind eye to.
Relatives of Hernandez said the sentence was insufficient and the officers should have been tried for first-degree murder. The Tala municipality has so far refused to pay the 2.6 million pesos in compensation handed down by the judge.