Official: witnesses in army slaying wrongly jailed

Official: witnesses in army slaying wrongly jailed
By KATHERINE CORCORAN and E. EDUARDO CASTILLO, Associated Press | November 14, 2014 | Updated: November 15, 2014 1:19pm

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Two survivors of a mass slaying by Mexican soldiers who have been jailed for weapons possession are innocent and should be released immediately, the outgoing president of the National Commission on Human Rights says.

Raul Plascencia told The Associated Press that the two women, who his commission says were tortured and sexually threatened into backing the army's version of the incident, were not affiliated with the 22 suspected gang members who were killed. Rather, they were prostitutes hired to accompany a leader of the group that met in an abandoned warehouse in southern Mexico on June 29. The leader was one of two men who escaped from the troops early on June 30.

The women's detention is a violation of their human rights, said Plascencia, who oversaw the commission's investigation of the bloodshed and is leaving the rights post Saturday. The army originally claimed all 22 suspects died in a fierce shootout. The two women, along with a third witness, have testified to authorities that most of the suspects had surrendered and were unarmed when they were shot by soldiers.

"The only crime they committed was having been contracted by certain people for services," Plascencia said of the two women, who have been in a federal prison in western Nayarit state. "From our point of view, they should be liberated immediately."

More:
http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Official-2-witnesses-in-army-slay-wrongly-jailed-5894780.php