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Five former Cancun cops formally charged with torture

Cancun, Q.R. — Five former Cancun police officers have been formally charged with torture. According to the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), elements of the Municipal Police “detained without cause” a journalist for reporting “facts of public interest.”

In a press release, the Fiscalía General de la República (FGR) says the five officers were formally charged “for their probable responsibility for the crime of aggravated torture against journalist Raúl Fernández León in Cancun, Quintana Roo.”

Those being charged have been identified by the FGR as Lamberto “V”, Casto “P”, Candelaria “A”, Socorro “G” and Nesguer “V”, who at the time of the events, were working as public servants for the Secretaría Municipal de Seguridad Pública y Tránsito of Benito Juárez.

The charges date back to November of 2019, when the now former officers “detained without cause” the journalist “for doing his job, causing him physical and psychological suffering to punish, coerce and intimidate him for reporting events of public interest in the streets of the city of Cancun”, reported the FGR.

The federal agency says the case was brought before the Prosecutor’s Office on June 16, 2021. Evidence presented at the time showed that the purpose of the crime was to limit freedom of expression.