Mexico’s Chief Justice Says ‘Unjust Pretrial Detention Violates Human Rights’
In an unprecedented move for a member of the Supreme Court, Mexico Chief Justice Arturo Zaldívar visited the Santa Martha Acatitla women’s prison after receiving a letter signed by over 600 inmates, pleading for help since they’ve never been convicted of a crime.
Landwebs
In an unprecedented move for a member of the Supreme Court, Mexico Chief Justice Arturo Zaldívar visited the Santa Martha Acatitla women’s prison after receiving a letter signed by over 600 inmates, pleading for help since they’ve never been convicted of a crime, according to the Courthouse News Service. According to the letter, the women wrote that they consider him to be an “ally of women struggling to find justice” — noting that they have poor legal representation, and a slow-moving system keeping nearly 1,500 inmates incarcerated pretrial.
Some of the inmates have spent as many as 15 years in the facility just for pretrial detention. Zaldívar left the prison, telling reporters that pretrial detention should be the exception, not the rule, used only in cases in which the accused is considered a flight risk or could put victims or witnesses in danger. “Apart from those suppositions, it isn’t only unjustified, it’s unconventional. It violates human rights,” he said. “It destroys lives, it destroys families, and many of these people are innocent.”
