Activists Applaud Release of Israel Arzate Melendez in Torture Case E. Eduardo Castillo - Associated Press
go to original November 8, 2013

Guadalupe Melendez kisses her son Israel Arzate during a news conference in Mexico City, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013. (Eduardo Verdugo/AP)

MEXICO CITY — Human rights groups hailed on Thursday a Mexican Supreme Court decision to free a man who claimed soldiers tortured him into confessing to having played a role in a drug-related massacre.

The court ruled that 28-year-old Israel Arzate Melendez's confession wasn't valid because he talked to soldiers rather than prosecutors, as the law requires.

"There's no justice with scapegoating," Arzate said Thursday in a press conference. "They wanted to catch an innocent man and make him guilty."

Human Rights Watch said the decision sends a clear message that evidence obtained through torture won't be accepted. Activists have complained of human rights abuses by Mexican security forces in regions where troops have been deployed to fight drug cartels.

Arzate's case was among dozens cited by Human Rights Watch in an investigation published two years ago.

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