JURIST - Paper Chase: Judge denies arrest warrant for former Mexican president

[JURIST] A Mexican judge on Wednesday refused to issue an arrest warrant for former President Luis Echeverria [Wikipedia profile] and seven other officials for a 1968 massacre of student protesters, ending a second attempt by prosecutors [JURIST report] to bring the former leaders to trial. Judge Ranulfo Castillo held that the statute of limitations for genocide had run with respect to most of the officials and that the 1968 killings did not qualify as genocide. Prosecutors had filed charges against Echeverria and the others earlier this week for the 1968 incident, in which dozens of protesters were killed by police and military officers. Special prosecutor Ignacio Carillo had also charged Echeverria with illegally detaining a student activist while he served as interior minister in 1968. Prosecutors previously tried to charge Echeverria [JURIST report] for another student massacre in 1971, but the Mexican Supreme Court dismissed the charges [JURIST report]. La Cronica de Hoy has local coverage [in Spanish]. AP has more.

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