La Jornada: Javier Valdez Cárdenas
Culiacán, Sinaloa - The criminal justice system in the country is anachronistic and useless. Legal reforms and new models are needed to begin to make it possible that there are no innocent people in jail, said Jesús Murillo Karam, Attorney General (PGR).
He was in Culiacán to participate in the forum 'Law Enforcement Policies in Light of the New Criminal Justice System,' [the establishment, by 2016, of public trials with oral arguments in place of judges' review of documents submitted by prosecution and defense attorneys]. The forum was attended by Governor Mario López Váldez and by leaders of human rights organizations, academics and specialists in criminal law.
Earlier, the governor and the PGR head met with families of the disappeared in Sinaloa. Murillo Karam said the nationwide increase in crime came as a surprise to authorities at different levels, and extraordinary measures must now be taken at full speed.
He said it is very important to establish a modern criminal justice system that allows it to be agile, fair, respectful of human rights and to abide by the right to presumption of innocence.
He said it is necessary to use scientific investigation and strengthen the institutions of prosecution and administration of justice, as well as the judicial procedures that provide access to justice under rules of fairness between the parties and respect for human rights.
The findings and results of these forums, which are to be held across the country, will be included in the initiative called Mexico in Peace, one of five proposed by President Enrique Peña Nieto to give new direction, legal certainty, development and economic growth to the country. Spanish original