http://www.presstv.com/detail/2012/12/05/276232/amnesty-urges-probe-into-mexico-violence/
Wed Dec 5, 2012 1:59AM GMT
Opposition protesters clash with the police during a demo outside the Congress in Mexico City on December 1, 2012.
Amnesty International has called for an investigation into allegations that Mexican police used excessive force against demonstrators and journalists on the day of President Enrique Pena Nieto's inauguration ceremony.
Mexican security officials have said that dozens of people are facing criminal charges over Saturday's demonstrations, but the New York-based rights organization said "several" of the detainees did not commit any acts of violence.
"The reports and evidence of excessive use of force against protesters, journalists and passersby during the disturbances must be investigated in a prompt, impartial and exhaustive way," Amnesty said in a statement on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the French-based international non-governmental organization, Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontières), called on Mexico to release two detained freelance photographers Mircea Topoleanu and Brandon Daniel Bazan.
"Denying access to an individual lawyer is a violation of their constitutional rights and is in itself sufficient grounds for dismissing these proceedings, which are in any case quite absurd," it said in a statement.
Pena Nieto, who won the July 1 presidential election, was sworn in as the new president of Mexico and brought his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) back to power after 12 years in the political wilderness.
In response, thousands of opposition protesters held demonstrations across the country.
Several groups of protesters outside Mexico's Congress threw fire bombs at police and smashed plate glass windows. Police used force to disperse the crowd and arrested 69 protesters.
GJH/AS
No comments:
Post a Comment