Daniel Garcia and Reyes Alpizar have been in jail for over 17 years in Mexico, without a sentence from the judicial authorities, allegedly for a crime they didn't commit. According to the human rights organization Pena Sin Culpa (Penalty Without Fault), this is the world's longest preventive prison.
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In 2017 the International Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and a special group of the United Nations (U.N.) denounced this measure, considered an "arbitrary deprivation of liberty," however, Garcia and Alpizar have served 2 more years in prison, without a sentence, Mexican news network Animal Politico reported.
On February 25, 2002, 37-year-old Daniel Garcia Rodriguez was arrested when he was en route to his father's house. "He was intercepted by two men aboard a private vehicle informing him that he was requested by the Deputy Attorney General of Tlalnepantla in the State of Mexico to testify on the investigation of a homicide," stated the Institute of Criminal Justice (IJPP).
Also on 2002, on October 25, 35-years-old Reyes Alpizar Ortiz, "was arrested when he was waiting for a bus that would take him back to his house, he was transferred to the Deputy Attorney General of Tlalnepantla in the State of Mexico. He was the victim of physical and psychological torture by elements belonging to the Attorney General's Office, later he was imprisoned," the IJPP stated.
Both men were accused of killing a local councilwoman, in Atizapan de Zaragoza in the State of Mexico. According to the Pena Sin Culpa group, "Daniel Garcia becomes the political prisoner with the most time deprived of his freedom," as stated on Wednesday during a press conference. They asked for the immediate release of both men.
The group says that authorities fabricated these two "guilty" men, who have been allegedly tortured and have been in prison for over17 years without a sentence. The Mexican Constitution states that preventive prison cannot be longer than two years.