| HRDN_Damian_Gallardo_leaflet 2 pages / 235 KB |

Damián Gallardo Martínez, an Ayuuk indigenous human rights defender and teacher from Oaxaca state in Mexico, who has worked to defend the rights of indigenous communities and the right to education, has been arbitrarily detained since May 2013.
His detention has been plagued with irregularities:
He was violently arrested in May 2013 without a warrant and held
incommunicado for 30 hours during which he was tortured and forced to
sign a false confession. He wasn’t informed about the charges he was
facing and during several days following his arrest he was not allowed
to communicate with his lawyer.
The first medical examination wasn’t carried out in accordance with
the Istanbul Protocol on the Effective Investigation and Documentation
of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment.
During the detention he has been subjected to various acts of
torture and ill treatment, including by the personnel of Jalisco maximum
security prison CEFERESO No 2 where he is detained.
He has been denied adequate medical and psychological diagnosis and
care, which has produced irreversible consequences on his health.
The ongoing penal process he is facing could result in a sentence of 75 years of imprisonment.
Similar cases in Mexico: Between August 2014 and December 2015, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary detention (UN WGAD) issued five opinions considering that 5 Mexican HRDs (Damián Gallardo, Pedro Canché, Librado Baños, Enrique Guerrero and Nestora Salgado) had been subjected to arbitrary detention and penal proceedings plagued by irregularities. This is the highest number of opinions by the UNWGAD on a single country in such a period of time, which shows a pattern of arbitrary detentions of HRDs that seems to aim at rendering their human rights work impossible.
Reactions to the proceedings and sentence
In April 2014, four UN mandate holders requested urgent attention by the
Mexican Government to the arbitrary detention and the allegations of
torture of Damián Gallardo.
In August 2014, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued
an opinion on Damián Gallardo, considering his arrest and detention to
be arbitrary and linked to his work in defence of human rights, and
called for his immediate and unconditional release.
This mobilisation must continue to ensure that the Opinion of the UNWGAD is fully implemented so that Damián Gallardo is released and all charges against him are dropped.
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