Mexican police tortured 5 suspects, human rights commission says

Mexico City (CNN) -- Mexican federal police in Ciudad Juarez tortured five people to force confessions that they killed an officer and participated in a car bomb attack, the nation's human rights commission alleged.

"According to information and testimonies received, they were interrogated and tortured with the goal that they admitted guilt in the commission of homicide and that they were members of a gang," Mexico's National Human Rights Commission said in a statement Sunday.

The commission's statement described the situation as an "abuse of power" in the violence-plagued border city. The five people, arrested in August 2010, should receive reparations from police for human rights violations that require physical and psychological treatment, the commission said.

Mexican government officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Ciudad Juarez, which shares a border with El Paso, Texas, has been a hotspot in Mexico's drug war as rival cartels battle over turf.

CNN's Rene Hernandez and Rey Rodriguez contributed to this report.


(2012-01-03/CNN)