Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador on Thursday urged Israel to cooperate with the extradition of a fugitive former top investigator wanted in connection with the disappearance of 43 students in 2014.
Mexico wants Israel to arrest Tomas Zeron, who heads the criminal investigation agency, on charges of serious irregularities in the investigation of one of the country’s worst human rights tragedies.
“I hope the government of Israel will act with respect to human rights, as the extradition of this public official is being requested, among other things, for acts of torture,” López Obrador said a week after the report. told reporters at the briefing that Israel was slow – the extradition case is underway.
Zero is wanted for compromising the investigation into the disappearance of 43 students in 2014. He is also accused of embezzling more than $50 million dollars and torturing suspects.
After the election of López Obrador in 2019, Zeron fled Mexico after the mass kidnapping case was reopened. He has since been in Israel and has requested asylum.
According to a New York Times report last week, Israeli officials familiar with Zero’s plea said Zero’s claim he is being persecuted as part of an attempt by the current Mexican president to get back his predecessor, Enrique Pea Nieto.
Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador delivers his daily, morning news conference at the Palacio Nacional, Presidential Palace, in Mexico City on December 18, 2020. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, FILE)
The report said Israel has not responded to Mexican requests to extradite him or grant him asylum.
Speaking to the New York Times, Mexican Undersecretary for Human Rights Alejandro Encinas alleged that Zeron received aid from Israeli firms, such as the controversial private intelligence firm NSO Group, whose spyware is allegedly authorized for use.
NSO denied ever assisting Zeron, and the report stated that Encinas provided no direct evidence of the allegation. An international media investigative effort called “The Cartel Project” reported in December that he had fled to Israel with the help of his contacts in the country’s cyber-surveillance industry.
The logo of the Israeli company NSO Group is displayed on the building where it had its offices in Herzliya until 2016. (AP Photo/Daniela Cheslow)
The disappearance of 43 teaching students shocked Mexico and triggered massive protests against the government of then-President Pea Nieto.
The students had taken five buses to travel for a demonstration, but were stopped and handed over to a drug cartel by corrupt police in the city of Iguala, Guerrero.
Prosecutors initially said the cartel mistook the students for members of a rival gang and murdered them before burning their bodies in a garbage dump and dumping them in the river.
However, independent experts from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights rejected the government’s conclusion, and the victims’ families continued to demand answers.
AFP contributed to this report.