(FILES) In this file photo taken on October 22, 2014, Mexico's Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam gestures during a press conference at the Attorney General building in Mexico City. - Mexican authorities arrested former Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam on Friday August 19, 2022, responsible for the disputed investigation into the disappearance of 43 students in 2014 and the highest-ranking official detained so far in this case, the Attorney General's Office reported. (Photo by Yuri CORTEZ / AFP)

In the case of the 43 missing students in Mexico, the former Mexican Attorney General has been arrested. The police have executed an arrest warrant against the former top investigator, the Attorney General announced on Friday. Jesús Murillo Karam was responsible for the initial investigation into the case in 2014. Only on Thursday did a truth commission accuse the authorities of having falsified evidence to cover up the truth.

Murillo Karam is accused of enforced disappearances, torture and offenses against the administration of justice, the statement said. Murillo was arrested at his residence in Mexico City and said he did not resist.

According to the initial investigations he led, the students had been killed and burned in a rubbish dump. This thesis was later rejected by independent experts. In addition, witnesses are said to have been tortured.

Corrupt police officers kidnapped the students from the Ayotzinapa teacher training college in Iguala, Guerrero state, in September 2014 and handed them over to the Guerreros Unidos criminal syndicate. Also against soldiers and employees of other authorities is determined.

The background of the fact is still not fully elucidated. The Truth Commission had previously pronounced the students dead and called the case a “state crime.” (dpa)