A federal collegiate court overturned the ruling that had allowed the proceedings against Francisco González Arredondo, former prosecutor specializing in human rights in Chihuahua, to continue, determining that the charges against him lacked sufficient legal grounds to justify his being bound over for trial. The decision questions the manner in which the state prosecutor’s office presented the allegations of alleged psychological torture.
Between 2016 and 2021, González Arredondo led the so-called Justice Operation for Chihuahua, a strategy launched during Javier Corral’s administration to investigate an alleged network involving the diversion of public funds linked to the administration of former Governor César Duarte. Following the change in the state government, he was arrested in November 2022 and went from leading anti-corruption investigations to facing criminal proceedings himself.
The judicial ruling, issued on July 30 in a 109-page decision, states that the prosecutor’s office failed to adequately specify when the alleged acts attributed to the former prosecutor took place. According to the judges, this lack of precision affected González Arredondo’s ability to mount an adequate defense against the charges.
One of the primary worries of the court centered on the timeframe utilized by the Public Prosecutor’s Office to determine the dates of the purported acts of torture. Spanning roughly 21 months—specifically between February 2017 and November 2018—the accusations lacked precise calendar dates, specific contexts, and any description of the exact part the former prosecutor supposedly took in every occurrence.
The judges also examined footage from the preliminary sessions of the case. They noted that defense counsel consistently requested exact dates for the incriminated actions, whereas the public ministry kept pointing exclusively to an extensive timeframe spanning almost twenty-four months. Consequently, the bench concluded that such vagueness severely impaired the guarantees of a proper defense.
The ruling additionally scrutinized the statements made by the individual who reported the claimed events. The magistrates determined that the provided testimony lacked a precise timeline concerning the outlined interrogations, threats, and pressures, failing to clearly establish the exact timing of these occurrences or in which specific episodes González Arredondo was alleged to have directly taken part.
The court, composed of Marta Barrios, Mario Gámez and José Cornejo, concluded that the deficiencies concerning the timing and circumstances of the alleged events also made it difficult to determine the former prosecutor’s probable involvement and raised doubts about whether sufficient evidence existed to sustain the charges.
The decision also integrated a communication issued by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Mexico. Throughout the amparo proceedings, the entity voiced apprehension that the criminal charges brought against González Arredondo might amount to payback linked to his anti-corruption investigations. Ultimately, the tribunal chose to append the statement to the legal dossier so it could be weighed during the final judgment.
González Arredondo had been held in preventive custody starting in November 2022 until a federal magistrate mandated in March 2023 that he await trial outside of jail. This recent decision constitutes a defeat for the prosecutors and substantially alters the ex-prosecutor’s judicial standing, seeing as his professional trajectory was tightly linked to the graft probes conducted throughout Javier Corral’s administration.
The case has gained relevance in the broader debate over the use of the criminal justice system against public officials and human rights defenders involved in sensitive investigations. The ruling highlights the obligation of authorities to formulate precise charges and respect the procedural guarantees of individuals facing criminal proceedings.
Source: EL PAÍS — https://elpais.com/mexico/2026-08-08/la-justicia-desarma-el-caso-contra-el-fiscal-que-persiguio-la-corrupcion-en-chihuahua.html
