MEXICO CITY, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- A human rights organization is accusing the Mexican government of mishandling and potentially destroying evidence related to last year's disappearance of 43 students.
The Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which is conducting an independent investigation, said Monday that Mexico's Attorney General did not properly present evidence such as clothing possibly worn by missing students.
The panel also said that a videotape that may have recorded parts of the incident may have been destroyed.
"We have no evidence that the kids are alive. We do not, with the available evidence, know what has been the fate of the youth... and do not want to speculate, " Carlos Beristain, an organization representative, said. A final report by the organization will be presented on Sept. 6.
Related
Investigative experts were only made aware of the clothing evidence on June 29 and the organization ordered the attorney general to process, photograph and take genetic evidence of the clothes, which was carried out a month later.
In September 2014, 43 students from Ayotzinapa traveled to the town of Iguala in Mexico's Guerrero state and clashed with police, who opened fire. Police then handed the students over to drug gangs. Soldiers were at the scene of the clash and relatives of the missing students believe the soldiers played a role in the disappearances by failing to act.
Further investigation into the incident revealed that the police was infiltrated by drug gangs. The three suspects in the case, Patricio Reyes, Jhonatan Osorio and Agustin Garcia, confessed to killing the students and burning the bodies, alleging they were told the students were rival drug gang members.
Only one burnt body of the 43 missing student has been identified.
