A former police officer has been arrested in Mexico for torturing and killing a photojournalist and four others, AFP reported. The suspect, Abraham Torres Tranquilino (24), was a police officer in Mexico City but had been arrested in 2011 and awarded a one year prison term in a separate torture case, reports said.
The brutal murder of photojournalist Ruben Espinosa and the other victims, who were found dead on 31 July this year, raked up an international outrage, with intellectuals in Mexico calling on President Enrique Pena Nieto for protection. All the victims were found dead with their hands bound, while their bodies bore signs of torture.
Tranquilino and another former convict, Daniel Pacheco Gutierrez, were arrested after the police found CCTV footage of the two leaving Espinosa's apartment from where the bodies were found. Gutierrez has told the police that he was present in the apartment but did not kill anyone.
Espinosa was in his apartment along with rights activist Nadia Vera and three other women, when they were murdered. He was working as a photojournalist in the eastern State of Veracruz for the investigative magazine Proceso, before moving to Mexico city for safety reason.
According to BBC, Veracruz is the most dangerous place to be a journalist in Mexico. Since 2000, 88 journalists have been killed in Mexico and of this 14 murders were taken place in Veracruz State.
