Suspects in U.S. Reporter’s Death in Mexico Were Illegally Held

A government human rights commission has found that two Huichol Indians charged with killing a U.S. journalist were illegally detained and possibly tortured by soldiers.

Under Mexican law, soldiers are not allowed to arrest civilians in criminal cases.

In a report dated Thursday, the Human Rights Commission of the western state of Jalisco said it investigated complaints from Huichol Indians in the area where Philip True, Mexico City correspondent for the San Antonio Express-News, was killed last month.

“Those soldiers may also have committed acts of torture, illegal entry and abuse of power against several indigenous people,” the report said.

The Defense Secretariat in Mexico City referred questions to the military base that covers Jalisco. A spokesman there said the army had no comment because it had not been officially notified of the findings.

True, 50, disappeared while hiking alone through a remote region of the Sierra Madre in western Mexico, where he was pursuing a story on the Huichol Indian culture. His body was found Dec. 16 in a shallow grave in west-central Jalisco state.

An initial autopsy indicated that True had been strangled, but results released Friday from a second autopsy, carried out under observation of an FBI forensics expert, said he had been beaten to death. The attorney general’s office said True died when his lungs filled with fluid as a direct result of blows to his head and torso.

The two charged with the killing confessed to strangling True.

The report saying the two were illegally detained will be presented to the National Human Rights Commission. If the commission confirms the findings, it will issue nonbinding recommendations to the appropriate agencies.