Mexico's ex-attorney general charged with mishandling probe into 2014 disappearance of 43 students

Federal prosecutors said Friday they have arrested the attorney general in Mexico's previous administration on charges he mishandled investigations into the 2014 disappearances of 43 students from a radical teacher college.

Jesús Murillo Karam served as attorney general from 2012 to 2015, under then President Enrique Peña Nieto. The office of the current attorney general, Alejandro Gertz Manero, said Murillo Karam was charged with torture, official misconduct and forced disappearance.

In 2020, Gertz Manero said Murillo Karam had been implicated in "orchestrating a massive media trick" and leading a "generalized cover-up" in the case.