Ex-Mexican mayor acquitted after eight years in missing students case

MEXICO CITY, Mexico - The former mayor of Iguala was acquitted Wednesday of the disappearance of 43 students in Mexico after spending more than eight years in prison, reported German news agency (dpa).

A court ruled that there was insufficient evidence that Jose Luis Abarca had anything to do with the disappearance of the students in 2014. They have since been declared dead.

Besides Abarca, Felipe Flores, who at the time of the students' disappearance was the security chief of the city, was also acquitted, local media reported on Wednesday.

As other court cases are still pending against him, Abarca, who has been in pre-trial detention for more than eight years, will not be released from custody.

Earlier this month, Abarca was sentenced to 92 years in prison for the kidnapping of six members of a peasant movement in Iguala. His appeal is still pending.

On Sept 26, 2014, 43 young men studying at a rural teacher training college in Ayotzinapa went missing in the city of Iguala while travelling on buses they had stolen.

They were pursued by corrupt police officers and allegedly handed over to the crime syndicate Guerreros Unidos for reasons that are not known.

Bone fragments from only three of the young men have been found and identified so far.

Initially, investigators suspected that criminals had mistaken the students for members of an enemy gang. Then there was the hypothesis that the young men had hijacked a bus to take part in a demonstration in Mexico City without knowing that drugs were hidden in the bus.

In August last year, a commission classified the case as a state crime due to the alleged involvement of authorities and security forces. - BERNAMA-dpa