Case Summary and Outcome

The Mexican Information Commission (Instituto General de Acceso a la Informacion Publica, or IFAI) held that the public prosecutor must properly disclose to Petitioner information on the number and status of preliminary investigations formerly conducted by the Special Prosecutor for Social & Political Movements of the Past.

This analysis was contributed by Right2Info.org.

Facts

In May 2007, the Petitioner requested from the public prosecutor (Procuraduria General de la Republica, or PGR) a report on the “status of preliminary investigations formerly undertaken by the Special Prosecutor for Social & Political Movements of the Past” (FEMOSPP) including information on which investigations remained open and how many had been archived, and which offices and public officials were handling them.

The PGR refused to comply with the request alleging that the information was reserved under Articles 14(I) and (III) of the Federal Transparency and Access to Public Governmental Information Law (RTI Law) and Article 16 of the Federal Code of Criminal Procedure (FCCP), which allow disclosure only to the parties involved in criminal proceedings.

In a hearing held in July 2007, the PGR subsequently modified its initial stance and agreed to disclose information on the status of former FEMOSPP preliminary investigations including how many of them remained open, in which office each was located, who was assigned to each investigation and how many investigations had been archived. In August 2007, the PGR filed its response precisely outlining each of these items with IFAI.

Decision Overview

IFAI analysed the information furnished by the PGR and determined it was sufficient and adequately addressed all items included in the Petitioner’s request. IFAI noted, however, that the PGR furnished no evidence that this information had been actually handed over to Petitioner [p.11]. Therefore, it instructed the PGR to hand it over to Petitioner within 10 business days.