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Country reports on judicial corruption
Once the alleged criminal comes before a judicial authority, violations of fundamental human rights frequently occur that in many cases are linked to corruption. For example, 71 per cent of people detained in Mexico City did not receive advice from a lawyer while in the custody of the public prosecutor’s office; and of the 29 per cent who did have legal assistance, the majority (70 per cent) were not allowed to speak in private with him or her. Once brought before the judge, who is responsible for determining whether to proceed to trial or release the suspect, 60 per cent of detainees were not told that they had the right to refuse to make a statement. When giving a preparatory statement before the judicial authority, one in four detainees was not assisted by a lawyer.2 When a detained person does not have access to a lawyer, it is easy to succumb to pressure to offer money to the police. Some 80 per cent of detainees never spoke to the judge who condemned them and a judge was not present during the detainee’s statement at the judicial offices in 71 per cent of cases.3 If a judge is not present when the detainee is interrogated, it is probable that these pressures will be repeated or increased, either to coerce the witness into a confession or to ‘resolve’ the issue by extraofficial means.
‘The most severe lack of credibility in its history’ These figures justify the low level of trust that society has in the institutions responsible for justice. Recent research, both household surveys
and surveys targeted at people who work in the sphere of justice, reflect the low level of confidence in judges and courts. According to the National Survey on Political Culture and Citizen Practices, carried out by the Interior Ministry in November and December 2001, only 10.2 per cent of people said they had ‘much trust’ in the Supreme Court, which placed trust in the highest court at a lower level than in local or municipal authorities, the media, big business and citizens’ associations.4 A nationwide survey of 60,000 people conducted a year later indicated that two thirds of respondents had ‘little’ or ‘no’ trust in the Supreme Court, compared with 6 per cent who had ‘much trust’.5 Legal scholar Héctor Fix Fierro may be right when he says: ‘The image of justice in the press, public opinion or even in the judicial profession has been, in general, unfavourable and seems to reflect a persistent and widespread crisis.’6 Within the judicial ranks there has been talk of a bleak future for the justice system; a former president of the Supreme Court described the federal judicial police as facing ‘the most severe lack of credibility in the face of public opinion in [its] history’.7 In the main, the response by the judiciary to criticism of corruption has been hostile. When the UN Special Rapporteur on Independence of Judges and Lawyers visited Mexico in May 2001 he observed that, according to the people he spoke to, between 50 and 70 per cent of federal judges were corrupt.8 ‘Impunity and corruption appear to prevail within the Mexican justice system,’ he concluded, adding: ‘It is
2 Guillermo Zepeda Lecuona, Crime without Punishment: Justice and the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Mexico (Mexico City: Centro de Investigación para el Desarrollo and Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2004). 3 Marcelo Bergman, op. cit. The code of criminal procedures requires a judge to be present immediately after arrest, which means during the preparatory statement at the start of the hearing to determine probable cause. 4 Este País (Mexico), August 2002. 5 Milenio (Mexico), 16 December 2002. 6 Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas (IIJ-UNAM), The Efficiency of Justice (an Approximation and a Proposal) (Mexico City: IIJ-UNAM, 1995). 7 Genaro Góngora Pimentel, Meetings with the Media (Mexico City: Poder Judicial de la Federación, 1999). 8 UN Special Rapporteur on Independence of Judges and Lawyers, ‘Report on the Mission to Mexico’, E/CN. 4/2002/72/Add. 1. (New York: UN Commission on Human Rights, 2002). Available at www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/ Huridoca.nsf/TestFrame/c0120deaf3b91dd2c1256b76003fe19d?Opendocument