OAS court condemns Mexico probes of women slayings

The Interamerican Court of Human Rights has criticized Mexico for a lack of diligence in investigating the slayings of three young women in the violent border city of Ciudad Juarez. The court, which issued the ruling Nov. 16 but didn't make it public until Thursday, said it found irregularities in the probes, including the mishandling of evidence and the coercing of innocent people to confess. Authorities failed to prevent the killings and they didn't deliver justice to the victims' families by botching the investigations and failing to prosecute negligent public officials, the court said. Mexico bears responsibility for "failing to respond to the disappearance (of the women), the lack of due diligence in the investigations into their killings, the refusal to deliver justice and the lack of adequate (financial) compensation," the court said.