San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico
December 3, 2025

Bulletin No. 10

Osmán Iván: victim of torture, arbitrary detention, and institutional racism

• 15 years of injustice—freedom cannot wait.

Osmán Iván Rubio Bonilla, a Honduran citizen unjustly accused in three case files by the Chiapas State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) and a survivor of torture, was acquitted of homicide on November 4, 2025, after 14 years and 6 months of tireless resistance. However, he remains deprived of his liberty at the State Center for Social Reintegration No. 7 (CERSS) in Tapachula. The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) call on the Judicial Branch of Chiapas to reverse the systematic violations of his human rights and order his immediate release.

Osmán Iván was detained on May 2, 2011, in Huixtla, Chiapas, during an operation carried out by the Municipal Police, the State Preventive Police (PEP), and the State Border Police (PEF), without an arrest warrant and under circumstances that constitute arbitrary detention and torture.

According to his testimony, during the arrest he was blindfolded, bound, beaten, asphyxiated with water, subjected to electric shocks, sensory deprivation, and physical and psychological abuse, until he was forced to incriminate himself in various crimes. These assaults were documented by the State Human Rights Commission (CEDH), which recorded injuries consistent with torture and issued Recommendation 013/2020-R in 2020, rejected by the FGE and the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (SSyPC).

The three criminal proceedings against him stem from statements obtained under coercion:

1. Attempted Illegal Deprivation of Liberty and Organized Crime (criminal case 177/2023): has remained in the evidentiary stage for over 13 years, without the Criminal Court of the Tapachula Judicial District issuing a ruling.
2. Aggravated Homicide (criminal case 423/2023): a sentence was issued in 2023 based on ministerial confessions and testimonies that did not identify him; overturned in 2024 to investigate the reported torture. On November 4, 2025, he was finally acquitted.
3. Carrying a firearm without a license: a federal case in which he was acquitted in 2014.

Frayba’s documentation reveals systematic irregularities: fabrication of evidence, contradictions in police reports, manipulated expert examinations, and prosecutorial actions that ignored early reports of torture. The CEDH confirmed that the arrest did not occur at the location of the alleged kidnapping and that there was no direct identification by the complainant, ruling out the flagrancy invoked by authorities.

After nearly 15 years in prison, Osmán Iván faces a process marked by violations of due process, racism, lack of consular assistance, absence of effective investigation, and unjustified delays that keep him in prolonged pretrial detention, contrary to international standards. In the face of impunity sustained by the Mexican State, Frayba and OMCT filed a complaint in August 2024 before the UN Human Rights Committee, registered in April 2025 under number 4740/2025, still pending resolution.

Frayba and OMCT urgently call on state and federal authorities to ensure a thorough and impartial investigation into the reported torture. In addition, we demand guarantees for access to justice and reparation for the violations committed against Osmán Iván Rubio Bonilla, beginning with his unconditional release.

The case of Osmán Iván Rubio Bonilla is a symbol of institutional violence and racism that permeates the justice system in Mexico. His freedom is not a concession—it is a right taken from him through torture and arbitrariness. Every day he remains imprisoned prolongs injustice and impunity.

We demand his immediate and unconditional release. The dignity of Osmán Iván, and of all survivors of torture and arbitrary detention, cannot be kept waiting any longer.