CAT/C/72/D/992/2020 claim a violation by the State party of Mr. Gallardo Martínez’s rights under articles 1, 2, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 of the Convention, and of their rights collectively under article 14 of the Convention. The complainants are represented by Consorcio para el Diálogo Parlamentario y la Equidad Oaxaca, the World Organization against Torture and the Mexican Commission for the Defence and Promotion of Human Rights. Facts as submitted by the complainants 2.1 The complainants are members of the indigenous Ayuujk people of Santa María Tlahuitoltepec from the Mixe region in the state of Oaxaca. Mr. Gallardo Martínez is a teacher and defender of indigenous peoples’ rights and the right to education. As part of his activities in defence of human rights, he has, for several years, promoted community education in the indigenous communities of the Mixe and Zapoteca regions in the Sierra de Oaxaca. Torture and ill-treatment, from the time of his arbitrary detention until his release more than five years later 2.2 On 18 May 2013, at 1.30 a.m., Mr. Gallardo Martínez was arrested by seven federal police officers while he was at home asleep in his bedroom together with his partner, Yolanda Barranco Hernández, and their minor daughter, M.M.B.H. The officers broke down the door of his home, beat him and dragged him half-naked to a van. During the journey, which lasted for approximately two hours, the officers forced him to assume degrading and painful positions, threatened to rape and kill his daughter and his partner and to murder his parents, pretended to execute him with a weapon, beat him and caused him to choke. 2.3 At the end of the journey, Mr. Gallardo Martínez was held incommunicado and tortured for approximately 30 hours in a secret detention centre. He was beaten so that he would divulge information about other people involved in the education rights movement; when he did not give in, the officers continued to subject him to psychological torture by showing him photographs of his daughter and partner and claiming that they would rape and kill them, thus making him believe that they were in detention, if he refused to provide information about other persons involved in the social movement in the state of Oaxaca or if he did not agree to take part in committing the crimes of which he was later accused. Mr. Gallardo Martínez was forced to sign blank sheets of paper, which were later used as alleged evidence of self-incrimination. During the 30 hours that he spent in incommunicado detention, Mr. Gallardo Martínez was also deprived of water and sleep and prevented from defecating, was beaten on his testicles, stomach, back, face and head, was choked and was forced to witness acts of torture against other detainees. 2.4 On 19 May 2013, Mr. Gallardo Martínez was finally transferred to the Office of the Assistant Attorney General for the Investigation of Organized Crime, in Mexico City. A doctor from the Office for the Coordination of Forensic Investigations and Expert Witness Services of the Counsel General’s Office noted that Mr. Gallardo Martínez was exhibiting “reddish ecchymosis of 1.5 cm in diameter in the left zygomatic region” and an “increase in volume on the dorsal side of the right foot”. Thus, the complainants point out that the State itself noted the injuries, although the internal medical report unduly and deliberately omitted to establish when the injuries were sustained and how they occurred. At the Office of the Assistant Attorney General, officers once again threatened to kill his partner, daughter and parents; he was deprived of water, food and sleep, and was given unauthorized injections. 2.5 Late in the day, his sister Florencia Gallardo Martínez received a call informing her that Mr. Gallardo Martínez was in detention. She travelled to the premises of the Office of the Assistant Attorney General and, after waiting for several hours, was able to see her brother for five minutes; at that point, she noted the bruising that he had sustained. 2.6 That same day he was also assigned a public defender, who only came to sign a ministerial statement that Mr. Gallardo Martínez had made under torture that day. 2.7 Moreover, on 19 May 2013, his arrest for alleged offences of child abduction and involvement in organized crime was made public by means of a public conference, which was broadcast by national media outlets, in violation of the principle of presumption of innocence. This caused irreparable damage to his reputation, which endures even to this day. 2 GE.22-01556