CAT/C/72/D/992/2020 (she was forced to undress and faced excessive delays in entering every time she complained about the abuse). 3.11 Moreover, M.M.B.H., the daughter of Mr. Gallardo Martínez and Ms. Barranco Hernández, who was 9 years of age at the time of the arrest, was an eyewitness to the arbitrary detention of her father and the attack against the security infrastructure of her home. Along with her mother, she suffered harassment and persecution, had to move three times and change schools. She also suffered social stigmatization, as her father had been publicly accused of being a child kidnapper. For the duration of her father’s imprisonment, she was unable to visit him due to the distance involved and the vexatious protocols for entering the prison. This situation imposed physical and emotional distance between father and daughter at a time when the presence of a father figure is of vital importance for the development of a child’s personality. 3.12 At the time of his arrest, Mr. Gallardo Martínez’s three minor children from his first marriage, L.K.G.C., who was 16 years of age, X.K.G.C., who was 13 years of age, and E.R.K.G.C., who was 12 years of age, were living in their paternal grandparents’ house in their indigenous community, which they had to leave in 2014 due to the climate of harassment that the situation had created. 3.13 Gregorio Gallardo Vásquez, the father of Mr. Gallardo Martínez and a 75-year-old retired indigenous teacher, also travelled from his community to the main square of Oaxaca City, where he stayed from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day to demand justice for his son, in the hope of receiving attention and a response from the authorities. He also frequently took part in activities to speak out against the injustice being committed against his son, which took a significant physical and emotional toll on him and has had a permanent effect on his physical and mental health. During the 5 years, 7 months and 10 days that his son spent in detention, he visited him regularly at the prison, which was located approximately 15 hours away from his home; this situation has taken a serious economic, physical and emotional toll on him, owing to the ill-treatment that he suffered during his visits to the prison, where he was forced to follow protocols that violated his dignity and whose psychological and emotional impact was all the more significant because he was indigenous and an older adult. 3.14 Felicitas Martínez Vargas, the mother of Mr. Gallardo Martínez, who cannot read or write Spanish, frequently visited her son in prison, where she suffered ill-treatment for doing so, which has placed a serious physical and emotional strain on her. This has a particularly serious impact, taking into account the differential effect of this humiliation on an older indigenous woman. Moreover, on occasion, she was arbitrarily denied entry for wearing indigenous footwear, which constituted a serious abuse of authority and racial discrimination. 3.15 Mr. Gallardo Martínez’s five siblings have been seriously affected by his detention. Florencia Gallardo Martínez was the first member of the family to be able to enter and see her brother after his arrest, suffering harassment by the authorities during her visit. The highly stressful and exhausting nature of the whole process damaged her health: her diabetes worsened, with stress being a factor precipitating the disease, and the associated emotional and psychological damage has had an impact on her social relations and life with her partner. The costs associated with mounting a legal defence were largely borne by her, and she had to put aside several personal (the building of her house) and professional projects, which significantly disrupted her life plan. 3.16 Idolina Gallardo Martínez, a teacher, led a series of public protests after her brother’s arrest, coordinating the activities of the Committee of Relatives and Friends of Damián Gallardo Martínez. She suffered persecution because of these actions, which led her to request protection measures from the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman of Oaxaca, together with Ms. Barranco Hernández.11 She was also the family member who visited the prison most frequently, acting as a family liaison to ensure that there was constant contact with her brother, which required her to abandon her doctoral dissertation in the final trimester. To cover her travel expenses, she had to sell a plot of land that was of symbolic importance to the family and on which she was going to build her house. She also miscarried while facing various stressful situations, and her relationship with her partner and her partner’s children 11 8 Case file No. DDHPO/CA/1389/30/OAX/2014. GE.22-01556