Three Mexican soldiers accused of taking part in a massacre of 22 gang suspects in 2014 have been freed by a judge for lack of evidence, officials said, drawing dismay from human rights groups.
The soldiers - the last of seven initially charged - were accused of killing eight of the suspected gang members in cold blood in a warehouse in the central municipality of Tlatlaya on June 30, 2014.
The army initially said the 22 suspects were killed in a shootout. But a woman who survived said many of those killed, including her 15-year-old daughter, were executed by the soldiers after surrendering.
Four of the arrested soldiers had already been released last October for lack of evidence.
Ruling in the case against the remaining three soldiers, the judge found the state had again failed to prove its case, the prosecutor's office said Friday in a statement.
However the attorney general's office said in a statement late Saturday that it will provide "evidence proving the guilt" of those three soldiers "so that they are re-apprehended and formally processed."