CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- A man accused of being one of Mexico's most notorious hired killers says his confessions were false and extracted through torture.

Mexican authorities say Juan Alfredo Soto Arias is guilty of the slaughter of 15 young people at a Ciudad Juarez birthday party, the killing of a U.S. Air Force sergeant and the assassination of a Mexican reporter targeted for his organized crime coverage, the Houston Chronicle reported.


But Soto Arias, 29, a junkyard owner, has been convicted of nothing, and his torture complaint is being investigated by Mexico's human rights commission. Prosecutors did not respond to the Chronicle's questions about his case.

Many other crime suspects and ordinary citizens have made similar allegations about disappearances, extra-judicial killings and torture at the hands of the Mexican military and police.

More than 4,000 such human rights complaints have been filed since 2006, when President Felipe Calderon took office and sent the military to fight a drug war, said a report last week by the Washington Office on Latin America and the Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center.

Soto Arias said that after soldiers detained him he was beaten, stripped naked and sexually assaulted with a tool before confessing.