Family of missing Mexican reporter asks for DNA evidence

The family of a Mexican reporter, who has been missing since Jan. 2 and declared dead by the authorities, has asked for DNA proof of his identity, media reported on Monday.

Jorge Sanchez, son of the abducted journalist Moises Sanchez, said he and his family have doubts that the body officials claimed to be the victim's is really his father's.

"I checked the body carefully and we're not sure," the son told prominent Mexican journalist Carmen Aristegui who runs a popular daily radio news program.

Moises Sanchez was seized from his home in the town of Medellin, in Mexico's Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, by armed gunmen, who also took his computer, camera and cellphone.

Officials announced late Sunday that they had found Sanchez's badly decomposed body, and a local police officer, Clemente Noe Rodriguez, had confessed to kidnapping and killing the reporter, aided by others.

The officer stated in his confession that Medellin's mayor, Omar Cruz Reyes, ordered the killing in retaliation for critical articles on crime and insecurity in the city.

According to a non-governmental organization, Sanchez is the 15th journalist assassinated in his state in recent years. Endi