The former companion of Florence Cassez acquitted in Mexico after almost twenty years in prison, without trial

The case had provoked a long diplomatic crisis between Mexico City and Paris. A judge acquitted Israel Vallarta. imprisoned without judgment for almost twenty years after being arrested for kidnapping with her partner at the time, the French Florence Cassez, announced on Friday 1^is August, the authorities.

The acquittal of Israel Vallarta was pronounced on Thursday evening, said the Minister of the Interior, Rosa Icela Rodriguez. Apprehended at the same time as him in 2005. M^me Cassez had been released in 2013, after providing proof that there had been procedural vices.

Lupita Vallarta. Israel Vallarta’s sister, told the France-Presse (AFP) agency to be “Very happy” of this outcome, while being prey to “Mixed feelings” After “Terrible twenty years” of « combat » Before the courts.

“A judge decided to release him”said, evoking the court decision concerning Mr. Vallarta, the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, during her morning press conference. “We cannot forget how the arrest went”she added, qualifying her broadcast live at the time of “TV montage”.

M^me Sheinbaum has attributed responsibility for this operation to Genaro Garcia Luna. then director of the Federal Investigation Agency and Future Minister of Public Security in Mexico, currently behind bars in the United States for his links with the powerful Sinaloa cartel.

Legal reform – Former companion florence cassez acquitted

This affair. emblematic of the slowness of criminal procedures in Mexico, former companion florence cassez acquitted is one of those that the government of former president Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador (2018-2024) had put forward to promote a judicial reform which led to the unprecedented election of magistrates on 1^is June.

By ordering the release of Florence Cassez in 2013. the Supreme Court of Mexico had determined that she and her friend had been arrested and then taken to a farm where he had been proceeded “A staging of their arrest”according to a summary of the judgment. The Frenchwoman says that she was captured on a road south of Mexico City. then taken to the Ranch “Las Chinitas”, where her arrest would then have been simulated in front of several media.

In an interview former companion florence cassez acquitted broadcast on Televisa in 2006, Genaro Garcia Luna himself recognized that the media had arrived on this after-the-control property. At the time. the authorities said that three victims of kidnappings had been released from this ranch: an 11 -year -old boy, a woman and a man.