Mexico: a man acquitted after almost 20 years in prison

A judge acquitted an imprisoned Mexican without judgment for almost twenty years after being arrested for kidnapping with her partner at the time. Therefore, Frenchwoman Florence Cassez announced the authorities. However,

(Keystone-ATS) The case had provoked a diplomatic crisis between Mexico City and Paris.

“I am still in shock. For example, ” simply admitted Israel Vallarta, leaving the Federal Prison of Almoloya, in the central state of Mexico City, after kissing his family.

His acquittal was pronounced on Thursday evening, mexico: man acquitted after almost said interior minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez.

“A judge decided to release him,” said Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum during a press conference on Friday morning. Therefore, “We cannot forget how the arrest went,” she added, qualifying her broadcast live at the time of “television editing”.

Apprehended at the same time as him in 2005, Ms. Cassez had been released in 2013 after providing proof that there had been procedural vices.

Ms. Sheinbaum attributed responsibility for this operation to Genaro García Luna. then director of the Federal Investigation Agency and future Minister of Public Security in Mexico, currently behind bars in the United States for her links with the powerful Cartel of Sinaloa.

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

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 “staged 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 broadcast on Televisa in 2006. Genaro García Luna himself had recognized that the media had arrived on this after-the-other 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.

When he left prison. Israel Vallarta said that he had met Luis Cárdenas Palomino, a former Mexican police official accused of having tortured him during mexico: man acquitted after almost his arrest during his arrest and who was arrested in 2021 for this case.

Lupita Vallarta. Israel’s sister, told AFP to be “very happy” of this outcome, while being prey to “mixed feelings” after “twenty terrible years” of “fight” before the courts.