Borderland Beat by DD
some material from Mexico Voices
I
posted a story on 11/26 here on BB entitled
11 Ayotzinapa Protesters Arrested Are Denied Bail that gives more detail of the arrest.
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| Juan Daniel López Ávila (izquierda) Leaving Villa Valdama Maximum Security Prison in Veracruz Photo: AP |
Maybe
some judges are listening and paying attention.
Yesterday the 11 detainees were released from the maximum security
prisons where they were incarcerated in Veracruz and Nayarit.
District
Court 17 for Criminal Matters based in Xalapa, Veracruz, ruled that the charges
brought by members of the Federal Police and the Attorney General's Office
(PGR) against 11 people detained as suspects of vandalism committed on November
20 at the Zócalo in Mexico City, are implausible and do not conform to the
"rules of basic logic."
An official of the PJF
[Federal Judicial Police], who is familiar with the case and requested
anonymity, told this newspaper (La Jornado) that the court document
gives the impression that the list of charges was drawn up very quickly,
without either care or legal precision, and with a clear intention of
intimidating the detainees for having taken part in the November 20 march.
The
youths were arrested by riot police who violently dispersed the crowd of
protesters who remained in the Zócalo the night of Thursday, November 20, after
the massive march in support of the Ayotzinapa disappeared students.
Families
of the detainees, among whom is Lawrence Maxwell, a Chilean student, say that
several of the youths were severely beaten by police.
The
youths were charged with rioting, criminal conspiracy and attempted murder. In
the court record, it is very clear that the detainees flatly denied having
participated in the excesses. Despite that [their denial], the PGR
consigned them [to prison] under the assumption that since they were at
the rally in the Zócalo (along with tens of thousands of others0, they are
considered suspects of having participated in the attacks on police and members
of the Presidential Guard.
On the charge of attempted murder
of a federal police officer, the judge said there “is no way the
defendants tried to take the life of a
federal agent since the punches they allegedly threw mainly hit the police
shields and riot gear carried by the police and those throwing the punches
injured themselves more than the police.
He ordered the charge reduced to “attempt to injure a police officer”,
and reserved that charge for a judge in Mexico City to determine. But that charge is not considered a “serious crime”
in Mexico and did not affect their ordered release.
The judge did note that the
police officers statements alleged that the “anarchist” who tried to punch the
police officer was wearing a mask, and allegedly carrying rockets, sticks,
rocks and Molotov cocktails. But the
then pointed out that the police officers did not collect any of those items
from the defendants or from the alleged crime scene. The only evidence collected was the cell
phones of the defendants.
The court also notes that there were
"inconsistencies in the statements of the arresting officers, as the
initial number of rioters is not the same at all times, because in the first
instance it is stated that are 30, then later it says there were sixteen or
eighteen, and finally they argue that the people taking part in the commotion
and who wanted to flee are the 11 defendants who are at the disposition of this
federal court."
"With regard to the crime of criminal conspiracy, this
court considers that the information contained in the notice of disposition [document
making accused available to the court] and in the respective proceedings of
ratification by the agents of the Federal Police who signed it, it is
implausible and does not conforms to the rules of basic logic.
"In their statements, the accused declared that neither
do they know each other nor do they belong to any criminal group. The reality
is that none of them acknowledged having met in the specific place where,
according to the informative section, the events occurred (...) especially
since no irrefutable proof was offered and nothing is said in the charge sheet
with respect to the defendants as a group or as members of various cells of
people, who came together with the purpose of committing a crime."
The judge
disclosed that the General Department of Prevention of Cyber Crimes of the
Federal Police conducted a "tracking" of the emails, Facebook and
social networks of the accused without finding any "incriminating
data." As the PGR tells it, there
are indications, but not full proof, that the 11 detainees belong to groups of
anarchists that the authority has long-identified, including the Núcleo
Insurrecto Sole-Baleno, Conspiracy of Cells of the Anarchist Fire-Federation of
Mexico, Front for Animal Liberation and Subversive Front for Global Liberation.
The problem is that the SEIDO did
not provide decisive evidence to demonstrate that the eleven detainees knew
each other. The prosecutors start only from the assumption that they were part
of a conspiracy because they called each other "compa" [slang
for compañero, partner or comrade]
The judge considered that with respect to the insufficient evidence provided, he proceeded to issue a release order for lack of evidence to prosecute.
With regard to the offense of rioting, he considered that
"there was not sufficient proof to show that the
suspects were located in the circumstances of manner, time and place of
execution of the crime of rioting."
Within criminal case 45/2014, the
court noted that at 9:00 a.m. yesterday, the judge "issued an order of release, for lack of evidence in
favor of the 11 detainees, due to insufficient evidence provided by the agent
of the Public Ministry [prosecutors, investigative police; branch of PGR]
to confirm its entire body of evidence of the crimes of injury, criminal
conspiracy and rioting."
The courts, soldiers, police officers, teachers, workers AND the narcs are being held hostage to politicians who have turned themselves into the 'la autorida', who instead of serving the public, even if as drug traffickers, have had to 'diversify' and become murdering gangs of criminals to meet the economic demands of their 'autoritarian' bosses, unless they want to be arrested and put in prison or murdered by other smarter gangsters with official backing...
ReplyDelete--because they do meet the quota and pay for their plaza...
--save your local narcs, kill the politicians !!!