Mexican Supreme Court Orders Atenco Prisoners Free

Mexican Supreme Court Orders Atenco Prisoners Freed

On Wednesday June 30 the Supreme Court of Mexico overturned the convictions of the twelve political prisoners of Atenco, following four years of national and international struggle by their supporters.

The court cited insufficient evidence as the reason for overturning the men's kidnapping sentences, which ranged from 31 to 112 years imprisonment.

In a press statement, the Court said "Authorities based the case on false and weak suppositions...They charged the defendants simply for the fact they were at the scene of the events."

The judges also concluded that the presumption of innocence was not respected by prosecutors.

The nine prisoners held in Molino de Flores prison - Oscar Hernández Pacheco, Rodolfo Cuellar Rivera, Julio César Espinoza Ramos, Juan Carlos Estrada Cruces, Edgar Eduardo Morales Reyes, Jorge Alberto and Roman Adam Romero Ordóñez, Narciso Arellano Hernandez and Alejandro Pilon Zacate - were released immediately, while the three FPDT leaders in the Altiplano maximum security prison - Ignacio del Valle, Felipe Álvarez and Héctor Galindo - were released on Friday and Saturday.

The twelve were detained during the events of 3rd and 4th May 2006, when police tried to arrest peasant farmers selling flowers at a market slated for demolition to make way for a Walmart. When locals went to the flower-sellers aid and held off the police, municipal, state and federal police gathered in a massive show of force, violently invading the town of Atenco. Two youths, Alexis Benhumea and Francisco Javier Cortes, were killed by police and over 200 people were arrested. Dozens of homes were invaded without warrants, and hundreds of people were tear-gassed and beaten. 26 women suffered serious sexual assaults and rape by police, in attacks later described by Amnesty International and other human rights organisations as "torture".

While the twelve political prisoners of Atenco remained behind bars for four years, not one member of the municipal, state, or federal police has even been charged with any of the serious assaults and killings perpetrated by them against the people of Atenco and their supporters.

ENDS

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