Mexico: No compensation for wrongly jailed Indian

Source: ap

MEXICO CITY – Mexican authorities said Tuesday there would be no compensation for an Indian market vendor who was wrongfully convicted of kidnapping and spent three years in prison in a case that provoked an international protest.

Jacinta Francisco Marcial was released last week after prosecutors decided not to contest an appeal of her 21-year sentence. London-based rights group Amnesty International demanded that she be compensated for the time spent locked up.

The Attorney General's Office said in a statement that she would not be compensated because prosecutors never proclaimed her innocence, deciding only that there was "reasonable doubt" in her conviction.

Marcial and others were convicted of holding federal agents hostage during a market raid to confiscate pirated goods. Marcial denied involvement in detaining the agents.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090922/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_indian_freed

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you're innocent until proved otherwise, states the liberal rule.
congratulations, mexico.

way to go Mexico :sarcasm:

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL USA
PRESS RELEASE
Thursday, Sept. 17, 2009

Amnesty International Welcomes Release of "Prisoner of Conscience" Jacinta Francisco Marcial
Mother of Six Was Wrongfully Imprisoned on Made-Up Kidnapping Charges after Raid on Market Stalls for DVD Piracy

(New York) -- Amnesty International said today it welcomes the release from a Mexican prison of Jacinta Francisco Marcial, a mother of six who was falsely accused in 2006 of kidnapping six federal agents. The human rights organization adopted Francisco Marcial as a prisoner of conscience this past August and has pressed for her release after concluding no evidence existed against her and she had been arrested, tried and convicted because she was poor and of indigenous heritage.

“The Mexican government has finally recognized that there was never evidence to justify Jacinta’s trial, conviction and imprisonment on charges of kidnapping,” said Kerrie Howard, deputy director of Amnesty International's Americas program.
Francisco Marcial, 46, an Otomí Indigenous woman from Santiago Mexquititlán in the Mexican state of Querétaro, was sentenced to 21 years' imprisonment in December 2006. Six agents of the Mexican Federal Investigation Agency claimed they were held hostage by Jacinta and other operators of market stalls during a raid on pirated DVD vendors on Santiago Mexquititlán square in March 2006. Francisco Marcial was arrested in August 2006 -- more than four months after the raid -- and told she was going to be questioned about the felling of a tree. However, once in prison she found out that she, along with two other women, were being accused of kidnapping the agents.

Her release raises serious questions about the reliability of the entire prosecution case and highlights clear failings in the investigation. Amnesty International is calling for a full review into her unfounded prosecution and for her to receive full compensation for unfair and wrongful imprisonment.

Howard said: “Jacinta and her family have been robbed of three years of her life while she has been detained in prison for a crime she did not commit. Nothing will bring back the time she lost in prison. However, it is vital that those responsible for this injustice are held to account and that she is fully compensated.”

Francisco Marcial was released by the judge presiding over a retrial following an appeal she won earlier this year. The judge’s decision was inevitable after the federal attorney general announced the case was being dropped due to lack of evidence.
Amnesty International has called for a full and impartial review of the investigation, including the case against co-defendants Alberta Alcántara and Teresa González, who were also convicted of kidnapping the six federal agents along with Jacinta.

More information regarding Jacinta Francisco Marcial’s story is available here: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR41/041/2009/en

source: amnesty international: http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGUSA20090917001&lang=e

Totally different view of things that English common law

Mexican law is based on Spanish law, which presumes guilt after arrest; the arrested must prove his lack of guilt, rather than the prosecutor proving guilt.