Mexico City -
Mexico's Supreme Judicial Court (SCJN), the highest appellate tribunal in the country, today ruled firmly in favor of convicted French national Florence Cassez, and ordered her immediate discharge.
Cassez, a prisoner of Mexico's Dept. of Corrections for the last 85 months, could be set free in hours.
Some news sources are reporting that French diplomatic vehicles have already been spotted on the grounds of the women's correctional institute south of this city, where Cassez is being held.
(6:00 p.m. - A convoy carrying Cassez and French consular officials has just left the prison, on its way to Mexico City International Airport. Family members of Zodiac victims cried and cursed as it passed by, screaming out, "Kidnapper! Murderer! Damn you!" The convoy had a heavy federal and state police escort. Press photos of Cassez and her father at the airport show both wearing bullet proof vests.)
The court's judgment shocked and angered some spectators, who called it "fraudulent" and argued that it showed gross disrespect for victims' rights. In a nationally televised interview one man told the Milenio network that during her seven year incarceration, "Cassez was queen of the jailhouse."
Others hailed the decision as a great victory for Mexico, which is frequently accused of disregarding core legal rights of the criminally accused.
The ruling came today after several hours of tense arguments before division 1 of the court, at its seat in the nation's capital. Three of the five judges, known as ministers, granted the appeal, finding that Cassez is entitled to freedom. Their legal reasoning varied significantly, but all soundly concurred in the required remedy. Two judges dissented. They acknowledged constitutional violations, but found that those had had no measurable impact on the determination of Cassez' guilt at her trial years ago.
This was the second time in 10 months the Supreme Court had considered Cassez' bid for freedom, and likely was her last bite at the apple.
Cassez, a 38 year old French citizen, was serving a 60 year term for kidnapping and other crimes. Mexican prosecutors say she and her former boyfriend were the leaders of a gang known as Los Zodiaco (the Zodiacs), which held numerous victims for ransom in the mid-2000s. Her conviction was upheld by several lower courts over the years, as well as by the SCJN itself last March 21.
But the court recently agreed to reconsider the case. Today three ministers voted solidly in Cassez' favor and sustained her appeal, albeit on very different grounds.
The Supreme Court's decision was based strictly on legal technicalities, not on the facts of the case, which several of the judges went to great lengths to emphasize. In delivering his own opinion from the bench, one judge stressed, "I do not reweigh the evidence anew, or reconsider the facts of the case as determined by lower courts. I do not pass upon factual guilt or innocence. I merely decide that the many procedural violations by officials vitiated Cassez' right to due process - a guaranteed legal right as well as an internationally recognized human right."
At the heart of the case was a series of embarrassing errors which may or may not have influenced the determination of Cassez' culpability. After she and her boyfriend were arrested in December 2005 near a rural ranch where kidnap victims were being held, federal police reenacted the entire event for the press the next day. That media show, condemned by many legal experts as a montaje (staged affair), interfered with Cassez' prompt presentation before a magistrate - her right under the Mexican criminal code. There were also delays in notifying French consular officials in Mexico, which violated treaties between the two countries and international law. Finally, defense attorneys claimed that as part of the montaje, police encouraged rescued kidnap victims to embellish their stories implicating Cassez. But some of those victims still firmly adhere to their original accounts and trial testimony.
Today's hearing was heavily attended by the international press. France's ambassador to Mexico was present in the court's chamber. Cassez' father arrived from Paris yesterday, anticipating legal victory. Convicted prisoners are never brought to Supreme Court arguments, which tightly focus on whether proper legal procedures were followed in a case and whether the accused received a fundamentally fair trial. Cassez remained in her jail cell "tensely awaiting" the decision, according to news sources.
There is no appeal from SCJN rulings. Mexico's government consists of three branches, exactly like the United States, and the executive branch is obliged to promptly carry out decisions of the judicial. Mexico's new PRI government, which has no option but to obey and enforce the ruling, could release Cassez later today. It's widely expected that she'll be technically deported at the same time, which would prevent her return to Mexico for years - or forever.
Today's action by the Supreme Court is sure to be controversial. A March 2012 national poll showed that 65% of those questioned here remain firmly convinced of her guilt. But the ruling removes a thorn from the side of French-Mexican diplomatic relations, which were put to the test in recent years by the long running litigation that periodically resurfaced in lower courts. There is no doubt that Mexico's new president, Enrique Peña Nieto, is much relieved to have the matter concluded - especially at the hands of a branch of government over which he has no direct control.
News service reports in France, monitored in Mexico, said the announcement was received there late in the evening, with an "explosion of joy."
Jan. 23 - Opinion: No justice for Mexicans in Florence Cassez ruling
Jan. 27 - López Obrador: Peña Nieto leaned on Supreme Court to free Cassez
Jan. 10 - Florence Cassez, once more to Mexico's Supreme Court
June 11 - Supreme Court will again review Cassez case, under continuing pressure from France
Mar. 22 - Blind Mexican justice - but for everyone?
Mar. 21 - Supreme Court splits on the legal issues, but upholds 60 year sentence of Florence Cassez
Mar. 13 - Raging Cassez debate spotlights Mexico's unique emphasis on crime victims' rights
Mar. 8 - Controversy flares in Florence Cassez case
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