PRI Senator: 'Union Leader Elba Esther Gordillo's Amparo Not a Defeat for Justice' Victor Mayen - The News
go to original September 26, 2013

In this photo released by Mexico's federal court system, the head of Mexico's powerful teachers' union, Elba Esther Gordillo, stands behind bars as she appears for a hearing at a federal prison in Mexico City, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. (AP/Juzgado Sexto de Distrito en Procesos Penales Federales)

MEXICO CITY – Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) Senator Omar Fayad Meneses said on Wednesday that he feels the amparo granted to former National Education Worker’s Union (SNTE) leader Elba Esther Gordillo, who was arrested in February on corruption charges, does not represent a defeat for the Attorney General and his attempts to bring her to justice.

Gordillo was granted an amparo (a type of protection order) by a federal judge on Tuesday, who said that the Attorney General’s Office may not have followed due process in jailing the former union boss. Despite the amparo, Gordillo remains in jail.

“This doesn’t mean that at the heart of the matter, they set you free,” Fayad Meneses said. “It’s a part of the process. Whenever there are omissions or errors, there can be all types of consequences, as we saw in the case of Florence Cassez,” he added, referring to the case of a French citizen who was arrested in 2005 on kidnapping charges, but was freed earlier this year due to procedural irregularities.

Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) Parliamentary Coordinator Miguel Barbosa Huerta also referred to the Cassez case, saying that, “Recent precedents show that the authorities carrying out an investigation need to follow due process … this doesn’t just happen at the federal level, but in the judicial system all over the country.”

See the original at The News

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