Jailed Indigenous Teacher Freed Under New Mexican Pardon Law The Washington Post
go to original November 1, 2013

Mexican teacher Alberto Patishtan Gomez, right, kisses his son Hector Patishtan, left, during a news conference in Mexico City, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. (Christian Palma/Associated Press)

MEXICO CITY — An indigenous teacher who human rights groups say was unjustly imprisoned for 13 years received a promised pardon Thursday from President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Alberto Patishtan Gomez was the first person pardoned by Pena Nieto under a recent change in Mexico’s penal code that broadened a president’s grounds for granting pardons.

... Patishtan was detained in June 2000 and charged with participating in the ambush and killing of seven police officers in the southern state of Chiapas, home to the Zapatista rebel uprising.

The newly approved law published Wednesday allows the president to pardon prisoners “when there are consistent indications of grave human rights violations” against them. The code already allowed some other kinds of limited presidential pardons.

Read the rest at The Washington Post

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