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Latest update: 05/02/2010
- Florence Cassez - France - Mexico - Nicolas Sarkozy
French national Florence Cassez to serve 60-year sentence in Mexico
French woman Florence Cassez, sentenced to 60 years of prison in Mexico for kidnapping, will not be repatriated to France, Mexican President Felipe Calderon has announced.
Florence Cassez, a 34-year-old French woman jailed in Mexico for kidnapping, will serve her 60-year sentence in Mexico, Mexican President Felipe Calderon said on Monday. Her plea to be repatriated to serve the sentence had been backed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Mexico's ambassador to France, Carlos de Icaza, told FRANCE 24 that this was a legal matter, not a political one. "There are no conditions to offer a transfer... Mexican law does not authorise lowering sentences in some cases. Kidnapping and murder have the same prison sentence in Mexico."
During an earlier official visit, Sarkozy had asked Calderon to consider letting Cassez serve her sentence in France.
The detainee’s family and her lawyer claimed that the International Strasbourg Convention, signed by Mexico, would allow Cassez to be transferred to a French jail. At French insistence, Mexico set up a committee of legal experts from France and Mexico to study the transfer.
Calderon said Monday that the committee had determined that it was impossible to return Cassez to France under the convention.
The Zodiac gang
Cassez was arrested in December 2005, when police launched an assault on a ranch where three people were being held hostage. The victims, including an eight-year-old girl, were being held for ransom.
She was caught with her boyfriend, Israel Vallarta, whom Mexican justice considers the head of the “Zodiac” kidnapping gang.
Cassez said she was never aware of her ex-boyfriend’s criminal activities. She met him in 2004 while working in a hotel in Mexico, she said, where Israel Vallarta introduced himself as a car salesman.
Another gang member arrested on May 5, David Orozco Hernandez, said that the French woman was actually a leader of the “Zodiac” gang and actively took part in kidnappings and retrieving ransoms.
Calderon is under popular pressure to crack down on kidnappings, a lucrative activity for criminal gangs in Mexico, where 8,000 people are kidnapped every year.
Several Mexican politicians and the news media have expressed outrage at the prospect of French authorities’ further cutting Cassez’s jail term, saying it would send a message of leniency to foreign criminals.
Cassez was initially sentenced to 96 years in jail, but a Mexican appeal court cut her term to 60 years.
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Comments (9)
Why is she still alive ?? Baby stealer !!
The only reason is that Mexico does not have the death penalty.
Hasta la vista you bich !!
sentencing
i think that it is fair that she should serve her time in Mexico regardless of where she's from... i just can't help feel bad for her. the sentencing is a bit extreme; i understand that she was part of a horrible crime (according to witnesses) but others (men) have gotten away with serving less years for such a crime, i am glad that the current president is cracking down on crime in mexico and i hope he continues to do so but 60 years is a bit much. it just seems to me that she is being made an example because of who she is... a foreigner... the attention she's garnered. i'm mexican btw.
it wouldn't be fair
I am from Mexico and there might be people in other countries including french who think Florence cassez its been judged wrong because of the fame Mexico's got. But believe me here in Mexico the witnesses who are well Known people have recognized her completely. And Calderon is trying to do his best we are recognizing his effort. I dont doubt the girl could regret what she did. But its one of the most terrible crimes; kidnapping
Moderator
I did not think that my comment was in any form abusive. Just reflects my opinion about Sarkozy coming to another country and trying to influence the law. That is just plain arrogant. And also making a point about Mexicans not being anti any culture... that on the other hand seems xenophobic.
Cassez
She would have been better off here in the uk ,if what she's accused of , they're getting away with blue murder over here with situations like that1
making a point
In Mexico, kidnappings are a plague, and I as a small business owner can be a prime target. Everyday, I always make sure not make the same routine when leaving or entering my place. Thank god for Calderon, he is just simply making a strong statement since he recognizes that this plague of kidnappers affect the Mexican economy.
making a point
In Mexico, kidnappings are a plague, and I as a small business owner can be a prime target. Everyday, I always make sure not make the same routine when leaving or entering my place. Thank god for Calderon, he is just simply making a strong statement since he recognizes that this plague of kidnappers affect the Mexican economy.
Why would you even ask for her?
If i was president I would have thanked Mexico and never even asked for her return.
Criminal justice.
Usual moronic pleas from our politicans,and the collective c**p at the top,more interested in the welfare of criminals than its victims.ps has anybody told this collective body at the top ,they talk c**p.