Mexico - Court Orders the Immediate Release of the Twelve Atenco Prisoners

From: "Political Prisoner News" ppnews@freedomarchives.org
Date: Tue, July 6, 2010

We have some WONDERFUL NEWS to share for a
change. ALL 12 ATENCO PRISONERS WERE RELEASED
FROM PRISON late Thursday night. There were last
minute attempts to arrest the three main
activists on other charges after the Supreme
Court ordered their release early Wednesday
afternoon, so we were all slogging around in the
cold rain and mud out there at the maximum
security prison before they finally came out one
at a time beginning at 9:30 Thursday night,
exonerated of all charges. (The 9 prisoners at
the other prison, Molino de Flores, had gotten
out the night before.)

It's really a major triumph because, if you
remember, Ignacio del Valle was sentenced to 112
and a half years, Felipe Álvarez and Héctor
Galindo to 67 and a half years, and the other
nine to almost 32 years. They came out with a
fighting spirit, denying corporate media claims
that justice has been done, and vowing to first
get America del Valle's charges dropped so she
can come home to her family, and then to get the
state criminals punished for their crimes. To get
the flavor of their release, you can watch a cool video at
http://www.youtube.com/v/T0sBMfgUIuM&hl=es&fs=1

Lots of people came up and said things like "This
shows we can get Mumia and all the other
political prisoners out, too. The State is NOT invincible!"

We'll be spreading the word about these new
developments against Mumia at the big celebration in Atenco tomorrow.

OnaMOVE, Carolina

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Court Orders the Immediate Release of the Twelve Atenco Prisoners

http://www.narconews.com/Issue65/article4147.html

Ignacio del Valle, Among the Freed





By Anne Vigna
Special to the Narco News Bulletin

June 30, 2010

The judges of the First Court of Mexico’s High
Tribunal today ordered, via telegram, the
immediate release of twelve political prisoners
from the town of Atenco. Their freedom is
effective immediately, today, June 30. The Court
concluded that the evidence did not exist to
sustain the charge of “organized kidnapping,” in
particular the use of photographs as evidence.
The judges also concluded that the presumption of
innocence was not respected by prosecutors. They
also concluded that the crime of “organized
kidnapping” does not even appear in Mexican law.

In the cases of Ignacio del Valle and Felipe
Alvarez, the judges stressed that the meetings at
which officials of the State of Mexico were
detained by citizens (February 8 and April 6 of
2006) had the goal of holding a dialogue to
improve educational conditions in the state and
that their detention was not premeditated, and
that the officials were released within 48 hours
unharmed. The decision to detain them was made
after citizens objected to the repeated absence
of the state Secretary of Education in the talks.
All the defendents received a protective order
prohibiting their arrest from the Court.

Outside the courthouse, members of the Popular
Front in Defense of the Land and of the Justice
and Peace Committee for Atenco witnessed the end
of a four year struggle that “was not in vain” as
Trini, wife of Ignacio del Valle, told the crowd.
“I see tears of happiness in the eyes of my
compañeros and I would like to say thank you to
everyone, thank you to the Mexican people and
international solidarity. The federal and state
governments are not invincible!” The mothers of
the prisoners held at the Molino de las Flores
prison were barely able to speak with reporters
due to the emotion in their voices. The mother of
Hector Galindo, the last prisoner freed by the
judges, said, “for justice to begin we want those
who are guilty of this barbarity to be in prison
now. Today, only the injustice was stopped.”

Various of former Atenco prisoners were present
and highly emotional. 1997 Nobel Peace Prize
laureate Jody Williams also attended the court
session. Leaving the courthouse, she took the microphone:

“At last, to the people of Atenco who have
suffered so much, there comes a hope of justice.
I am going to inform my fellow Nobel Peace Prize
laureates, above all Desmond Tutu, who is right
now praying for the people of Atenco.”

An hour later, the members of the movement headed
out to find their prisoners at two penitentiaries in the State of Mexico.