Florence Cassez
Encyclopedia
Florence Marie Louise Cassez Crepin (born 17 November 1974 in Lille
) is a French
woman convicted in Mexico
of belonging to the kidnapping gang Los Zodiaco (The Zodiacs). She is currently serving a 60-year sentence for the crimes of kidnapping, organized crime, and illegal possession of firearms. The sentence and a possible extradition to her home country has created diplomatic tensions between France and Mexico. Florence Cassez continues to claim her innocence.
A few weeks later, during a live TV show, Cassez called and confronted the head of Mexican Federal Police, Genaro García Luna, with the truth about the staged arrest. In the weeks that followed, Daniel Cabeza de Vaca, the Attorney General of Mexico, was forced to admit that the arrest seen on TV was staged. He also tried to shift the blame on journalists, claiming they had requested it. As a result, one journalist, Pablo Reinah, was fired by his TV network. Reinah filed a lawsuit for defamation. In March 2007, the Mexican justice ruled that Reinah had no knowledge that the arrest of Florence Cassez and Israel Vallarta was staged.
Since August 2006, an official probe has been launched by the Mexican police against the federal agents who arrested Florence Cassez.
The two judgments made by the Mexican tribunals are based on controversial testimonies. The victims' statements prove to be highly contradictory.
Initiated on 30 August 2010 by Florence Cassez's lawyers, the appeal en amparo is the equivalent for the court of last resort. The verdict pronounced soon by the Seventh Collegial Tribunal in the penal case covers formal points rather than the charge, which remains the same.
The court of last resort covers points on form. The request is directly addressed at the authority which pronounced the judgment, which will transfer it to a district collegial tribunal composed of three magistrates.
The three magistrates who are about to deliberate on the Cassez case are: Ricardo Ojeda Bohorquez, President of the Collegial Tribunal. Having received a doctorate of law of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), he is a federal judge since 1992 and a circuit judge since 1997; Carlos Hugo Luna Ramos, judge rapporteur. He has been a judge of a circuit tribunal since 1987; Manuel Barcena Villanueava is a specialist in penal and constitutional law, who was appointed circuit judge in 2000 through an opposition competition.
For Florence Cassez, there were could be three possible scenarios:
(1)The Seventh Circuit Tribunal could proclaim Florence Cassez innocent overturning the judgment of the court of appeals. This would result in her immediate release from prison and could return to France. This decision would have confirmed the suspicions of the defense concerning the faults in the form, but it would not affect the charges held against her; (2) The tribunal could have recognized some of the irregularities underlined in the court of last resort. In this case, new proceedings would be launched and the case would be reexamined while Cassez remained in custody; (3) The verdict could be reconfirmed; Florence Cassez would have to serve her sentence. In this case, the defense's arguments concerning the faults in the form would be judged not to be pertinent by the magistrates.
On February 10, 2011, an appeals court upheld her conviction (scenario 3) for kidnapping, The court said in a statement that her conviction and 60-year-sentence would stand. The court said prosecutors had proven Cassez's guilt in four 2005 kidnappings, and that irregularities alleged by her defense attorney had not hindered the case.
's visit to Mexico, he requested that Cassez be transferred to a French prison, something she may be entitled to under the 1983 Strasbourg Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons, signed by both France and Mexico. Felipe Calderón
agreed to setting up a binational committee to settle this matter. However, given that she has been sentenced to 61 years and that 20 years is the maximum prison term permitted in France, Mexico finally decided in June 2009 that Cassez would remain in Mexico to serve her full term.
Mexico cancelled its participation of 2011 "The Year of Mexico in France" (350 events, films, and symposia planned) as the French president Sarkozy declared that this year-long event was going to be dedicated to Cassez, and each individual event would have some sort of remembrance of the Frenchwoman.
France would present the issue at the G-20 in 2012, when Mexico takes over from France as head of the grouping.
Lille
Lille is a city in northern France . It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...
) is a French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
woman convicted in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
of belonging to the kidnapping gang Los Zodiaco (The Zodiacs). She is currently serving a 60-year sentence for the crimes of kidnapping, organized crime, and illegal possession of firearms. The sentence and a possible extradition to her home country has created diplomatic tensions between France and Mexico. Florence Cassez continues to claim her innocence.
Relationship with Israel Vallarta
In 2003, Florence Cassez arrived in Mexico in order to live and work with her brother, who was there with his Mexican wife. She met Israel Vallarta the following year through her brother. The pair began a difficult relationship that alienated her friends, who sensed that he was trouble. She returned in France the summer of 2005 but Vallarta contacted her and she returned to Mexico to live at his ranch. Cassez found a job in a hotel and looked for an apartment closer to her job.The arrest
Florence Cassez's arrest took place on Thursday, December 8, 2005 on the Mexico City-Cuernavaca Highway, as she was riding with Vallarta. She was detained a whole night, then moved to Vallarta's house in the early morning hours of Friday, December 9, 2005. The Mexican Federal Police, which had tipped several journalists, staged a fake arrest on which TV crews of Mexican networks Televisa and TV Azteca reported live. Three kidnapped victims were freed and four persons—including Cassez—arrested. Cassez was then presented as a member of the kidnapping gang "Los Zodiaco", something she has always denied. Vallarta, who was the leader of the kidnapping band, also stated that Cassez had nothing to do with his kidnapping activity.A few weeks later, during a live TV show, Cassez called and confronted the head of Mexican Federal Police, Genaro García Luna, with the truth about the staged arrest. In the weeks that followed, Daniel Cabeza de Vaca, the Attorney General of Mexico, was forced to admit that the arrest seen on TV was staged. He also tried to shift the blame on journalists, claiming they had requested it. As a result, one journalist, Pablo Reinah, was fired by his TV network. Reinah filed a lawsuit for defamation. In March 2007, the Mexican justice ruled that Reinah had no knowledge that the arrest of Florence Cassez and Israel Vallarta was staged.
Since August 2006, an official probe has been launched by the Mexican police against the federal agents who arrested Florence Cassez.
The legal case
The Federal Police claimed that three victims were held hostage in the ranch where Cassez lived from September to December 2005, which belonged to Israel Vallarta. However, a couple who owned a restaurant nearby declared that they had the keys to the ranch and that a few days before the arrest staged by the police, they could detect no victims or any suspicious activity in the ranch.The two judgments made by the Mexican tribunals are based on controversial testimonies. The victims' statements prove to be highly contradictory.
Cristina Rios Valladares' Testimony
Cristina Ríos Valladares and her 11-year-old son Cristián Hilario were two hostages freed during the events that lead to Cassez arrest. In an initial statement to the police, neither Valladares nor her son identified Florence Cassez when she was shown to them due to the fact that they had been blindfolded. In subsequent statements to the police they identified Cassez as one of their captors by her French accent, and both stated they remembered listening to her while in captivity. The son testified that Cassez drew blood from his arm and that he recognized her heavy accent. Supporters of Cassez claim that in the days following the confrontation between Cassez and Genaro García Luna on TV, Cristina Ríos Valladares had visited the Mexican Federal Police's building which according to them casts suspicion to her statement.Ezequiel Elizalde's testimony
Ezequiel Elizalde was the third hostage freed during the staged arrest. He has always accused Florence Cassez of being one of his kidnappers. He claimed that she had threatened to cut off his finger and had used a needle to anesthetize it. As proof, he showed the needle mark to the investigators and to the Mexican media. After an examination, it turned out that the "needle mark" was in fact a simple birth mark. Elizalde, who claimed that he could remember precisely every single day of his detention cannot, however, remember which day he was freed.Controversy over David Orozco's testimony
In May 2009, some Mexican TV networks aired a video provided by the Mexican Federal Police showing a statement by David Orozco, a man presented as a member of the Los Zodíacos kidnapping gang. The man identified Cassez as one of the leaders of Los Zodíacos. However, in June 2010 a court document, signed by Judge Eduardo Javier Sáenz Hernández surfaced, showing that Orozco later denied what he had said on the video. He explained that he had been coerced into making the video statement by masked policemen who had tortured him with electric shocks and who had threatened to kidnap his wife and his son. On the other hand, Isabel Miranda de Wallace, president of Alto al Secuestro confirmed that there have been many cases where Mexican kidnappers claim to have been tortured in order to deduct themselves.An Open Letter from a victim
The following is an excerpt of an open letter from Cristina Rios Valladares, who was kidnapped and held by the Zodiac gang, which Cassez is accused of being a part of. However, it has never been proven that the letter had effectively been written by Cristina Rios Valladares. A new study suggests that she is not the author, showing inconsistencies between Cristina’s statements and some of the elements mentioned in the letter.- My name is Cristina Rios Valladares and I was the victim of a kidnapping along with my husband Raul (who was released after a few hours in order to get ransom money) and son, who was 11 at the time. From 19 October to 9 December 2005 we went through an ordeal that changed our lives forever. Since then we've been forced to live abroad through fear of reprisals from group members who still walk free. My family remains devastated. We were held in captivity for 52 days in which I was sexually abused. All three of us were put through extreme psychological torture.
- On 9 December we were liberated by the Federal Agency of Investigation (AFI). Israel Vallarta and Florence Cassez were arrested and then charged with holding us. Florence, from France, presented herself as a victim in the case, not an accomplice.
- While we heard of the news of Cassez's sentencing from our hideout (we can't call a place where you're constrained to live through fear a home), we also heard her claim innocence, with the very same voice with which I heard numerous times during my detention. That French accent still echoes in my mind today. The voice which my son identifies as that which belongs to the woman who drew blood from him in order to send it, along with a human ear, supposedly my son's, to my husband.
- When I hear her cry innocence, I remember a voice twisted with rage and jealousy, shouting that if I ever touched her lover, ringleader Israel Vallarta again (she walked in on him molesting me), then I'd pay for it in person.
The legal steps of the case
- 8 December 2005 Florence Cassez is arrested.
- 9 December with TV crews filming, the police staged a “recreation” of a raid on the compound where already-freed hostages were “rescued” and Vallarta and Cassez were “arrested.”
- 25 April 2008: Cassez is condemned to 96 years in prison. She is identified as guilty of the following: organized crime; illegal deprivation of three people's liberty; possession of firearms used exclusively by the army.
- 2 March 2009: The sentence is reduced to 76 years in prison. Then to 60 years to conform to the Mexican legislation which sets this time span as the limit of incarceration.
- 2009 Cassez claims that the International Strasbourg Convention, signed by Mexico, would allow her 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 that was finally denied. Because in France she will not have 60 years in jail as in Mexico. And because France can not ensure the punishment, she has to stay in Mexico.
- In August 2010, the lawyers for Florence Cassez filed an appeal to the Mexican Supreme Court, arguing that the arrest of Cassez is unconstitutional and that the rights of their client were violated.
- On February 10, 2011, the appeals court upheld her conviction for kidnapping.
Appeal to the Mexican Supreme Court
In August 2010, Florence Cassez's lawyers filed an appeal to the Mexican Supreme Court, arguing that the arrest of Cassez is unconstitutional and that the rights of their client were violated.Initiated on 30 August 2010 by Florence Cassez's lawyers, the appeal en amparo is the equivalent for the court of last resort. The verdict pronounced soon by the Seventh Collegial Tribunal in the penal case covers formal points rather than the charge, which remains the same.
The court of last resort covers points on form. The request is directly addressed at the authority which pronounced the judgment, which will transfer it to a district collegial tribunal composed of three magistrates.
The three magistrates who are about to deliberate on the Cassez case are: Ricardo Ojeda Bohorquez, President of the Collegial Tribunal. Having received a doctorate of law of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), he is a federal judge since 1992 and a circuit judge since 1997; Carlos Hugo Luna Ramos, judge rapporteur. He has been a judge of a circuit tribunal since 1987; Manuel Barcena Villanueava is a specialist in penal and constitutional law, who was appointed circuit judge in 2000 through an opposition competition.
For Florence Cassez, there were could be three possible scenarios:
(1)The Seventh Circuit Tribunal could proclaim Florence Cassez innocent overturning the judgment of the court of appeals. This would result in her immediate release from prison and could return to France. This decision would have confirmed the suspicions of the defense concerning the faults in the form, but it would not affect the charges held against her; (2) The tribunal could have recognized some of the irregularities underlined in the court of last resort. In this case, new proceedings would be launched and the case would be reexamined while Cassez remained in custody; (3) The verdict could be reconfirmed; Florence Cassez would have to serve her sentence. In this case, the defense's arguments concerning the faults in the form would be judged not to be pertinent by the magistrates.
On February 10, 2011, an appeals court upheld her conviction (scenario 3) for kidnapping, The court said in a statement that her conviction and 60-year-sentence would stand. The court said prosecutors had proven Cassez's guilt in four 2005 kidnappings, and that irregularities alleged by her defense attorney had not hindered the case.
Impact on French-Mexican Relations
On 9 March 2009, during Nicolas SarkozyNicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....
's visit to Mexico, he requested that Cassez be transferred to a French prison, something she may be entitled to under the 1983 Strasbourg Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons, signed by both France and Mexico. Felipe Calderón
Felipe Calderón
Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa is the current President of Mexico. He assumed office on December 1, 2006, and was elected for a single six-year term through 2012...
agreed to setting up a binational committee to settle this matter. However, given that she has been sentenced to 61 years and that 20 years is the maximum prison term permitted in France, Mexico finally decided in June 2009 that Cassez would remain in Mexico to serve her full term.
Mexico cancelled its participation of 2011 "The Year of Mexico in France" (350 events, films, and symposia planned) as the French president Sarkozy declared that this year-long event was going to be dedicated to Cassez, and each individual event would have some sort of remembrance of the Frenchwoman.
France would present the issue at the G-20 in 2012, when Mexico takes over from France as head of the grouping.
External links
- www.innocentvictimsinmexico.wordpress.com
- www.mexicoporflorencecassez.wordpress.com
- Florence Cassez, Political Hostage in Mexico: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9kmlf_Eyvc
- http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/graficos/graficosanimados11/EU_cassez/
- La carta de Cristina Rios Valladares es falsa: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO1AQIMr54U
- (FR) Libérez Florence Cassez The official website of the French support comite
- (FR) United Artist for Florence Cassez Videos and MP3 from musicians who support Florence Cassez
- (SP) http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/graficos/graficosanimados11/EU_cassez/ Florence foto album.
- (FR) Florence-Inocente.com - French Florence Inocente, French Version.
- (SP) Florence-Inocente.com - Spanish Florence Inocente, Spanish Version.