| Florence Cassez |
| Born |
Florence Marie Louise Cassez Crepin
(1974-11-17)17 November 1974
Lille, France |
| Charge(s) |
Kidnaping, organized crime and illegal possession of firearms |
| Penalty |
60 years |
| Status |
Imprisoned in the Women's Rehabilitation Centre of Tepepan, Xochimilco |
| Spouse |
Israel Vallarta (partner) |
| Parents |
Bernard Cassez and Charlotte Crepin |
Florence Marie Louise Cassez Crepin[1] (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.
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 to France in 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.[2]
Florence Cassez's arrest took place on Thursday, 8 December 2005 on the Mexico City-Cuernavaca Highway, as she was riding with Vallarta. She had been living with him, and they were seen together always.[3] She was detained overnight, then moved to Vallarta's house in the early morning hours of Friday, 9 December 2005. The Mexican Federal Police, which had tipped off several journalists, staged a fake arrest on which TV crews of Mexican networks Televisa and TV Azteca reported live.[2] 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.[4] Vallarta, who was the leader of the kidnapping band, also stated that Cassez had nothing to do with his kidnapping activity.[5] Mexican public opinion agrees she is "undoubtedly guilty", but the question is whether judges should give preference the legal procedure over justice, and so free Cassez, as demanded by Nicolas Sarkozy. The main irregularity is on legal procedures regarding the way to arrest an individual, but no doubt exists about whether she participated in the kidnapping of people with special cruelty.[6]
A few weeks later, during a live television show, Cassez called and confronted the head of Mexican Federal Police, Genaro García Luna, with the truth about the staged arrest.[7] 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.[8] As a result, one journalist, Pablo Reinah, was fired by his TV network.[8] 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.[9]
Since August 2006, an official probe has been launched by the Mexican police against the federal agents who arrested Florence Cassez.[10] In March 21, 2012, Three Ministers of the Mexican Supreme Court, concluded that many fundamental rights of Florence Cassez were violated in her arrest. Later that week the Procuraduría General de la República declared that it would start an investigation to search for those responsible of violating her fundamental rights and for staging the arrest.
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.
Cristina Ríos Valladares, and her 11-year-old son Cristián Hilario claimed that they were hostages of Florence Cassez. They were held hostage for 52 days, from 9 October 2005 to 9 December 2005. During their captivity, the victims were blindfolded and only heard the voices of their kidnappers. In their first declaration, they didn't recognized Cassez's voice.[11] However the victims later changed their testimony claiming it was Cassez who would taunt them and torture them.[12]
Ezequiel Elizalde was the third hostage freed during the staged arrest. He was held hostage for 65 days. In his testimony he claims he was sexual and physically abused by Cassez and her boyfriend. Elizalde, also declared that they would give him baths, where he was forced to be blind-folded and handcuffed.[13] He also testified that Cassez had threatened to cut off his finger and ear, and Cassez had even used a needle to anaesthetize his hand. However it was proved that, Elizalde's wound, was actually a birthmark.[14] Ezequiel Elizalde now lives in the US. He continues to maintain that Florence Cassez was one of his kidnappers.
In May 2009, some Mexican TV networks aired a video provided by the Mexican Federal Police[15] 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.[16][17] On the other hand, Isabel Miranda de Wallace, president of Alto al Secuestro[clarification needed] confirmed that there have been many cases where Mexican kidnappers claim to have been tortured in order to exonerate themselves.[18]
The following is an excerpt of an open letter from Cristina Rios Valladares, who was kidnapped and held by the Zodiac gang, of which Cassez is accused of being a member. However, it has never been proven that the letter had effectively been written by Cristina Rios Valladares.[19]
- 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 during 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 at 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.[20]
- 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 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 which was ultimately 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.
- 10 February 2012: the appeals court upheld her conviction for kidnapping.
- 21 March 2012: the Mexican Supreme court rejects, 3–2, Florence Cassez' release petition.
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.[21]
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,[22] 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,[23] judge rapporteur. He has been a judge of a circuit tribunal since 1987; Manuel Barcena Villanueava[24] 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:[25] (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 re-examined 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.
March 7, 2012. The Mexican Supreme Court reporter proposes freeing Florence Cassez based on the following reasons; The non respect of the presumption of innocence, the non respect of consular rights and the delay in presentation before the justice. A decision by five judges to whom the request was delivered is expected for the 21 March, according to the Cassez' lawyer.
On March 21, 2012, The Mexican Supreme Court rejected the appeal and proposal of freeing Cassez by a 3-2 decision.[26] The court accepted there was police misconduct and violations of Ms Cassez's rights after her detention.[27] “Four Supreme Court judges say that my client had a truncated trial, she had her rights violated, that evidence was fabricated, so today we are angry and ashamed,” said her lawyer Frank Berton.[28] The court asked Judge Olga Sanchez to review the case which could lead to a re-trial.[28]
On 9 March 2009, during Nicolas Sarkozy'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.[29] 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.[30]
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.[31]
France would present the issue at the G-20 in 2012, when Mexico takes over from France as head of the grouping.[31] At present there is international pressure to release Cassez, headed by Sarkozy.[32]
Mexican public opinion is divided between those who say Cassez should remain in jail and those who proclaim her innocence and freedom. For some Mexicans, the Cassez affair is a case of crime and punishment, and for others is a matter of administration of justice. For the current administration it is vital that Cassez remains in jail, because it helps to support the "legality" of the current Mexican Drug War and national public security policies. Intellectuals, such as Denise Dresser,[33] Carmen Aristegui, and Mexican Writer Jorge Volpi, are among those who advocate liberty for Cassez, based on the illegality of the process. On the other hand, anti-crime activist Isabel Miranda de Wallace is among those who claim that victim rights are more important than the Cassez affair.
- ^ http://www.cjf.gob.mx/documentos/notasInformativas/docsNotasInformativas/2011/notaInformativa3.pdf
- ^ a b Malkin, Elisabeth, A Cause Célèbre Clouds Mexican Sentiment on Kidnapping Scourge, The New York Times, 8 April 2009, retrieved 16 February 2011
- ^ Journalist: Mexican Police Fabricated Evidence in Cassez Case, Latin American Herald Tribune
- ^ Tuckman, Jo Mexico admits hostage rescue was staged for TV. The Guardian, 16 February 2006
- ^ Steels, Emmanuel Florence Cassez, le piège mexicain Libération, 25 June 2009
- ^ El Caso Florence Cassez, Noticieros Televisa, 14 March 2012
- ^ Sarkozy wil Française redden Algemeen Dagblad (Dutch), 6 March 2009
- ^ a b Tuckman, Jo, Mexico admits hostage rescue was staged for TV, The Guardian, 16 February 2006
- ^ Française slachtoffer van 'mise-en-scène' door Mexicaanse politie De Standaard (Dutch), 21 April 2010
- ^ Investigation into possible miscarriage of justice raises hopes for Cassez France24, 22 July 2010
- ^ 25 reasons to free Florence Cassez, Proceso (Spanish), Reason no. 5
- ^ Las víctimas ignoradas de Cassez Expatica.com, 3 June 2011
- ^ Los 65 días que viví con mis secuestradores jamás los voy a olvidar Ezequiel Elizalde YouTube, last access on March 10, 2011
- ^ 25 reasons to free Florence Cassez, Proceso (Spanish), Reason no. 13
- ^ Vídeo detención David Orozco YouTube, last access on July 24, 2010
- ^ Royer, Yuka Key testimony against Cassez 'obtained under duress' France 24, 4 June 2010
- ^ Mexican said he lied in case of jailed French woman Expatica.com, 03 June 2010
- ^ http://www.20minutes.fr/article/670535/monde-affaire-florence-cassez-je-sure-100-coupable
- ^ Cristinas's Rios Valladares letter is false (Spanish)
- ^ Rios Valladares, Cristina Original Open Letter from Cristina Rios Valladares in Spanish' June 13, 08
- ^ Royer, Yuka Frenchwoman charged with kidnapping appeals 60-year sentence France 24, 30 August 2010
- ^ Biography available on the Mexican government website Ricardo Ojeda Bohorquez
- ^ Biography available on the Mexican government website Carlos Hugo Luna Ramos
- ^ Biography available on the Mexican government website Manuel Barcena Villanueava
- ^ Recours de la dernière chance pour Florence Cassez, Le Figaro (French), 10 February 2011
- ^ Mexican court rejects Florence Cassez's appeal, France 24, 10 March 2012
- ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-17467330
- ^ a b http://www.euronews.com/2012/03/22/mexico-judge-to-review-cassez-trial/
- ^ Anuncian Comisión Revisora del Caso Cassez
- ^ French national Florence Cassez to serve 60-year sentence in Mexico, France24, 5 February 2010, retrieved 16 February 2011
- ^ a b Marquand, Robert, France's dispute with Mexico over Florence Cassez moves from diplomatic arena to cultural stage, The Christian Science Monitor, 15 February 2011, retrieved on 16 February 2011
- ^ Liberación de Cassez apoyaría a Sarkozy: Le Pen.
- ^ 25 reasons to free Florence Cassez. Proceso (Spanish), 13 March 2012.
| Persondata |
| Name |
Cassez, Florence |
| Alternative names |
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| Short description |
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| Date of birth |
17 November 1974 |
| Place of birth |
Lille, France |
| Date of death |
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| Place of death |
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