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 News from Around the Americas | January 2007 
Unable to Pay Bribes, B.C. Man Lingers in Mexican Prison
 Susan Lazaruk - CanWest News
| | Jessica Kimber holds a family photo of her father Peter Kimber near her Abbotsford home. (The Province/Ric Ernst) | 
| | Peter's children and granddaughter |
URGENT NOTICE! Effective January 29, 2007, Mr. Kimber's family received an urgent message today from an inmate friend of Peter's. The dire circumstances for Peter have escalated. The guards in the prison incited a riot today and Peter was severely beaten and thrown into solitary confinement. All of his personal belongings, including what few documents he possessed as evidence, were then stolen from his cell. It is imperative that all legal and political action be taken immediately to ensure the safe release of Peter Kimber. (visit the website HERE)
Vancouver, BC - A British Columbia construction worker jailed for more than two years in Mexico over a house contract gone sour says he's been wrongly convicted by a corrupt system and has endured dozens of beatings and atrocious conditions because he wasn't able to pay the bribes to release him.
"Get me out of here," a frustrated Peter Kimber said Tuesday from his prison in Huatulco.
"I want somebody to actually help save what's left of my life. I've tried it on my own for two years and four months. There's absolutely no way for a human being to fight against these people legally."
Huatulco is on Mexico's Pacific coast, 430 kilometres southeast of Acapulco.
Kimber, 44, who lived in Mission B.C. before moving to Mexico years ago with his then-common-law wife, her four daughters and his three children from a previous marriage who now live in Abbotsford B.C., said he was arrested on Oct. 15, 2004, after a couple from the U.K. reneged on a contract to have Kimber build them a home.
He said the couple had him arrested. They couldn't be reached for comment.
Kimber said he he's been involved in around 150 fights in prison and has been stabbed with a blood-filled syringe. He says he also must pay for food and drinking water and has been thrown into isolation.
It never occurred to Kimber or his eldest daughter, Jessica Kimber, 21, who is caring for her brother, 17, Julia, 15, to go to the media before now, he said.
It was a chance meeting his daughters had with an inspirational author and radio personality at a women's fair last October in Abbotsford that turned Kimber around.
Anne Marie Evers of North Vancouver mentioned the meeting to a close friend, John Joseph Kennedy, and asked him to join in her prayers for the family. Kennedy, a motivational speaker, was a write-in Democratic candidate for the U.S. presidency in 2004 and is mounting a similar campaign in 2008.
Kennedy, who with his sister had helped free their brother from a wrongful conviction in Thailand in the 1990s, set up a website (FreePeterKimber.com) and fired off letters to the prison warden and to International Criminal Court as well as the High Commissioner of Human Rights.
The International Criminal Court referred the issue to a prosecutor, said Kennedy and he's waiting for a further response.
Canadian Foreign Affairs sent in a staffer on Jan. 21 to "follow up on issues of health and security," said spokesman Alain Cacchione. He said the privacy act prevents him from discussing details of the case.
Meanwhile, Evers has been requesting prayers for his release through her radio program that airs in Seattle and Rhode Island.
"We've just got to get him home and that's what we've been praying for," said Evers. "I just talked to Jessica and she said, 'It's just breaking my heart that my dad's being hurt.'"
slazaruk@png.canwest.com |
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