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 News from Around the Americas | January 2008 
Brenda Martin Pleads Her Case in Mexico
 Canadian Press
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| | Brenda Martin at the Puente Grande prison on Dec. 5 (Deb Tieleman) | | |
Ottawa - A Canadian woman jailed nearly two years in Mexico won't get her birthday wish of freedom and will likely wait two more months in prison before a judge decides her fate.
Toronto lawyer Guillermo Cruz Rico said the judge is to review his 80-page legal argument for the release of his client, Brenda Martin, who turned 51 on Monday.
"I'm pretty confident we're going to have a successful end to this case," Cruz Rico said in an interview from Guadalajara, Mexico.
During the 45-minute hearing, which Martin did not attend, Cruz Rico said he and his three-person legal team made the case that Mexican authorities violated the former Trenton, Ont., resident's civil rights.
Cruz Rico alleges Martin was never provided with a translator at any stage in the of the police investigation or the legal process that began 22 months ago.
Judge Maria del Pilar Parra Parra could release Martin, reject Cruz's argument or reduce the charges.
Mexican authorities detained Martin in February 2006 on charges of money laundering and participating in a criminal conspiracy in connection with an investment scheme masterminded by her former boss, Alyn Waage, who bilked 15,000 investors of nearly US$60 million.
Waage was sentenced in 2005 to 10 years in a U.S. federal prison, and has sworn an affidavit claiming Martin, who worked in Puerto Vallarta as his cook in 2000, knew nothing of the scheme.
But Mexican authorities detained Martin after it was revealed she invested $10,000 in a company operated by Waage.
Longtime friend Debra Tieleman told The Canadian Press last week Waage returned the money to Martin because "he knew (the company) was a scam."
Tieleman travelled to Mexico to be with her friend at the detention centre in Guadalajara, the country's second-most populous city.
Martin has lost 40 pounds and is deeply despondent and even suicidal, Tieleman said, adding her friend has "absolutely no hope" she will ever be released.
Tieleman has criticized the Canadian government for not doing enough to help her friend.
However, Foreign Affairs issued a statement last week saying the government has "strongly and repeatedly pressed senior Mexican representatives at both the state and federal level for a speedy resolution to the judicial process underway in the case of Brenda Martin."
Cruz Rico said he and his legal team will spend the next two months working on Martin's criminal case, which has been put on hold until the judge reaches a decision in the civil rights case. |
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