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 Editorials | Issues | April 2008 
Brenda Martin Despairs of Being Freed
 Charles Rusnell - The Edmonton Journal
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| | Brenda Martin, convicted in Internet scam, believes she will never leave Mexican prison. | | |
Guadalajara, Mexico - For the more than two years now, Brenda Martin has not felt in control of her destiny.
A day after she was sentenced to five years in prison for a crime she denies committing, Martin said she does not believe the Mexican justice system will ever set her free.
"Why would I believe that I am ever getting out of here?" she said Wednesday. "Everyone told me I was going to be found innocent and would be released immediately and I am still in this prison."
Martin, 51, was reacting to news that Jason Kenney, Canadian secretary of state for multiculturalism, will arrive in Guadalajara on Friday to try to expedite her transfer to Canada.
Deb Tieleman, Martin's childhood friend and advocate, visited her in prison Wednesday.
Though she has visited repeatedly during five trips to Mexico since November, the warden has decided Tieleman must now provide several documents, including a Mexican police identification card, which is impossible for a foreigner to obtain.
"She is tired of Brenda, she is tired of all the negative publicity, and she is just trying to get back at us," Tieleman said outside the prison Wednesday.
While Tieleman waited to get inside the prison, the warden drove up in her SUV and Tieleman confronted her. She demanded to know why the warden now needed the documentation. The warden said she had just discovered that Tieleman had not previously provided the documents.
Tieleman dismissed that explanation as ridiculous and called the Canadian Embassy in Mexico City to intervene. An hour later, Tieleman was allowed in to see Martin, who is distraught over her conviction.
Meanwhile, the Mexican media have responded sympathetically to Martin's plight. Guadalajara's leading newspaper, El Mural, played Martin's conviction story prominently on its front page.
Deputy editor Jorge Arturo Padilla Jimenez de la Cuesta said he learned about the case while skiing at Whistler, B.C., two weeks ago.
"I could see that it was a really big issue in Canada and people were very angry about this case," Padilla told The Journal Wednesday. "And I was surprised that people here had not paid any attention to it."
El Mural has covered the case extensively and other newspapers are now doing so.
Martin worked as a chef in Puerto Vallarta for 10 months in 2001 for Alyn Richard Waage. The former Albertan was operating an Internet fraud scheme at the time and was eventually arrested and is serving a 10-year sentence in a U.S. prison. Five years after Waage's arrest, Martin was charged with knowingly accepting illicit funds. Although Mexican prosecutors admitted they had no direct evidence to support the charge, they said they had enough circumstantial evidence to "infer" her guilt.
Martin awaited a resolution to her case for more than 26 months. A judge agreed with the prosecution on Tuesday.
In addition to the five-year-sentence, Martin must pay a fine of about $3,600.
crusnell(at)thejournal.canwest.com |
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