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Mexico Exonerates Suspect in Killing of U.S. Journalist
 Elisabeth Malkin - New York Times
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February 20, 2010
| | Bradley Roland Will, seen here in a 2003 family photo, was killed in 2006 as he was videotaping street clashes in Mexico. (Dyan Neary/Associated Press) | |
Mexico City — The man accused of killing a New York City journalist as he videotaped street clashes in Oaxaca in 2006 was released from jail on Thursday after an appeals tribunal declared that there was no evidence against him.
The ruling was congruent with what the victim’s family and human rights groups have long asserted, that the journalist, Bradley Roland Will, was not shot at close range by an antigovernment protester as the government has maintained.
But the decision now leaves the case open, more than three years after Mr. Will was shot during unrest between the Oaxaca State government and a coalition of unions and social groups.
“This was a distraction,” said Kathy Will, Mr. Will’s mother, from her home outside Milwaukee. “What can you say? Taking an innocent person that you have no evidence against. Now what happens?”
Under Mexican law, the investigation goes back to the attorney general’s office, said Miguel Ángel de los Santos, a Mexican lawyer for the Will family. “Until now there hasn’t been any proof,” he said. “What we hope is that they open other lines of investigation.”
The attorney general’s office said Thursday night that it had no comment on the release of the suspect or whether it would pursue further action in the case.
The suspect, Juan Manuel Martínez Moreno, a baker and an activist with the coalition opposed to Gov. Ulises Ruiz, was arrested 18 months ago and accused of shooting Mr. Will at close range.
But photos and video of the scene show armed men, believed to government-backed agents, firing into the crowd of demonstrators from a distance. That account has been confirmed by other journalists who were with Mr. Will when he was killed on Oct. 27, 2006. A review of the forensic evidence by Physicians for Human Rights also found that the bullet had probably not been fired at close range.
Although Mr. Martínez took part in the protests, there was no evidence placing him at the scene of the shooting, human rights groups said. Nor, they said, did the government explain why Mr. Martínez would want to kill Mr. Will, who was sympathetic to the protesters’ cause.
Relatives and supporters from the local teachers’ union greeted Mr. Martínez when he walked out of jail on Thursday. “I am innocent, and I have demonstrated it with the facts,” he said.
Mr. Will, who was 36, was in Mexico to document the uprising against Mr. Ruiz for the Independent Media Center.
His death was one of at least 17 unsolved killings during five months of unrest in Oaxaca.
Human rights groups urged the government to reopen the investigation.
“This release was long overdue,” said Kerrie Howard, the deputy director for the Americas for Amnesty International. “Juan Manuel has been used as a scapegoat by the Mexican authorities to claim there has been progress in the investigation around Brad Will’s death.” |
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