The Guadalajara Reporter

Judge hands lifeline to French woman serving 60 years for kidnapping

Many people in 19th century France believed fiercely in the innocence of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer sentenced to life imprisonment for allegedly having communicated military secrets to the German Embassy in Paris.

So notable became “l’affaire Dreyfus” that leading intellectuals weighed in with their opinions. None was more esteemed than author Emile Zola, who pointed out the judicial errors and lack of serious evidence in the case in newspaper articles.

There are strong modern-day parallels with the case of Florence Cassez, the 37-year-old Frenchwoman serving 60 years in prison in Mexico for her part in the kidnapping of three people in 2005.

“L’affaire Cassez, as it is in known in France, has affected relations between Mexico and France at the highest level and like the Dreyfus Affair has divided a nation.

Another turn in this topsy-turvy case unfolded this week when a Mexican Supreme Court judge opened up a lifeline to Cassez by recommending that she be released immediately because her rights were violated.

The opinion of judge Arturo Zaldivar is not binding, however, and the five-member Supreme Court panel will make a final ruling in their review of the case on March 21.  Mexican news sources say two justices are in favor of letting the verdict stand.

Cassez was arrested in December 2005 following a raid on her boyfriend’s ranch in the state of Morelos, where three kidnapping victims were being held captive, including a 15-year-old boy. The case received wide attention because the raid was broadcast on national television and the light-skinned, slim-figured Cassez did not fit the mold of the typical Mexican kidnapper.

Cassez argues that she knew nothing about the criminal activities of her boyfriend,  Israel Vallarta, and has professed her innocence at all times, arguing that while living with him, she did not know that the kidnapping victims were being held in another part of the ranch.

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