Bombshell in Camarena Case : Drugs: A judge orders the repatriation to Mexico of a doctor who was abducted and brought to the U.S. to stand trial in the DEA agent’s slaying.

A federal judge ruled today that the U.S. government illegally kidnaped a Mexican doctor to stand trial in the slaying of a U.S. drug agent and ordered his return to Mexico.

U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie said the abduction of Dr. Humberto Alvarez Machain violated an extradition treaty between the United States and Mexico and was an offense against Mexico’s sovereignty.

The judge added: “The court orders this defendant is to be discharged and the government is ordered to repatriate this defendant to Mexico forthwith.”

But he stayed execution of his order for one week after Assistant U.S. Atty. William Fahey asked for time to consider an appeal.

Alvarez’s lawyer, Robert Steinberg, said he believed that the judge’s ruling was a warning to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to stop kidnaping suspects from Mexico.

He added that he believed the judge’s ruling will be appealed and might go as high as the U.S. Supreme Court. “My fear is they’re going to take these appeals for years while he (Alvarez) rots in jail,” he said.

Although the government suggested a bail hearing for the doctor, Steinberg said the defendant has no property to post as collateral and probably would not win release because of fears that he would flee to Mexico.

Alvarez, who was wearing a blue jail jumpsuit, displayed no emotion when he heard the ruling. Asked for his client’s reaction, Steinberg said: “He’s numb.”

The doctor was spirited out of Mexico on charges that he administered drugs to keep DEA agent Enrique Camarena alive while he was being tortured.

Rafeedie acknowledged that his ruling is unique and there was no case law that is exactly the same. But he found that laws relating to other extradition cases support his finding. He stressed that he was not dismissing the charge against the doctor but merely ruling that the case could not be tried in the United States.

The Justice Department said earlier it was pressing its investigation into the 1985 torture-murder in Mexico after the convictions of four men in the slaying.

The probe includes two former officials of the Mexican government who have been indicted in connection with the slaying.

The DEA is pursuing its own investigation of the possible involvement of Mexico City’s former police chief in Camarena’s slaying, authorities said.

The second Camarena trial ended Monday with the conviction of the last of four defendants. Three people were convicted in 1988.