U.S. Judge Won’t Extradite Former Mexico Official

In a stinging rebuke of Mexico’s legal system, a U.S. judge rejected the Mexican government’s request to turn a former top law enforcement official over for trial in a high-profile murder case, saying the evidence against him was obtained by torture.

Former Deputy Atty. Gen. Mario Ruiz Massieu, 44, is accused of engaging in a cover-up while investigating the assassination last year of his brother, a top official in Mexico’s ruling party.

But U.S. Magistrate Ronald Hedges in Newark, N.J., ruled that he would not extradite Ruiz Massieu for prosecution in Mexico.

“In all good conscience,” Hedges said, “I cannot [grant extradition]. I find to be incredible and unreliable all of the statements taken from witnesses in this case. I will not sign a certificate to send a man to a country which has admittedly practiced torture in the questioning of suspects.”

The U.S. Justice Department said an appeal of the decision is unlikely.

The ruling strikes down the credibility of the legal system that Mexican officials had hoped to bolster by bringing Ruiz Massieu to trial in their country.

The Ruiz Massieu case--starting with the daylight murder of Francisco Ruiz Massieu and leading through a labyrinth of alleged cover-ups linked to narcotics and the family of the former president--has become a symbol of what is wrong with the Mexican legal system.

Solving the murder and prosecuting the guilty--which the government alleges include Mario Ruiz Massieu--is considered essential to Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo’s effort to prove that he is committed to cleaning up law enforcement and ending impunity from justice for the powerful.

But Hedges’ ruling calls into question the methods used to obtain testimony in the case.

His decision could undermine the credibility of evidence against other suspects in the case--including the accused mastermind, Raul Salinas de Gortari, brother of the former president--who did not flee Mexico and, thus, will not receive the benefit of a review of their cases outside a Mexican court.

“The attorney general’s office disagrees with both the opinion and the value judgment by Judge Hedges regarding our country,” Deputy Atty. Gen. Rafael Estrada said.

He remains sure that Ruiz Massieu will eventually be returned to Mexico to face trial.

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Another extradition hearing is already scheduled for July 31 on additional charges filed last week and Thursday by Mexico. The defendant is also accused of embezzling $750,000 and stashing it in a bank account in Houston, as well as with torturing suspects in his brother’s murder.

Hedges on Thursday turned down the extradition request because he said much of the current evidence against Ruiz Massieu was obtained from witnesses who were tortured and did not have attorneys present.

The principal witnesses against Ruiz Massieu were individuals already jailed in the assassination plot, the magistrate said, adding: “I find it incredible that all of these prisoners suddenly recanted earlier statements which did not implicate Mr. Massieu and now implicate him.”

Hedges’ ruling came as a surprise because U.S. judges generally are reluctant to dismiss criminal evidence submitted by a closely allied nation against one of its own citizens. In addition, the current Mexican attorney general in the Zedillo administration, who approved the case against Ruiz Massieu, is highly regarded by U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno and other top Justice Department officials.

Hedges refused to release Ruiz Massieu on bail pending the July 31 hearing.

Ruiz Massieu left Mexico in early March but was arrested at Newark International Airport on U.S. charges for allegedly failing to declare most of the $40,000 in U.S. currency he was carrying as he boarded a flight to Madrid.

He has said that he feared for his life in Mexico and wanted political asylum in the United States. U.S. Customs agents subsequently found more than $9 million in his bank accounts in Texas.

Hedges said he told Assistant U.S. Atty. Alberto Rivas, who presented Mexico’s case, that he would not consider statements that were elicited under torture.

Rivas and the Mexican government, nonetheless, submitted such statements, Hedges complained, apparently hoping the court would accept some of them.

Justice Department officials said they doubted that it was practical to appeal the magistrate’s ruling.

Hedges had made clear last week that he was no admirer of Mexico’s legal system, saying it appeared to be infected by “massive corruption” growing out of the cocaine-smuggling trade.

The murders this week of an outspoken appeals court judge and a special prosecutor investigating allegations of fraud in the bankrupt Mexico City municipal bus system appeared to reinforce such views.

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Ruiz Massieu has denied the accusations against him, insisting that he tried to solve the murder of his brother, then chief of staff of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party.

Ruiz Massieu is suspected by some Mexican officials of having amassed a fortune in illicit kickbacks from the cocaine trade.

The prosecution’s theory is that Francisco Ruiz Massieu was ordered slain by Salinas because he had come across evidence of Salinas’ involvement in the cocaine business.

Jackson reported from Washington and Darling from Mexico City.