Victim’s Family Assails Salinas’ Murder Verdict

Raul Salinas de Gortari, the disgraced brother of Mexico’s former president, could count on few defenders Friday after his murder conviction. Yet support came from one unlikely quarter: the victim’s family.

“All the illegalities and irregularities committed [in the case] make us doubt the good faith of those who made this accusation,” the family said in a statement blasting the guilty verdict.

Salinas was sentenced to 50 years in prison Thursday for masterminding the 1994 murder of Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu, a senior figure in Mexico’s ruling party who was Salinas’ former brother-in-law.

Many politicians praised the verdict as a dramatic break with the impunity long enjoyed by Mexico’s all-powerful presidents and their families. Yet as the statement by Ruiz Massieu’s own family made clear, many others still question whether justice has been done in one of the most sensational assassinations in Mexican history.

The verdict seemed unlikely to restore confidence in a legal system assailed for frequent irregularities.

“The problem I see is that the judge has to document the reasons for his verdict very clearly,” said Raymundo Riva Palacios, a political analyst. “If it’s based on hearsay and circumstantial evidence, it will be a terrible blow to the justice system.”

Prosecutors in the four-year murder investigation were widely criticized for relying on witnesses who changed their testimony and for allegedly paying a star witness $500,000 for his cooperation.

Some critics said the case was so weak that a guilty verdict could only have come as a result of pressure from President Ernesto Zedillo.

In the past, the government has had broad influence over judges, but Zedillo has vowed to respect their independence.

Salinas’ 1995 arrest stunned the nation and helped tarnish the reputation of his brother, Carlos, viewed as a popular reformer during his 1988-94 presidential term.

Carlos Salinas, who has not been charged with any crime, now lives in self-imposed exile in Ireland.

Shock over Raul Salinas’ arrest later turned to disgust when the former midlevel bureaucrat was found to have tens of millions of dollars hidden in his bank accounts. If Salinas had been acquitted on the murder charge, there would have been a wave of public outrage, analysts said.

Federal Judge Ricardo Ojeda Bohorquez took out full-page newspaper ads Friday defending his decision.

He acknowledged that there was no direct evidence but said that the circumstantial proof, “linked together logically and juridically, brings one to the conclusion that Raul Salinas de Gortari is guilty of homicide.”

He also said that no motive had been established but that Salinas “felt resentment toward the victim” because of a professional dispute as well as Ruiz Massieu’s divorce from Salinas’ sister, Adriana. The judge also said witness payments--although unusual--are allowed under Mexican law.

Salinas’ attorneys have appealed the ruling.

Several legal experts contacted Friday declined to comment on the verdict, saying they had not studied the complicated case.

However, they said the judicial system had come a long way from the days when government officials would order up sentences from lackeys in the courts. They noted, in particular, 1994 reforms introduced by Zedillo that gave the judicial system greater independence in naming and overseeing magistrates.

“The Mexican justice system, since 1994, has more professional judges,” said Raul Plascencia, a prominent criminal-law expert at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Still, he said, “the vices and problems that existed in our justice system have a history of decades and even centuries. It’s difficult to eliminate them all from one year to the next.”

Critics allege frequent corruption, inefficiency and lax practices that permit torture and other irregularities to warp cases. The legal system generally enjoys low esteem among the public: In a poll last year by the Mexico City newspaper Reforma, 66% said they distrusted the judicial system in part or completely.

With its bizarre twists and turns, the Salinas murder case did little to improve such an image. Two of the three government prosecutors fled the country after they themselves fell under suspicion of wrongdoing.

In one particularly strange episode, the prosecution employed a clairvoyant who led authorities to a buried skeleton believed to be an accomplice in the Ruiz Massieu murder. It turned out that the clairvoyant herself had planted the remains.

Noting such irregularities, Ruiz Massieu’s family cast doubt on the verdict.

“We profoundly lament that we have never learned with certainty who killed Jose Francisco, or why,” the family statement said.

Several analysts said the verdict was hardly the final chapter in the saga.

Salinas could win the case on appeal. He also faces a separate charge of illegal enrichment and is under investigation for drug trafficking.

Some analysts cautioned that the sentence could eventually lead to political turmoil, with Carlos Salinas seeking revenge against Zedillo.

“Since they did not prove the assassination, Carlos will retaliate badly because Carlos Salinas will say this was not decided in the court,” said Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, an opposition senator.