Judge Cuts Sentence of Raul Salinas

Raul Salinas de Gortari, the brother of a former president and a glaring symbol of corruption for many in this country, won a double victory Friday when a Mexican judge slashed in half his 50-year sentence on murder charges and a Swiss court overturned the seizure of a fortune he had stashed in Europe.

While Salinas still faces considerable legal troubles, lawyers said the appeals court rulings could mark the beginning of at least a partial comeback for the older brother of former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

The decisions were a setback to authorities who had trumpeted Raul Salinas’ conviction earlier this year as a break with the tradition of impunity for Mexico’s top politicians and their families.

“This improves his situation dramatically,” said Alonso Aguilar Zinser, a prominent defense attorney not involved in the murder case. He said that with time off for good behavior and other benefits, Salinas could be released from jail in about a decade--or less, if he wins further appeals.

The decisions came six months after a lower-court judge shocked the country by handing Salinas the 50-year sentence for masterminding the 1994 murder of Francisco Ruiz Massieu, a senior figure in the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party.

The murder case had mesmerized the nation and helped destroy the reputation of Carlos Salinas, who had been celebrated as a reformer during his 1988-94 presidency. The former leader fled Mexico in 1995 as authorities accused his brother of the assassination and illegally amassing a multimillion-dollar fortune, charges Raul Salinas has denied.

The former president, who has not been charged with wrongdoing, still lives in self-exile in Ireland.

On Friday, Superior Court Judge Tomas Hernandez Franco reaffirmed Raul Salinas’ murder conviction but reduced the sentence to 27 1/2 years. He ruled that the earlier case included flaws such as the buying of witnesses, according to a court spokesman who declined to be identified. The judge’s written decision was not immediately made public.

Aguilar Zinser, the defense attorney, said Salinas could knock another 10 years or more off the sentence through reductions for work performed in prison and good behavior. Salinas, 52, already has served four years.

The Mexican attorney general’s office said in a statement Friday that the ruling still supported its case. The judge “found sufficient proof to sustain the guilt of Raul Salinas,” the statement said.

The murder case is the government’s only victory against Salinas so far; it has lost three other cases on tax, embezzlement and money-laundering charges. A case of illegal enrichment is pending.

But Salinas could still win a reversal of the murder conviction. Under Mexican law, he has the right to appeal Friday’s sentence, while the attorney general’s office cannot. Legal experts had questioned the murder conviction, noting many irregularities in the case.

Salinas, who recently was transferred from a maximum-security jail to a less austere facility outside Mexico City, received the news of the ruling “with courage, tranquillity, objectivity,” said his lawyer, Eduardo Luengo Creel.

“It’s encouraging but it’s not enough,” Luengo Creel said in a telephone interview, adding that Salinas would further appeal. “We are convinced the Supreme Court will absolve him.”

The reduction of Salinas’ sentence stirred outrage among politicians and citizens in Mexico, where he is reviled by many as a symbol of corruption. Revelations of Salinas’ huge fortune had emerged as Mexico was sinking into an economic crisis after a devaluation of the peso in late 1994.

Raul Salinas’ second victory Friday involved that fortune. Switzerland’s top court annulled a decision by that country’s federal prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, to confiscate $114.4 million deposited by Salinas, the bulk in Geneva and Zurich banks.

The Supreme Court ruled, however, that the money should remain frozen pending further investigation.

Del Ponte seized the money in October after she accused Salinas of accepting bribes to protect illegal drug shipments crossing Mexico. The prosecutor’s investigation was the most extensive money-laundering probe in Swiss history and was conducted with the assistance of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

The tribunal said the case should have been handled by a court at the canton, or state, level. The federal prosecutor’s office said it would try to pursue the case in a canton.

Luengo Creel said the decision was a victory because Del Ponte’s investigation had not allowed Salinas to defend himself as he could in a court.

The Swiss federal prosecutor’s office has expressed concern that a wide-ranging investigation such as the Salinas case could overwhelm a canton court. The case could drag on for years, attorneys said.