Imprisoned Mexican Faces a Second Trial

Raul Salinas de Gortari, imprisoned brother of a former Mexican president, was ordered Tuesday to stand trial on new charges that he channeled government funds into private Swiss bank accounts.

A judge in this city 35 miles west of Mexico City ruled that there was enough evidence to try Salinas on charges of receiving about $21 million in 1993 from a secret fund for his brother, who was president from 1988 to 1994.

Salinas is already serving a sentence of nearly 27 years for masterminding the 1994 murder of his former brother-in-law, who was secretary-general of Mexico’s then- ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party.

Salinas’ lawyers said they planned to appeal the judge’s ruling.

Salinas has long insisted that about $130 million found in his Swiss and British bank accounts in 1995 came from Mexican businessmen who had entrusted him with an investment fund.

Swiss officials have argued that the money came from drug traffickers, while Mexican prosecutors said it probably came from political corruption.

According to the new allegations, money was diverted to Salinas out of a “secret fund” traditionally available to Mexican presidents, who did not need to account for it.

Former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari has not been charged with wrongdoing in either case involving his brother.