July 11, 2014
US Marine Corps reservist Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi told CNN by phone Sunday that he was “more hopeful” and “optimistic” than ever that he would be released from a Mexican prison after a court hearing scheduled for Wednesday, after the Iran Times went to press.
More than three months after he was imprisoned for driving into Mexico with three firearms in his truck, Tahmooressi called CNN from the El Hongo Penitentiary in Tecate, Mexico, where he is being held.
“I’m not as down as I once was,” he said. “My relationship with the guards has turned more into a friendship, so I don’t feel as alone, I guess. Once the media started covering it. … things did start changing. … I’m just trying to keep my cool and stay relaxed.”
Tahmooressi has maintained that he took a wrong turn on the California side of the border and ended up in the Tijuana, Mexico, border post the night of March 31. He was detained by Mexican border police for possessing a .45-caliber pistol, a 12-gauge pump shotgun and an AR-15 rifle.
The director of the Tijuana checkpoint told Mexican media last month that Mexican agents at the border gave Tahmooressi a chance to surrender his weapons and return to the United States without incident. Tahmooressi told CNN that’s “a lie… That’s not true at all. They never told me anything of that sort,”
