August 08, 2014
The lawyer for Andrew Tahmooressi said he expects the Iranian-American Marine reservist to remain in a Mexican prison until November while the Mexican Customs lawyer predicted he would be sitting in jail into the new year.
Tahmooressi has been in jail since he was arrested April 1 after driving his black Ford truck over the Mexican border at San Ysidro, California, into Tijuana. His family said he got lost near the border after dark and took a wrong turn. He was carrying three US-registered guns when he was stopped.
Tahmooressi’s Mexican attorney, Fernando Benitez, told reporters the case would last until November. The attorney for the Mexican customs officials, Javier Lopez, estimated it would be even longer: six to eight months.
Benitez was at a five-hour hearing Monday for Tahmoor-essi, the second hearing so far with more expected.
Benitez accused Mexican Customs agents of having pre-dated arrest forms on hand and simply “filled in the blanks.”
The two Mexican customs agents who detained Tahmoor-essi testified at the hearing, along with two Mexican Army officers who confiscated the weapons.
Benitez has previously said that there were irregularities in the case that could help Tah-mooressi and that pages are missing from the record.
“There are multiple irregularities with the order to search his vehicle, his conveyance. The order to search his conveyance is dated three days before his crossing of the border,” Benitez said earlier this year. “There are 11 pages missing from the record, which nobody seems to know what they are or what they say.”
Tahmooressi’s case has gotten widespread attention in the United States, especially in conservative circles, which support him as a Marine being mistreated by a foreign government. Fox News has given extraordinary coverage to the case, far more than other media outlets.
He also has vocal support from Rep. Duncan Hunter, the Republican congressman representing the border district from which Tahmooressi entered Mexico.
The case has whipped up such a frenzy that Jill Tahmooressi, Andrew’s mother, had to ask people at a California rally supporting her son to calm down and stop pushing crazy ideas like breaking her son out of his Mexican jail, the Los Angeles Times reported.
She has launched a drive to raise funds to cover his legal costs. She said her son had already exhausted the $65,000 he saved during his four years on active duty with the Marines.
Mrs. Tahmooressi entered Mexico for the hearing with an escort of US State Department officials, after expressing concerns about harassment from Mexican officials. On her first trip to Mexico to see her son in jail, Mexican officials conducted a full strip search. “I had to strip totally naked and be searched before I could see Andrew,” she said. “As a nurse, I’m glad there was no cavity search.”
Reporters were not allowed inside the courtroom of Judge Victor Octavio Luna Escobedo Monday, but attorneys from both sides briefed reporters afterward.
Under Mexican law, the judge will decide whether Tahmooressi is guilty after holding several hearings. Weapons charges like those Tahmooressi faces can bring a sentence of seven to 14 years, his attorney said. Sentencing rules do not provide for leniency, he noted.
“There is no leniency under the Mexican sentencing guidelines in this [type of] case,” Benitez told reporters, “We need to go for broke in this case. We need to prove innocence. Or we need to prove [misconduct by Customs officials]. Otherwise, we are going to get jail time.”
Monday’s hearing allowed Tahmooressi’s attorney to question the Mexican officials who arrested Tahmooressi after he drove across the border with a rifle, shotgun, pistol and 400 rounds of ammunition in his pickup truck.
Part of Tahmooressi’s defense is that his rights were violated when officials did not follow procedures under Mexican law, including not providing him with a translator and not promptly notifying the US Consulate.
“The officers believe — and this is what really strikes me — they believe that it’s okay to hold somebody for eight hours under arrest while they finish up their customs [paper]work,” Benitez said. “And it’s not okay.
“They should have … delivered him before the federal prosecutor immediately after discovering the weapons and making the arrest.”
But the Mexican officials’ attorney told reporters the standard protocol was strictly followed the night that Tahmooressi was detained and then arrested.
Benitez said that under Article 16 of the Mexican Constitution a suspect must be delivered to the proper authorities “immediately.” Since the prosecutor’s office was mere minutes from the border crossing post, he said, “eight hours would be unusual and would constitute a prolonged detention and would constitute a violation of his civil rights.”
After the hearing, Tah-mooressi, 26, was returned to a federal prison outside Tecate where he is being held without bail in a one-man cell.
His mother, who traveled to Tijuana from her home in Florida for the hearing, said that her son has moments of despondency but is trying to remain confident that he will be released.
Tahmooressi, who did two deployments in Afghanistan and is now in the reserves, had moved from the family home in Florida to San Diego to receive treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder at the Veterans Affairs hospital in La Jolla. He had only lived in California for days before his arrest.
He has consistently said he crossed the border the night of March 31 by mistake, missing the turnoff to remain in the US. That story was challenged by Mexican officials when Tahmooressi’s explanation that he had never before visited Mexico proved to be untrue.
Mexican officials have said that ignorance of the law against bringing weapons into Mexico is not an excuse.
But Benitez, talking to reporters, disagreed.
“As far as criminal law, this particular crime requires a criminal intent to be present,” he said. “This is not a crime that can be committed accidentally. Possession of unauthorized weapons in Mexico needs criminal intent to be considered a crime.”