Amnesty International said today it welcomes the release from a Mexican prison of Jacinta Francisco Marcial, a mother of six who was falsely accused in 2006 of kidnapping six federal agents. The human rights organization adopted Francisco Marcial as a prisoner of conscience this past August and has pressed for her release after concluding no evidence existed against her and she had been arrested, tried and convicted because she was poor and of indigenous heritage.
“The Mexican government has finally recognized that there was never evidence to justify Jacinta’s trial, conviction and imprisonment on charges of kidnapping,” said Kerrie Howard, deputy director of Amnesty International’s Americas program.
Francisco Marcial, 46, an Otomí Indigenous woman from Santiago Mexquititlán in the Mexican state of Querétaro, was sentenced to 21 years’ imprisonment in December 2006. Six agents of the Mexican Federal Investigation Agency claimed they were held hostage by Jacinta and other operators of market stalls during a raid on pirated DVD vendors on Santiago Mexquititlán square in March 2006. Francisco Marcial was arrested in August 2006 — more than four months after the raid — and told she was going to be questioned about the felling of a tree. However, once in prison she found out that she, along with two other women, were being accused of kidnapping the agents.
Her release raises serious questions about the reliability of the entire prosecution case and highlights clear failings in the investigation. Amnesty International is calling for a full review into her unfounded prosecution and for her to receive full compensation for unfair and wrongful imprisonment.
Francisco Marcial in her own words prior to her release:
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