FREEDOM NOW! For for the 12 prisoners of San Salvador Atenco

To the Ministers of the First Chamber of the Supreme Court:
Jose de Jesus Gudino Pelayo, Olga María del Carmen Sánchez Cordero de García Villegas, Juan N. Silva Meza, Arturo Zaldivar Lelo De Larrea, Jose Ramon Cossio Diaz.

To the National and International Public Opinion.

We know the serious Human Rights violations that the Mexican government committed on May 3rd and 4th, in 2006 in San Salvador Atenco. Following these events 12 people are still in prison. We are concerned that the legal process followed was full of irregularities, it did not respected the principle of presumption of innocence or the guarantees of due process, and the evidence on which their convictions were founded was illegally obtained. We believe that these irregularities negated their right to a fair trial. It is a grave concern that the offence of "kidnapping" which we believe is unconstitutional, can be used to criminalize social demands, and that the justice system and administration was manipulated to criminalise members of the Peoples Front for Land Defence. We also know that there is a legal precedent issued by a judicial organ of the Federation, which held that the acts for which Ignacio del Valle, Felipe Álvarez and Héctor Galindo were sentenced do not constitute the crime of kidnapping; we believe that even though such norms are not legally-binding for the Ministers, this precedent, in the interests of legal safety and consistency as well as regarding the wider implications of the case, can not be ignored. Therefore, we call the First Chamber of the Supreme Court to release the 12 prisoners of Atenco.