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Mexico's Rejection of Woman's Appeal Angers France

   VOA News  February 11, 2011
   Picture  taken  on January 22, 2008 of French national Florence Cassez
   listening to her lawyer (not in frame) in prison in Mexico City

Photo: AFP

   Picture  taken  on January 22, 2008 of French national Florence Cassez
   listening to her lawyer (not in frame) in prison in Mexico City

   France  has  reacted  angrily  to  a  Mexican court decision to keep a
   French woman in prison on kidnapping charges that she denies.
   French  Foreign  Minister  Michele  Alliot-Marie  called  the decision
   deplorable  and  said  it  could  affect  relations  between  the  two
   countries.
   Florence  Cassez  was  arrested  in  2005,   along  with  her Mexican
   boyfriend, at a ranch where three people, including a young girl, were
   held  hostage.    She  was  convicted of a kidnapping and originally
   sentenced  to  96  years  behind  bars, but the term was reduced to 60
   years.
   A Mexican court Thursday rejected her lawyers' arguments that her case
   was tainted by media coverage.
   The  case  sparked  controversy after the police admitted to staging a
   dramatic  raid  of  the  ranch  for the cameras.   In the television
   footage,  officers  appear  to  rescue hostages and arrest the alleged
   kidnappers,  including Cassez, who was actually arrested a day earlier
   outside the ranch.
   The  court  issued  a statement saying that the media coverage did not
   have  any  impact  on  the  conviction and that Cassez had been proven
   guilty.
   Cassez  acknowledged  that  she  had lived at a ranch near Mexico City
   with  her  Mexican  boyfriend,  Israel  Vallarta,  but claims she knew
   nothing about the kidnappings.
   Mexico  also  has rejected a call from France to allow Cassez to serve
   the remainder of her sentence in her homeland.
   Mexico  has a high rate of kidnappings for ransom.  Victims are often
   killed even after the ransom is paid.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

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