Court grants amparo, allows access to PGR’s file
BY JORGE CHAPARRO
The News
MEXICO CITY – The third district judge, with its seat in Mexico City, Augusto Octavio Mejía Ojeda, granted a temporary amparo (a Mexican constitutional legal process that protects the citizen and their basic rights) to actress Kate del Castillo, with the objective that her defense has access to documents that the Attorney General’s Office has against her.
Kate del Castillo’s defense presented the plea under the allegations that the Federal Public Prosecutors Office violated her right to a fair trial. According to Del Castillo’s defense, they weren’t able to access an open inquiry against Del Castillo, even though the same details already leaked in the media.
Additionally, they asked the judge that the Attorney General’s Office not cosign the record in front of a jurisdictional authority until they know the charges and have the opportunity to appropriately defend themselves.
By means of the amparo, the Attorney General’s Office is being asked to provide the information about the charges that could be attributed to Del Castillo for the hearing that will be settled Thursday, March 3.
Del Castillo has not been charged with any crime. She was only asked to give her testimony as a witness in the Joaquín Guzmán Loera case. However, stories leaked by the press reveal that her financial motives, endeavors in the United States and a possible connection with the Sinaloa drug cartel leader are being investigated.
The Attorney General’s Office issued an order against Del Castillo, but up until now her legal situation remains that of a witness. However, the defense does not want Del Castillo to be detained when giving her testimony and therefore alter her situation from witness to suspect.
The legal action will be resolved March 3.
When Guzmán Loera’s defense applied for amparo, the Federal Supreme Court of Justice denied the request.
Guzmán Loera’s defense argued that his detention was illegal because those who captured him didn’t have a search warrant.
With four votes in favor and one against, Justice José Ramón Cossío Díaz rejected the possibility of an amparo under the premise that an amparo can only be used to analyze an unconstitutionality.
