Person in charge of the Jose Martin González Moreno Case at CART: Guillermo Uria
Contact: [email protected]
Case Summary (Source: CART Invest)
By: Guillermo Uria
June 1st, 2016
Translation by: Guillermo Uria
Assisted by: Jasmine Soso
“On September 18, 2014 I woke up in my house with my wife, living a normal life. Four days later I was in a maximum security prison in Perote Veracruz without knowing what was happening”. This excruciating situation was described in a letter written by Jose Martin Gonzalez Moreno on August 5, 2015, directed to judge Edgar Israel Flores del Toro, sixth District Criminal Judge in Jalisco, Mexico. Jose Martin is another victim of false accusations.
On September 18, 2014, Martin was captured in his house in Tala by Jalisco’s state police. At the time Martin was a businessman, dedicated to selling cars and cellphones for more than 15 years. The State police accused him of being the leader of a notorious criminal organization, responsible for various abductions and robberies around the area. Alongside Martin, five other people were also arrested, among them Milton Trujillo Montiel who pointed out Martin as the leader of the organization. Days later, on September 2014, Milton renounced his testimony in a letter directed to judge Edgar Israel Flore del Toro. He explained that these allegations were induced by the police officers who captured him and proceeded to torture and threaten him.
After being captured, Martin was transported to Tala’s police station where he was tortured physically and psychologically. On the 22nd of September, Martin was transferred to the Vice Department of Special Investigation and Organized Crime (SEIDO in Spanish) at Mexico City, where he was also tortured.
Since his capture on the 18th of September, the Police had prohibited Martin from having any kind of contact with his family or a legal representative. This measure was held until September 22, the day Martin was finally granted the opportunity to speak with his wife, Edna Vega for the first time. He asked her to come to Mexico City with a lawyer. Still in shock by the news, Edna travelled to Mexico City with a lawyer but the authorities denied her visit. She then went back to Jalisco and had to talk to the local authorities to receive any kind of information on his husband’s situation. With the help of her lawyer, they made a petition in order to transfer Martin to Tala’s penitentiary. The authorities accepted the petition and sent Martin to the Puente Grande penitentiary, where he’s been incarcerated ever since. Edna then decided to contact the Canadian Association for Rights and Truth and asked for our support with her husband’s case.
Martin is accused of carrying an illegal weapon of military use only, 64 cartridges and 20 grams of crystal meth for the purpose of retail. The day of his arrest, he was accused by the police of being the leader of a criminal group called “Jalisco’s New Generation Cartel”, responsible for many crimes committed in Tala, Jalisco.
The Police Report (case number 193/2014 – III) presented by Tala’s State Police under the direction of police officer Martin Hernandez, claims that Martin and the other five suspects were caught flagrantly at a highway between Tala and Tenochtitlan on September 18, 2014. The report stated that all of the suspects were traveling together in five different vehicles. All of them were allegedly carrying illegal weapons and multiple boxes with drugs. The criminal group was on a mission to transport a stolen gasoline container to Guadalajara. The police report specifies that the group wasn’t travelling with the container at the time of the arrest. The container was found later that evening, on a different highway, as it was abandoned by the criminal group. The police report also includes the testimonies of all the people involved in the arrest. Among them, Milton Trujillo’s testimony is perhaps the most important one, as it is him who points out Martin as the leader of the criminal group and the operation.
The authenticity of the Police Report has been questioned in several occasions by Martin’s lawyer, Miguel Angel Bello Camacho. Mister Camacho argues that many facts were voluntarily omitted from the report, the main one being the torture of Jose Martin and the other five suspects. After being evaluated by the doctors of the Office of the Prosecutor-General, the medical report that appeared on September 20, 2014 affirmed that Martin had suffered many injuries and that his health condition was at risk. On March, 2016, the defense asked the specialists of the National Commission of Human Rights to evaluate Martin’s condition following the directives of the Istanbul Protocol, in order to prove he was indeed tortured. The results of this test are expected to come to light in the following weeks.
The Defense also filed a complaint to the Tala’s State Commission of Human Rights on June 2015 (complaint number 10426/2014/i) against the police officers that tortured Martin and the five other suspects. The complaint was accepted and the investigation is ongoing. A second complaint was filed, this time against the officers of the SEIDO (complaint number 8403/2015/i), also accusing them of torturing Martin after he was transferred to their facilities in Mexico City.
The defense has presented a different version of the events that led to Martin being captured. In a letter directed to judge Edgar Israel Flores del Toro, Martin says he was captured while at his home, this differs from the police report that suggest he was captured on a highway. Eyewitnesses confirmed his side of the story, testifying they saw police patrols at his house the day he was captured. Edna testified she wasn’t at the house while Martin was being captured. It wasn’t until she came back to her house that she realized something had happened. Edna was horrified when she found her house in complete disarray. His husband was nowhere to be found and she wouldn’t hear any news from him until four days later.
Another argument presented by the defense is the statement made by Milton Trujillo Montiel after the police report surfaced. A letter written by Milton exposes the truth about the events. Milton says he was tortured by the police in order to convince him to make a false testimony. The police asked Milton to point out Martin as the leader of the criminal group so that they had enough evidence to justify his arrest. The false statement was included in the police report. On September 2014, Milton declared he had never met Martin prior to the aforementioned events. The police officers that captured him forced him into making a false testimony.
Currently, Martin’s case is on the brink of resolution. The trial is almost over but there are some additional pieces of evidence to be revealed. The Istanbul Protocol will become apparent in the following weeks and the defense expects this will prove Martin’s innocence once and for all. After two years of fighting for Martin’s liberation, his wife Edna, his lawyer and the CART await the judge’s decision. Many irrefutable pieces of evidence showing Martin’s innocence have been presented. He is the latest victim of false accusations and forged testimonies, a problem that poses a major threat to Mexico’s justice system.
News:
News on August 5, 2016: José Martin González Moreno, falsely accused in Mexico, underwent torture (CART EDIT)
