(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the “judicial hounding” of journalist Angel Mario Ksheratto of the local daily “Cuarto Poder”, which has just led to him being sent back to prison for failing to observe his bail conditions. Officials of the Chiapas State Investigation Agency (Agencia Estatal de Investigación, AEI) in southern Mexico arrested Ksheratto on […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the “judicial hounding” of journalist Angel Mario Ksheratto of the local daily “Cuarto Poder”, which has just led to him being sent back to prison for failing to observe his bail conditions.
Officials of the Chiapas State Investigation Agency (Agencia Estatal de Investigación, AEI) in southern Mexico arrested Ksheratto on 11 November 2006 and sent him back to El Amate jail where he had already served 18 days in prison, from 4 to 22 February, before being released on bail equivalent to 8,000 euros.
Ksheratto is being sued for “defamation” by a Chiapas state official whom he reported was implicated in a case of embezzling public funds. Under Chiapas state legislation, which is harsher than that of other states in the country, he faces five years in prison and a fine equivalent to 75 days’ minimum wage.
He has been arrested three times, in January 2003, October 2005 and February 2006. Each time he has been charged with failing to fulfill one of the conditions of his bail – signing the bail register once a week, a formality that obliges him to travel 120 kilometres from his workplace and home.
