Mexico sets hearing date for Canadian

EDMONTON, Alberta, April 9 (UPI) -- Mexican officials said a hearing will be held Monday for a Canadian woman jailed in Guadalajara for more than two years without trial.

Brenda Martin, 51, has been jailed since Feb. 17, 2006, charged with knowingly accepting illicit funds from a $60 million Internet-based fraud operated by Alyn Waage while she worked for him as a chef. He is serving a 20-year sentence in the United States and has said in a sworn affidavit Martin had no role in the scam.

In a telephone interview with the Edmonton Journal, Martin said she met with a judge along with the Canadian ambassador to Mexico, and the judge who told them her hearing would be on Monday and unless unusual circumstances arose, he would issue a ruling by April 18.

Martin said the judge told her she faces a minimum of five years in prison if convicted, and if found innocent, the prosecutor has five days to appeal the decision. Appeals can take more than three months to begin.