Canadian in Mexican jail claims addiction

GUADALAJARA, Mexico, April 16 (UPI) -- A Canadian woman held in a Mexican prison for two years without trial told CTV News she has become addicted to anti-depressants and painkillers.

Brenda Martin, 52, told a correspondent in the Guadalajara jail she had become addicted to "anti-depressants, sleeping pills, anti-stress pills, pain-killers by injection, anti-anxiety injections" to help her cope with imprisonment on fraud charges.

On Monday, a judge held a hearing and said he will review prosecution files to decide whether to release her or try her. He said he would make a decision within 30 days.

Meanwhile, a prison psychologist said Martin is pandering to the media and denied she had become addicted to anything. He also showed photographs of Martin in a prison beauty pageant, which she said was a smear campaign.

"I mean, I'm supposed to be guilty now because I went into a pageant?" she said.

She was jailed in February 2006 in connection with money she received from her Canadian boss in Mexico, who was convicted of running an Internet investment scam, and is now in a U.S. prison.