MEXICO CITY, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- A 47-year-old Mexican woman, sentenced to 21 years in prison for kidnapping six federal police officers, has been freed with no apology, her advocates say.
Jacinta Francisco Marcial, an Otomi Indian with limited knowledge of Spanish, was arrested three years ago, two months after a clash between police and street merchants in the state of Queretaro, Mexico. The officers, searching the market for pirated CDs, claimed merchants surrounded them and demanded a $6,000 payment to let them go.
Francisco's arrest with two other women and conviction was based on a single photograph showing her on the outside of a group during the incident, the Los Angeles Times reported. A judge ordered her released this month after the case was reopened and the district attorney concluded there were doubts about her guilt.
She was freed Wednesday to return home to her husband, six children and work selling ice cream and drinks in the market.
"The worst part," she said, "was being so far from my children, from my family, for a crime I did not commit. That hurt me a lot."
The Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center, which represented her, said Mexico "has many Jacintas." Luis Arriaga Valenzuela, the lawyer who heads the center, said women and the poor are likely to be wrongly arrested and convicted.
