Cassez, sentenced to 60 years in prison in Mexico for kidnapping and maintains his innocence, should be attached to his fate on Thursday, with the review by three judges of the cassation appeal, after five years and two months already spent in locks.
The French had been arrested Dec. 8, 2005 on a road from Cuernavaca (center) in Mexico with his former partner, Israel Vallarta, suspected by police of leading a criminal group, "Los Zodiaco", which would have been its credit a dozen kidnappings.
The next morning at dawn, police had arranged before the Mexican television cameras, a scene of arrest and Break Vallarta on a ranch where three hostages were held.The assembly was falsely presented as a live arrest.
Now aged 36 years, Florence Break has always protested his innocence and said she was unaware of the activities of Vallarta, which is still awaiting trial.
She was sentenced to 96 years in prison in the first instance in April 2008 for four kidnappings, involvement in a criminal conspiracy and weapons possession.This sentence was reduced on appeal to 60 years in prison in March 2009.
For advocates of the young woman, the cassation appeal (amparo) filed in August 2010 suggests that all the charges "built on sand" on "falsified evidence."
At the beginning of the case, the opinion was unanimous Mexican Cassez been hostile to media and the verdict was no appeal against the "evil French".
But since the conviction on appeal, the activities of lawyers and press-depth investigations have cast doubt in circles wider and wider in Mexico.
In November, the French received two notable supporters: that the Catholic Church of Mexico and a former federal Attorney-General, the equivalent of the Minister of Justice.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, convinced of the innocence of Florence Break, was personally involved in defending the young woman with whom he has since maintained regular telephone contacts for almost three years.
The announcement of the conviction on appeal from the French, just days before the visit of French president in Mexico in March 2009 and, three months after the formal refusal of Mexican President Felipe Calderon to consider a transfer to France, had emerged as a snub to France.
Associations of Mexican kidnap victims are most opposed to any leniency towards the French.Wednesday night again, four of them have urged the judiciary and the Mexican government to "not yield to pressure the French government" in the case of Florence Break, on behalf of the fight against impunity.
The Embassy of France in Mexico responded in a statement condemning the "direct pressure on the judicial power" exercised by these organizations on the eve of a trial in cassation.
"Many Mexican institutions and individuals have rallied to denounce what they consider serious irregularities and violations of safeguards that have characterized this case since the initial assembly, which in itself casts doubt on the whole the judicial process, "said the embassy.
