The decision came after a number of defects in the way the appeal was presented were rectified. Vera Palestina is seeking reversal of a ruling by Guadalajara District Judge Fernando Alcázar Martínez denying him the protection of federal justice on the grounds that his transfer from the prison in Mexicali in 1995 did not violate his constitutional rights.

Earlier that year Vera Palestina had filed suit against 26 authorities, alleging he had been arbitrarily transferred from the prison to the airport in the Baja California state capital, with a stopover in Hermosillo and the final destination being the Federal Social Rehabilitation Center (CEFERESO) number 2 in Puente Grande, Jalisco state.

“I was blindfolded, physically tortured and I did not even know in what city I was handed over to the Federal Judicial Police,” he wrote. But on that occasion, as later, his appeal was denied.

Vera Palestina, sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment on May 1, 1990, for the murder of the journalist, does not resign himself to remaining in the maximum security prison and previously, as ZETA reported, he has sought from the Baja California state authorities the benefit of future release.

Now it will be for the Third District Court to decide whether to uphold, amend or overturn the Guadalajara court’s ruling of a few weeks ago.

*Reprinted from the weekly ZETA, Tijuana, Baja California