"I am writing this letter to thank you for the support you have offered me over the past 2 years that I have been in jail," begins a letter sent by Me' phaa Indigenous prisoner of conscience Raúl Hernández. "This helps me to carry on when justice seems so far away.
Now I feel that justice is close. For this reason, I am writing this letter to ask you to ... press your support once again for my freedom, so that I can return home to my family and the OPIM (Me’ phaa Indigenous People’s Organization) to continue defending the rights of my people."
On 30 June 2010, the evidence submission stage of the case against Raúl Hernández on unfounded charges of murder was brought to a close by the presiding judge. During the course of the criminal enquiry, the judge visited the scene of the crime and concluded that the evidence submitted by an eyewitness who placed Raúl at the crime scene at the time of the murder was unreliable. In the coming weeks, the State Attorney General's Office of Guerrero will be asked for its conclusions on the case. Amnesty International believes the case should be thrown out for lack of evidence, and that Raúl has been imprisoned in reprisal for his work as a defender of the human rights of his people.
