- Title: Lawyers fear for Mexican drug boss Guzman's life after prison transfer
- Date: 13th May 2016
- Summary: CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO (RECENT - MAY 7, 2016) (REUTERS) FEDERAL POLICE OFFICER TAKING UP POSITION WITH WEAPON OUTSIDE PRISON (KNOWN AS FEDERAL SOCIAL RE-ADAPTATION CENTRE #9) WHERE DRUG LORD EL CHAPO GUZMAN HAS BEEN TRANSFERRED FEDERAL POLICE OFFICERS GUARDING EXTERIOR OF PRISON FEDERAL POLICE OFFICER IN POLICE VEHICLE OUTSIDE PRISON EXTERIOR OF PRISON FEDERAL POLICE OFFICERS IN POLICE VEHICLE OUTSIDE PRISON EXTERIOR OF PRISON FEDERAL POLICE OFFICERS OUTSIDE PRISON EXTERIOR OF PRISON TWO FEDERAL POLICE OFFICERS OUTSIDE PRISON EXTERIOR OF PRISON TWO FEDERAL POLICE OFFICERS OUTSIDE PRISON VARIOUS OF FEDERAL POLICE OFFICER IN POLICE VEHICLE OUTSIDE PRISON VARIOUS OF FEDERAL POLICE OFFICERS WITH POLICE TRUCK OUTSIDE PRISON
- Embargoed: 28th May 2016 22:07
- Keywords: drug boss extradition US lawyer crime prison Chapo Guzman
- Location: WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES AND LOS MOCHIS, SINALOA / ALMOLOYA / CIUDAD JUAREZ / MEXICO CITY, MEXICO
- City: WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES AND LOS MOCHIS, SINALOA / ALMOLOYA / CIUDAD JUAREZ / MEXICO CITY, MEXICO
- Country: USA
- Topics: Judicial Process/Court Cases/Court Decisions
- Reuters ID: LVA0074HN7PKZ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A lawyer of Mexican drug boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman said on Friday (May 13) he fears rival drug gang members will kill his client in his new prison, following Guzman's transfer to a Ciudad Juarez jail at the weekend.
Guzman was transferred on Saturday (May 7) from a jail in central Mexico to a prison in Ciudad Juarez, a northern city on the U.S. border, in a move that appears to bring him closer to extradition to the United States.
Guzman's lawyer, Jose Luis Gonzalez Meza, who also claims Guzman is being tortured in prison, is in Washington, D.C. to appeal to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and Amnesty International over ill treatment of his client.
He told Reuters members of Amnesty International will travel to Ciudad Juarez to supervise Guzman's prison conditions.
"I was with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and with Amnesty International. Sometime next week, Amnesty International will go to the jail in Ciudad Juarez because in the four months he has been jailed he has not been allowed to see the sun. He is cut-off in spite of six won appeals against lack of communication. However, the state has only allowed him to see his family four times in the last four months. He is not allowed to sleep because during the day, they take attendance every hour and at night every two hours," Meza said.
Meza stood outside the Mexican Embassy in Washington holding a banner with messages against the Mexican government.
Meza said Guzman has been sent to a prison which also houses members of the Juarez Cartel, Guzman's enemy rival drug gang.
"He is currently in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua. That fills all of us with dread, his lawyers, his relatives, because there are 400 or 500 members of the Juarez cartel, who are enemies of El Chapo. There are possibilities he will be murdered inside. The government would then justify itself saying: 'I didn't kill him, the Juarez cartel killed him.' But it's the government's fault because they took him to a wolf pit," Meza said.
A turf war between the Juarez and Sinaloa cartels in 2009-2011 unleashed a bloodbath in Ciudad Juarez, on Mexico's border with Texas, making it one of the most violent places in the world.
Guzman, head of the Sinaloa drug cartel, was one of the world's most wanted drug kingpins until his capture in January, six months after he broke out of a high-security penitentiary in central Mexico through a mile-long tunnel.
Chapo, or "Shorty," faces charges ranging from money laundering to drug trafficking, kidnapping and murder in cities that include Chicago, Miami and both Brooklyn and Manhattan, New York.
Guzman's lawyers continue meeting to plot a course of action against the decision to transfer Guzman.
Mexican officials have said Guzman's transfer to the state of Chihuahua was due to upgrades at his previous location, the Altiplano jail in central Mexico, and not part of an effort to deport him to the United States.
It is anticipated the kingpin could be extradited before July and would probably be housed initially in the U.S. prison in Marion, Illinois, pending trial.
A Chihuahua state official, who also asked to remain anonymous, has said the presence of a U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juarez meant Guzman's handover could be processed faster than through the U.S. embassy. He said he believed Guzman would be moved to the United States in a matter of weeks.
Just across the border from Ciudad Juarez is the U.S. Fort Bliss military base, where Guzman could be taken.
Earlier this year, Reuters reported that prosecutors in El Paso, the city on the other side of the border from Ciudad Juarez, had staked a claim to try Guzman if he is extradited. Other U.S. attorneys' offices with cases against Guzman will also bid to try him first after extradition. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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