Sign-On Letter for the freedom of EMMANUEL HERNÁNDEZ HERNÁNDEZ

On the March 16, 2006, during a march that was part of the IV Global Forum on Water in Mexico City, Emmanuel Hernández Hernández along with 8 compañeros, all students enrolled at the 8^th Public School associated with the National Autonomous University of Mexico, were detained outside the subway station Insurgentes without just cause while exercising their right to protest and transferred to the office of the public ministry. There they were illegally strip searched and photographed and charged with carrying offensive weapons, a common law offense. It is worth mentioning that everybody except Emmanuel was exonerated of the offense for lack of evidence.  

Three years later, on the 23 of November of this year, 2009, Emanuel was arrested and sent to the prison in the North of the city for the same crime, now classified as a federal offense, a crime that he never committed.

Emmanuel’s has been through a difficult family situation since the process begun in 2006. His mother, the only parent sustaining the household, became gravely ill and sadly died, leaving 20 year old Emmanuel in charge of the household. This obliged him to interrupt his studies which today, with difficulty, he is resuming while continuing to work in order to care for his younger brother as well as his child who is just 8 months old.

We the undersigned note that Emmanuel, while so young, has been a responsible and dependable young person who is paying the price of one more injustice perpetrated by the Mexican state. For this reason we demand his immediate and unconditional release, and we hold the state responsible for his mental and physical integrity inside the prison.

Yours attentively,

1. Committee to Free Emmanuel

2.  Cerezo Committee, Mexico

3. Independent Students of the UNAM