One of the assassins of a Mexican journalist killed in 2017, AFP collaborator Javier Valdez Cardenas, was sentenced Thursday February 27 to 14 years and 8 months in prison, a first in the country for the murder of a press representative.
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Heriberto Picos Barraza, nicknamed the Koala, had been one of the perpetrators of this crime committed in Cualiacan (northwest), according to the prosecution specializing in crimes against freedom of expression (Feadle). He had served as a driver for two men, Juan Francisco Picos Barrueto and Luis Idelfonso Sanchez, who shot the man on May 15, 2017 outside his office.
The murder of the co-founder of the weekly Riodoce and collaborator of the daily La Jornada, hailed for his investigations into the drug trade, had sparked international outrage.
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Lead accused tried in March
The prosecution ordered that the condemned person pay 9 million pesos (about 420,000 euros) to the journalist's family. The sum is to be paid by the Executive Victim Attention Commission (CEAV), a branch of the Ministry of the Interior.
The prosecution believes that the assassination was ordered by the son of a drug trafficker, Damaso Lopez Serrano, furious at having been criticized in an article by Riodoce, and now incarcerated in the United States. Lopez Serrano, who allegedly paid 100,000 pesos (nearly 4,700 euros) and supplied the weapons, has always denied.
Juan Francisco Picos Barrueto having refused to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of 20 years and 8 months in prison, he must be tried in March as the main perpetrator of the assassination.