After being detained in Mexico for more than four months, it is time for Mexico’s attorney general to dismiss the charges against Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter said Monday.
Tahmooressi has been held in Mexico since this spring when he entered the country with three firearms he owned legally in the U.S. He has said his entry into the country was an accident.
In a statement to Breitbart News, Hunter explained that part of the reason Tahmooressi, who served two tours in Afghanistan, has been held for so long was incompetence by his previous two attorneys.
“Part of the problem initially was that Andrew’s first two lawyers weren’t up to the task, and their mistakes resulted in months of unnecessary delays,” Hunter said. “So his new legal team, led by Fernando Benitez, is rock-solid, and Fernando has exposed numerous humanitarian violations that will produce a formal request for dismissal in the coming days.”
The California Republican – himself a former Marine who served in Afghanistan and Iraq – stressed that the individual who can make the most change in the Tahmooressi saga, however, is Mexico’s Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam.
“The AG has shown himself to be reasonable, and this case can still be handled properly if he exercises good judgment by looking at the facts of the case that have been laid out. I’m confident he’ll do that, especially now that Mexico’s justice system has been given time to work,” Hunter continued.
According to Hunter, the time is now for the attorney general to support a motion for dismissal for Tahmooressi.
“I don’t think the AG needs to apologize for the serious mistakes of Andrew’s two previous attorneys, especially the fact that dismissal was never requested, but what the AG can do is show that the buck stops with him now that major humanitarian violations have been revealed. Andrew also needs treatment for his PTSD, which is why he was in San Diego in the first place, but even more than that, he deserves justice,” he told Breitbart News. “It’s now appropriate for the AG to fully support a motion for dismissal, and anyone with an interest or stake in this case should do exactly that.”
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