Víctor Saldaño: Argentina has appealed in the …

Argentina has appealed the "amicus curiae" (friend of the court) to the United States Supreme Court of Justice, which must clarify whether it admits to having dealt with the Cordovan Víctor affair Saldaño, sentenced to death 22 years ago State of Texas.

The appeal presented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has the support of 13 countries of Latin America (Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, Republic Dominican Republic and El Salvador) was also approved by the Commission. Inter-American Human Rights Commission (IACHR).

The IACHR's approval stresses that the amicus curiae "reflects the determinations and conclusions" adopted by this body in the present case and considers "its presentation relevant to the US Supreme Court of Justice , in order to comply with the recommendations in a timely manner. "

"This presentation from Argentina joins the many actions our country has taken to defend the life of our national for more than 20 years and responds to the country's traditional stance against the death penalty," said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Foreign Affairs.

Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie received the mother of Víctor Saldaño, the only Argentinian sentenced to death in the United States and who has been on the death row since 1996 in a prison in the United States. Texas in the expectation of his death. Execution for the murder of a trader. "Argentina is taking steps to have the Court consider favorably the admission of the case to commute the sentence in Saldaño, in accordance with the recommendation of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights ", said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the end of the meeting.

The only possibility to prevent the execution of Saldaño is that the United States complies with the favorable ruling issued by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to do so go out of the death row, as he is known. Saldaño is currently represented only by the IACHR, Cordoba's lawyer, Juan Carlos Vega.

Víctor Saldaño had previously been sentenced twice by the Texas Judge for the murder of Paul Ray King, a computer salesman he murdered in November 1995 with a Mexican accomplice for stealing a watch and 50 dollars for the outskirts of the city. the city of Plano. One of those decisions was overturned by the US Supreme Court after proving that a racist test had been used to sentence.

Saldaño is in the death row of a maximum security prison in Houston, under conditions that international human rights organizations describe as torture.