Update on Fr. Jose Carlos Contreras

Last December I reported on Fr. Jose Carlos Contreras, a Salesian of the Guadalajara, Mexico Province was was falsely accused and convicted of murder.  Here is an update from the archdiocesan paper in Mexico City, by way of the Salesian News Agency (ANS)

In Mexico - Awaiting Justice

(ANS – San Luis Potosí) – On April 15, Desde la fe, a weekly paper issued by the archdiocese of Mexico City, published an interview with Fr. José Carlos Contreras, the Salesian falsely accused of the rape and murder of the youth Itzachel Shantal. The text of the interview is as follows.

Fr. José Carlos Contreras is sitting on a plastic chair in the State Room of Human Rights in La Pila prison in San Luis Potosí. Leaning his arms on an old desk, he cannot stop thinking of the “illegal” sentence passed on him for the murder of the youth Itzachel Shantal, which occurred in October 2007 – 33 years imprisonment. The sentence was passed on November 22, 2011.  “I was certain that we had done more than was necessary to prove my innocence.”

   The priest knows perfectly well, however, that his trial was full of irregularities, and so he was not surprised that the judge, Juana Maria Castillo, dismissed a priori the proofs which confirmed his innocence, and still less that the Supreme Court of Justice of the state rejected his appeal and approved the verdict.

   The sentence means that he will spend the rest of his days behind bars. That he is well aware of, but refuses to accept it, because he knows that he is the victim of an outrage and so he is not willing to give up the fight for his freedom.

   “It is a debt owed to the truth,” asserts the religious, whom many take to be only a scapegoat, while others regard him as a political prisoner. “But there is one thing that I haven’t the slightest doubt about: I am a victim of the Mexican judiciary system.”

The Salesian knows that his case will now be brought before the federal court, “far from the collusion between the executive and judiciary authorities of San Luis Potosí,” and he is confident that sooner or later he will regain his liberty.

“This is what we have been fighting for, and we will not give up. No one is hiding anything, and society is looking for justice, even though it has not yet been done. We are all confident that the federal authorities will carefully examine the evidence and do justice, not just for me, but also for Itzachel Shantal.”

   “After what you have lived through, do you still believe in Mexican justice?”  He catches on to the question and answers. “I have no choice if I want to get out of here some day,” says the priest, with his unfailing, characteristic cheerfulness and that strength which God is giving him, he assures us, to endure this “calumny.”