Thread: Report: Jon Hammar to be released from Mexican prison today

Originally Posted by ALIPAC

We should boycott Mexico!

W

I've been 'boycotting' it my entire life!

Originally Posted by Jean

This is such fantastic news! Is he actually on American soil yet?

Mexico releases ex-Marine jailed for months after carrying shotgun across border

By Associated Press, Updated: Friday, December 21, 6:33 PM

MIAMI — A Marine veteran jailed for months in Mexico after trying to carry a family heirloom shotgun across the border has been freed, officials and his lawyer said late Friday.

The attorney for Jon Hammar tweeted Friday night that his client had been released from a detention center in Matamoros, Mexico. U.S. officials had been planning to drive the 27-year-old Hammar across the border at Brownsville, Texas.

“He’s out. Going home,” wrote Eddie Varon Levy in a tweet.
U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., confirmed in a statement Friday night that Hammar had been released. She also said he was “back safely in the United States.”

“These past few months have been an absolute nightmare for Jon and his family, and I am so relieved that this whole ordeal will soon be over,” the congresswoman said. “ I am overcome with joy knowing that Jon will be spending Christmas with his parents, family and friends.”

She thanked those “who have shown unwavering support for Jon and his family in their time of need, and who have been so instrumental in making this happen.”
An aide to a legal representative of the Mexican attorney general’s office had told U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson’s staff about the pending release after the Florida Democrat’s office got word from Hammar’s mother, according to a press release.

“No American should be in a Mexican jail for five months without being able to have his case in front of a judge,” Nelson had said in that statement. “We’re grateful; this is a good Christmas present.”

Earlier Friday, Varon Levy said he was flying from Mexico City to Matamoros to pick up his client. After that, the attorney said, they intended to cross the border. “I’m very happy. I feel that the Mexican legal system came out the way it should have,” he said.

U.S. immigration and State Department officials had been at the Mexican detention center waiting for Hammar’s release.

A defense lawyer said Mexican authorities determined there was no intent to commit a crime, Nelson’s office said. The senator was among a handful of elected officials who urged the State Department to help get Hammar out of Mexico. His family said he was being held in isolation after they received threats to his safety.

Varon Levy said the path for Hammar’s return was cleared when Mexican officials decided not to appeal the judge’s ruling.

Civilian gun ownership is illegal under Mexican law unless the owner purchases the weapon from a special shop run by the country’s Department of Defense.
“The Department of State warns all U.S. citizens against taking any type of firearm or ammunition into Mexico,” the U.S. Embassy in Mexico writes on its website.

“Entering Mexico with a firearm, certain types of knives, or even a single round of ammunition is illegal, even if the weapon or ammunition is taken into Mexico unintentionally.”

Mexican law also bans shotguns with barrels of less than 25 inches. The family said Hammar’s shotgun has a barrel of 24 inches.

Tourists are allowed to bring guns for hunting on rare occasions, but Mexican officials said all visitors must receive a special permit before entering the country.

Mexican customs agents do not issue gun permits. As a result, anyone crossing the border with a firearm or ammunition without a previously issued government permit is in instant violation of Mexican law, which stipulates long jail terms for breaking weapons laws.

Hammar and his friend were on their way to Costa Rica in August and planned to drive across the Mexican border near Matamoros in a Winnebago filled with surfboards and camping gear. Hammar, 27, asked U.S. border agents what to do with the unloaded shotgun. His family said agents told them to fill out a form for the gun, which belonged to Hammar’s great-grandfather.

But when the pair crossed the border and handed the paperwork to Mexican officials, they impounded the RV and jailed the men, saying it was illegal to carry that type of gun. Hammar’s friend was later released because the gun did not belong to him.

Varon Levy said he was not sure of Hammar’s immediate plans once he returns to the U.S. “Probably some down time,” he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/mexico-releases-ex-marine-jailed-for-months-after-carrying-shotgun-across-border/2012/12/21/26fdd49e-4bde-11e2-8758-b64a2997a921_story.html

I just heard a news report that he has been released and he is on American soil.

Heard on the radio earlier that Jon's father was awaiting his son in Brownsville, TX and from there they would drive home to Florida. Just to hear Jon is on American soil is such a relief. Now everyone hopefully will leave him and his family alone for awhile.

December 21, 2012 | 11:17 am
Joel Gehrke
Washington Examiner

Against expectations, former U.S. Marine Jon Hammar is reportedly being released, but not before the Mexican government blamed gun trafficking from the United States in a letter explaining his extended imprisonment on a technicality.

Hammar was arrested for bringing an antique shotgun into Mexico, after U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials told him he would be able to register it with the Mexican government.

“As you know well, Mexico has had very stringent gun-control laws in place for many years, and have reinforced their application as a result of the flow of weapons illicitly purchased in the U.S. and then trafficked into Mexico and into the hands of transnational criminal organizations,” Mexico’s Ambassador to the United States, Arturo Sarukhan, wrote yesterday in a letter to Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., who has helped lead efforts to pressure the Mexican government into releasing Hammar.

That could be a simple swipe at U.S. law enforcement who fail to stop weapons from crossing the border, but it’s hard not to hear an allusion to Operation Fast and Furious, which saw U.S. officials facilitate weapons purchases in the U.S. by Mexican drug cartels who smuggled the arms back into Mexico.

U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed by drug smugglers armed through Fast and Furious; the weapons have also been used on the Mexican people. “A gun found at the scene of a shootout between a Mexican drug cartel and soldiers where a beauty queen died was part of the botched ‘Fast and Furious’ operation,” CBS reported this week.

Ros-Lehtinen, who called for Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department to “come clean” about Operation Fast and Furious, announced this morning that Hammar will be released today.

One Old Vet

Mexican ambassador alludes to Fast and Furious as reason for jailing ex-Marine | WashingtonExaminer.com

Former Marine released from Mexican prison

By Gary Tuchman, CNN
updated 11:34 PM EST, Fri December 21, 2012


Former Marine Jon Hammar, 27, was back in the United States Friday night, said U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

(CNN) -- A former U.S. Marine who languished for more than four months in a Mexican prison on a questionable gun charge was on his way to spending Christmas with his family Friday after U.S. politicians intervened for his release.

Jon Hammar, 27, was released from a facility in the border town of Matamoros, just across from Brownsville, Texas, said U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Florida.

"These past few months have been an absolute nightmare for Jon and his family, and I am so relieved that this whole ordeal will soon be over," the congresswoman said in a statement. She represents the family's south Florida district.

U.S. consular officials met Hammar at the prison and escorted him to the border, where he was reunited with members of his family, U.S. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said.

It was August when Hammar, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, crossed the border on his way to Costa Rica. He was going to go surfing with a fellow veteran and stopped in Matamoros to get gas, his family said.

Along with his surf boards, Hammar took an antique shotgun handed down from his great-grandfather. His parents said Hammar intended to hunt with it, and that U.S. Customs and Border Protection told him he could bring the gun into Mexico if it was registered and a fee was paid.

But after he drove his Winnebago to the Mexican side, authorities arrested him, saying the weapon did not comply with their gun laws.

Olivia Hammar said her son was charged with possession of a weapon restricted for military use. A branch of the Mexican military said the gun is not on its "forbidden list," she said, but her son remained incarcerated.

A few nights after Hammar's arrest, his parents received the first of several threatening calls from behind bars, they said.

"He said: 'I have your son,' " Olivia Hammar recalled, tearing up. "I am going to f--- him up. I already have."

Then she heard her son's voice.

"He said: 'Mom, you've got to do what they say; they're really serious.' "

The voice at the other end of the line asked for $1,800.

For the first few months, Hammar's family kept his plight out of the public eye, fearing media attention would cause him harm in prison. They finally came forward in hopes of getting Mexican authorities to act.

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a D-Florida, stepped in on Hammar's behalf, speaking to Mexico's ambassador to the United States. They managed to get him out of the general prison population so he would be away from dangerous inmates.

Hammar was moved to what Nelson said was like an administrative location. But because of the low security of the new facility, which Olivia Hammar described as a storage shed, officials periodically chained Hammar to his bed.

The Hammars recently turned to Ros-Lehtinen, who heads the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. She called the situation "outrageous" and took up the matter with the State Department, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico and the Mexican ambassador.

"I am overcome with joy knowing that Jon will be spending Christmas with his parents, family and friends," she said Friday night.

A defense lawyer said it was determined Hammar had no intent to commit a crime, Nelson said Friday.

"No American should be in a Mexican jail for five months without being able to have his case in front of a judge," Nelson said in a statement. "We're grateful; this is a good Christmas present."

The family said they will spend the holiday "bathed in gratitude" to all those who worked to free their son and gave them support while he was behind bars. They said they would give no interviews until after the holidays.

"The only expression that captures how we feel today is that 'our cup runneth over,'" the family said.

Former Marine released from Mexican prison - CNN.com