‘Humanitarian’ grounds for Tahmooressi release?

Congressional supporters of Andrew Tahmooressi, a U.S. Marine veteran on trial in Tijuana on firearms charges, said Wednesday they believe Mexican prosecutors could move to dismiss the case soon on humanitarian grounds.

The basis for the release would be findings by an expert witness for the prosecution this week that Tahmooressi suffers from combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder and requires treatment in the United States.

Tahmooressi has been detained in Baja California since he drove into Mexico on March 31 with three loaded weapons and more than 400 rounds of ammunition. He is on trial for possession of the weapons and ammunition; if convicted, he faces up to 21 years behind bars.

The Florida native, who served two tours of duty in Afghanistan and had begun treatment for PTSD, had recently moved to San Diego at the time of his arrest. Though he had registered earlier in the day at a hotel in Tijuana, he has maintained that he drove into Mexico by accident later that night, after coming back across the border, retrieving his vehicle, and taking a wrong turn in San Ysidro.

During a House subcommittee hearing on Wednesday focusing on Tahmooressi’s case, U.S. Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., relayed that Mexico’s attorney general, Jesús Murillo Karam, told him last week that “he has the authority within Mexican law to dismiss Sgt. Tahmooressi’s case on humanitarian grounds once he has the expert testimony that verifies his combat-specific PTSD diagnosis.”

U.S. Rep. Ed Royce, R-Fullerton, head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he had received similar assurances in a separate conversation with Murillo Karam.

A psychiatrist from Mexico City hired as an expert witness by the prosecution met with Tahmooressi on Monday, said Fernando Benítez, Tahmooressi’s defense attorney. On Tuesday, Dr. Alberto Pinzón Picaseño concurred with the finding of another psychiatrist hired by the defense team that Tahmooressi suffers from a condition that has him “feeling in constant danger.” The physician recommended that the treatment be headed “by specialized persons in his country of origin,” according to his report.

The finding supports the Tahmooressi defense team’s argument that Mexico’s penal system is not equipped to treat someone with foreign combat-related PTSD — and thus Tahmooressi should be released so he can be treated in the United States.

Wednesday’s subcommittee hearing included testimony from Tahmooressi’s mother, Jill; media personality and U.S. Navy veteran Montel Williams; Marine veteran Roberto Buchanan, who served with Tahmooressi in Afghanistan; and Pete Hegseth, head of Concerned Veterans for America.

Several Republican members of the House spoke on Tahmooressi’s behalf, including Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine. The members of Congress criticized President Barack Obama for not directly advocating on Tahmooressi’s behalf with the Mexican government and securing his release.

The president “ought to get his tail down there and play on some of those Mexican golf courses and get him out of jail in person,” Hunter said.

Mexico has maintained that Tahmooressi’s case will be resolved through the judicial system.

“The case is a legal matter, not a political one,” Ariel Moutsatsos, a spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C., said in an email Wednesday. “This is in the hands of the judge.”

David Shirk, a University of San Diego professor who studies Mexico’s criminal justice system, said that if Tahmooressi is to be released, “it needs to be demonstrated that this is indeed a special case. You can’t simply give him a pass because you’re barking at Mexico.”

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