MP plans trip to Mexico to arrange prison transfer

MP Jason Kenney is travelling to Mexico on Friday to facilitate the prisoner transfer process in the Brenda Martin case, CBC News has learned.

Kenney, the Conservative government's secretary of state for multiculturalism, will meet with senior Mexican officials.

A Mexican judge on Tuesday found Martin, a Canadian who had been working in Mexico, guilty of money laundering. She was sentenced to five years in prison without parole, and a fine of close to $3,500.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said Tuesday the government will work to arrange a prisoner transfer as quickly as possible, but warned it could take weeks or months.

Gar Pardy, a former senior official with Foreign Affairs, said if Martin is transferred to a Canadian prison, she would soon be eligible for parole because she has already served two years in a Mexican jail. Canadian prisoners are usually eligible for full parole after serving one-third of their sentence.

Martin, 51, will have to spend at least four more days in a prison near Guadalajara because under Mexican law, a convicted prisoner must wait out the five-day appeal period from the time of conviction before an appeal or transfer process can begin.

Martin, who is from Trenton, Ont., is accused of participating in a $60-million internet fraud scheme run by Canadian Alyn Waage, who was convicted of fraud in 2006. He is serving a 10-year term in a U.S. prison.

Martin, who has been in jail awaiting a decision in her case since 2006, has maintained her innocence, saying she worked for Waage as a chef in Puerto Vallarta, but knew nothing of his schemes. Waage has corroborated Martin's story in testimony.

Martin's family and friends say imprisonment has taken its toll on her, leaving her depressed, heavily sedated and on 24-hour suicide watch in Puente Grande women's prison.

The nature of Mexico's justice system, which does not include oral trials and puts the onus on the accused to prove his or her innocence rather than on the prosecution to prove guilt, meant Martin had to wait out the legal process in prison.