UN group: Arrest of Washington state woman in Mexico illegal
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A United Nations panel has ruled that Mexico's 2013 arrest and continuing detention of a community police leader was illegal, raising hopes among her supporters she could be freed.
Nestora Salgado is a Seattle-area resident who returned to her native Mexico and led a vigilante-style — but legal — community police force, which mounted patrols to protect residents from cartel operatives.
Salgado was arrested in August 2013 after people detained by her group alleged they had been kidnapped.
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The International Human Rights Clinic at Seattle University Law School took her case to the UN's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. In a decision released this week, the five-member panel called her arrest arbitrary. The ruling is not binding on Mexico, but it could increase pressure to release her.