MEXICAN DRUG SUSPECT CITES TREATY

A Mexican citizen who is in Kane County Jail awaiting trial on drug charges
is trying to get the charges against him dismissed, claiming that his
rights under a little known international treaty were violated when he was
arrested.

In a court motion scheduled to be argued before a judge Tuesday, Jose
Cisneros said Aurora police failed to notify him of his right to contact
the Mexican Consulate upon his arrest July 15.

The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, a treaty the U.S. ratified in
1969, gives arrested foreign nationals in more than 40 countries--including
the United States and Mexico--the right to seek assistance from consulate
representatives. The treaty says that foreign nationals should be advised
of that right "without delay" upon arrest.

Cisneros, 45, who was arrested in what is believed to be the largest drug
bust in Kane County history, says he was not informed of that right when he
was stopped for what initially was a traffic stop in Aurora. Police knew he
was from Mexico, his lawyer maintains, because he had shown a Mexican
driver's license.

A search of the car Cisneros was driving yielded 7.5 kilos of cocaine and
Cisneros allegedly made incriminating statements, authorities said.

Cisneros is one of a handful of defendants nationwide who are trying to
invoke the Vienna treaty, which defense lawyers discovered over the last
two years, legal experts said.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court delayed the scheduled execution
of a Canadian convicted of murder in Texas. Among those supporting Joseph
Stanley Faulder's cause was U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. She
asked that the execution be postponed because Faulder was not told of his
right under international law to contact the Canadian Consulate when he was
arrested.

In another case, Paraguayan national Angel Francisco Breard, who had been
convicted of murder and sentenced to death, tried unsuccessfully to halt
his execution in Virginia on the grounds that he was denied his rights
under the Vienna treaty. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to halt that
execution, saying that the defendant should have raised the issue at the
trial court level.

The case drew the attention of Albright, who appealed to Virginia officials
to delay Breard's execution. She argued that the safety of Americans in
foreign countries could be affected by our courts' treatment of foreign
nationals.

In a handful of cases already argued throughout the country, most have
dealt with Death Row inmates. To date, no federal or state appellate court
has issued a ruling on behalf of a defendant who has waged the Vienna
treaty argument, lawyers said. There are, however, some cases pending in
federal court.

In the Chicago area, a Cook County judge in Bridgeview recently ruled
against a Mexican national accused of murder who had invoked the Vienna
treaty, arguing that the failure of police to notify him of his rights to
contact the consulate did not prejudice the case against him.

Cisneros is the first person in Kane County to raise the issue.

His lawyer, Kathleen Colton, said she plans to introduce the testimony of a
lawyer from the Mexican Consulate in Chicago to explain the treaty and why
it is an important right.

"It's an international human right," Colton said in an interview Monday.
"As an American, if I go to a foreign country, I have the right to contact
my consulate. They cannot prohibit me from doing that. It should be the
same way in this country for citizens of other foreign jurisdictions."

Prosecutors are expected to try to convince Judge James T. Doyle that the
rights under the treaty are akin to the Miranda warnings that police read
to Cisneros, and that no harm or prejudice was done to Cisneros by the
police failure to notify him of his right to contact consulate
representatives, said Assistant State's Atty. Dan Koval.

One local legal expert who says he has researched the treaty extensively,
and who is currently representing the Polish Consulate on behalf of a
defendant already convicted, said there is a push in legal circles to
broaden the Miranda warnings to include the Vienna treaty requirements.

Doug Cassel, director of the Center for International Human Rights at
Northwestern University School of Law, said that many foreign nationals
don't understand their rights under the American legal system.

In many nations, exercising your right to silence or to speak to an
attorney is a right in theory only, Cassel explained.

Checked-by: Richard Lake