The lawyer for South Florida Marine Andrew Tahmooressi said he expects the serviceman to remain in a Mexican prison for at least another “couple of months.”
Tahmooressi has been in jail since he was arrested on April 1 after driving his black Ford truck over the Mexican border at San Ysidro, California into Tijuana. His family said he got lost near the border after dark and took a wrong turn. He was carrying three U.S.-registered guns when he was stopped.
Fernando Benitez, Tahmooressi’s lawyer, was at a hearing Monday in Mexico. He accused Mexican Customs agents of having pre-dated arrest forms on hand and simply “filled in the blanks.”
The two customs agents who detained Tahmooressi testified at the hearing, along with two Army officers who confiscated the weapons.
Benitez has previously said that there are irregularities in the case that could help Tahmooressi and that pages are missing from the record.
“There are multiple irregularities with the order to search his vehicle, his conveyance. The order to search his conveyance is dated three days before his crossing of the border,” Benitez said earlier this year. “There are 11 pages missing from the record, which nobody seems to know what they are or what they say.”
Tahmooressi has gained the support of Florida elected officials, including Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Sen. Marco Rubio. His family has also started a White House petition asking for his release.
Benitez said there are more hearings scheduled for Tahmooressi.
