Andrés Roemer at an event in the city of Puebla in November 2017.Hilda Ríos (CUARTOSCURO)
“Welcome to Mexico, Andrés,” says one of the victims in her social network who reported rape by Roemer, hoping for a possible and timely extradition of the former diplomat imprisoned in Israel. But this delivery will not be immediate. Andrés Roemer was arrested on Sunday in the Mediterranean country where he had fled from the Mexican justice system, which is looking for him to prosecute him for five rapes. And it will stay that way until October 15, sources in the international department of the Israeli prosecutor’s office have indicated. The Jerusalem District Court will hold an arrest hearing that day, but there is no date yet set for the extradition hearing, which needs the green light from the judiciary. Israeli police arrested Roemer in Tel Aviv at the direction of Interpol two years ago and at the request of Mexico City prosecutors. Israeli agents say they identified his location using technical means.
Roemer’s time in Israel was not kept secret. He tweeted almost daily and was received with pomp, so much so that a street in one city was named after him, which was later removed. Now, two years later, the matter is taking an unexpected diplomatic turn. Mexico does not have an extradition treaty with Israel, which is why some criminals victimized by the judiciary seek refuge there, but their surrender can be agreed upon with good will between the two countries. It is these bilateral mechanisms that now seem to be working. The statement from the Mexican Foreign Ministry is a reminder of these extremes. That Roemer was arrested “for extradition purposes at the request of the Mexican government” because the capital prosecutor’s office requested it. To achieve this, the statement continued, they worked “according to the principle of reciprocity and international cooperation, based on the good bilateral relations that exist in all areas between the two countries.”
The statement seems to raise hopes that the trial of the former diplomat and writer is not the only one and that afterwards cases like that of Tomás Zerón, who also fled to Israel and is wanted for his involvement in the Ayotzinapa case, could be possible be solved. The case in which 43 ordinary students disappeared nine years ago. “The Government of Mexico appreciates the reciprocity received from the State of Israel and reiterates that it will continue to promptly pursue the other pending cases with that country,” the Foreign Ministry said.
At his conference this Monday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador already assumed that Roemer would be extradited. Later, diplomacy cooled the times and the euphoria, but nothing can stop the expectations of the victims. “The news hit me suddenly, without prior knowledge of the Mexican authorities, who had promised to notify us as soon as it happened,” says one of Roemer’s complainants. And he adds: “This will not end until Andrés pays for the wounds that not only hurt us, but also made us stronger.” And he concludes: “Welcome to Mexico, Andrés.”
Although she is not the only one to accuse him of rape, he has four other cases for this reason and as many as 61 women accused him of abuse and harassment during his time. This victim suffered the greatest harassment from Roemer’s lawyers, who took action against it. She filed a civil lawsuit for damages on the grounds that her report on the Internet about the events as a journalist had a much greater resonance than the other confessions and was aimed at improving the image to harm the writer and disseminator. A judge rejected the lawsuit on the grounds that she had not acted as a journalist but as an abused woman and that Roemer’s image had already been tarnished by a large number of confessions from other victims. This journalist benefits from a protection mechanism, not as a sexual victim, but as a reporter in danger. “For me, these years were full of grief, fear and, above all, fear of reprisal for revealing a truth. I know that even in his incarceration he has the power and means to hurt me.”
Maybe this won’t be alleviated over time, but all these women now feel more justice. The Israeli embassy in Mexico has pointed out that the Israeli government has always taken these cases seriously: Israel is not a “haven for criminals.”
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