Ex-Mexico president claims immunity from Connecticut lawsuit

HARTFORD -- Former Mexico President Ernesto Zedillo claims in court documents filed Friday that his status as a former national leader gives him immunity from a lawsuit filed in Connecticut over the 1997 killings of 45 people in a Mexican village.

Zedillo's attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Hartford. A copy of the motion was obtained by The Associated Press.

Zedillo, now an international studies professor at Yale University, also denied the allegations that he bears responsibility for the massacre by paramilitary groups in Acteal, in the southern state of Chiapas, and that he tried to cover up the killings.

Ten unnamed plaintiffs sued Zedillo in September accusing him of crimes against humanity. They are seeking millions of dollars in damages.

"The plaintiffs' lawsuit against President Zedillo amounts to no more than a misguided effort to impugn the reputation of someone widely regarded by international leaders and scholars as the architect of historic reforms that led Mexico into a new dawn of electoral freedom, respect for human rights, and a flourishing economy," Zedillo's motion says.

"Those who disagree cannot use this court as a vehicle for political revenge," the document says. "The law of sovereign immunity is designed to protect the leaders of our allies from the indignity and expense of defending against just such attacks."

Zedillo was president of Mexico from 1994 to 2000.

A lawyer for the plaintiffs didn't immediately return a message Friday.

The massacre in Acteal on Dec. 22, 1997, was the worst instance of violence . . .

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Source: http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r5721380966

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