The Legal Steps of The Case
- 8 December 2005: Florence Cassez is arrested.
- 9 December: with TV crews filming, the police staged a "recreation" of a raid on the compound where already-freed hostages were "rescued" and Vallarta and Cassez were "arrested."
- 25 April 2008: Cassez is condemned to 96 years in prison. She is identified as guilty of the following: organized crime; illegal deprivation of three people's liberty; possession of firearms used exclusively by the army.
- 2 March 2009: The sentence is reduced to 76 years in prison, then to 60 years to conform to the Mexican legislation that sets this time span as the limit of incarceration.
- 2009: Cassez claims that the Strasbourg Convention, signed by Mexico, allows her to be transferred to a French jail. At French insistence, Mexico set up a committee of legal experts from France and Mexico to study the transfer. The request is ultimately denied because in France she would not have 60 years in jail as in Mexico, and because France can not ensure the punishment, she must stay in Mexico.
- In August 2010, lawyers for Florence Cassez file an appeal to the Mexican Supreme Court, arguing that her arrest was unconstitutional and that her rights were violated.
- 10 February 2012: the appeals court upholds her conviction for kidnapping.
- 21 March 2012: the Mexican Supreme court rejects, 3–2, Florence Cassez' release petition.
- 22 January 2013: the Mexican Supreme court accepts, 3–2, Florence Cassez' release petition, without trial.
- 23 January 2013: Florence Cassez is freed and immediately flown back to France.
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