Chapo's lawyers condemn treatment in Mexico jail

Lawyers for recaptured Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman condemned prison authorities Friday for refusing them access to their client, after being denied permission to bring him fluffy slippers, a toothbrush and other items.

Two of Guzman's lawyers gave an indignant press conference outside his maximum-security prison after they were not allowed to visit their client and bring him clothes and other personal items.

Lawyer Juan Pablo Badillo said he feared for Guzman's health and safety.

"There's a growing fear (among Guzman's lawyers) that something may happen to him, because it's suspicious that they won't even let his defense attorneys look at him, ask him how he's feeling, what he's been through, whether he's been tortured," he said.

"I hold the prison directors and the interior minister responsible if Mr Guzman is the victim of any illness caused by the cold," said lawyer Jose Luis Gonzalez, showing journalists the items he had packed in a small blue suitcase for his client.
Guzman, the kingpin of the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel, escaped from the same prison outside Mexico City on July 11.

He was recaptured a week ago after six months on the run and sent back to prison -- this time with two tanks posted outside and heavily beefed-up security measures.

Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong denies Guzman has been refused access to his lawyers, saying he met with one on Tuesday.

Gonzalez demanded proof of that.

"Not even if they had caught Adolf Hitler alive would they have done to him what they are doing to Mr Guzman," he said in a radio interview earlier this week.

-- Rotating guards --

Guzman was being held under "extra security conditions," Renato Sales, Mexico's National Security commissioner, told Radio Formula.
The government earlier said that "El Chapo" is in a section of the prison where the most dangerous criminals are held -- the same area where he escaped from in July.

Sales however said that this time Guzman is being held in a different wing, and that all the nearby cells are empty. Agents shuffle the fallen drug lord in an unscheduled manner between the different cells.

Furthermore, federal agents with cameras attached to their helmets work in two-hour shifts keeping a strict eye on the prisoner.

Sales said that Guzman has no privileges, not even the ones he enjoyed in his earlier prison stint, and that he was especially upset when forced to get all of his hair cut off.

Source: AFP