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Jailed Washington woman to be freed in Mexico, U.S. lawyer says

This 2009 family photo provided by Grisel Rodriguez shows Nestora Salgado, who has been detained since she was arrested Aug. 21, 2013, in the state of Guerrero, south of Mexico City, where she had been leading a vigilante group targeting police corruption and drug cartel violence. At right is her grandson, Cristian Rodriguez, who she was raising at the time the photo was taken. (Associated Press)
Associated Press

SEATTLE – A Seattle attorney representing a community police leader who has been jailed in Mexico says she is expected to be released from prison Friday.

Thomas Antkowiak said courts in Mexico cleared Nestora Salgado of remaining charges Thursday night and ordered her freed.

Salgado is a resident of the Seattle suburb of Renton who returned to her native Mexico and led a vigilante-style – but legal – community police force, which mounted patrols to protect residents from corruption and organized crime.

Salgado was arrested in August 2013 after people detained by her group said they had been kidnapped. A federal judge cleared her of those charges, but a related state case has kept her imprisoned.

Antkowiak directs the International Human Rights Clinic at Seattle University Law School, which has pursued her case before a United Nations panel. Last month, that panel ruled Mexico’s arrest and its continuing detention of Salgado are illegal.