Salinas questioned again over murder

PROSECUTORS investigating the 1994 murder of a top politician interrogated former Mexican president, Mr Carlos Salinas for more…

PROSECUTORS investigating the 1994 murder of a top politician interrogated former Mexican president, Mr Carlos Salinas for more than 16 hours about the crime, the Mexican attorney-general's office said yesterday.

Two senior prosecutors travelled to Dublin where Mr Salinas lives in self-imposed exile, and questioned him on Monday, the office said in a statement.

Mr Salinas ruled Mexico from 1988 to 1994 but fled the country in March 1995, shortly after his brother Raul was arrested on charges of masterminding the murder of their former brother-in-law, ruling party secretary-general, Mr Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu.

Mr Raul Salinas remains in a maximum-security jail awaiting trial on the charges of arranging the assassination of Mr Ruiz Massieu outside a Mexico City hotel in September 1994. At the time of his death, Mr Ruiz Massieu was divorced from the Salinas brothers' sister Adriana.

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The attorney-general's office gave no details of the interrogation beyond saying that Mr Salinas had answered 216 questions at the Mexican embassy in Dublin.

Spokesmen refused to give additional information or to say whether Mr Salinas would face further questioning.

Monday's session was the second round of interrogation Mr Salinas has faced. Last November, he was questioned in Ireland for about 12 hours about a different assassination, the 1994 murder of ruling party presidential candidate, Mr Luis Donaldo Colosio.

Mr Salinas said after that interrogation he had no knowledge about any plot to kill Mr Colosio, whom he described as a much-missed ally.