Mexico court orders US ex-Marine's release

A Mexican court ordered the release of a former US Marine jailed in the country since March for carrying weapons, after pressure from top US officials.

Sergeant Andrew Tahmooressi, a 25-year-old veteran of the war in Afghanistan, was arrested on March 31 when he entered Mexico from California.

Tahmooressi’s family has said that he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and crossed the border inadvertently with several weapons in his car that he had purchased legally in the United States.

A statement from the Council of the Federal Judiciary said it had ordered the “immediate release” of Tahmooressi, from El Hongo prison in Baja California state.

Tahmooressi’s case garnered broad national attention in the United States, with dozens of politicians and top US officials calling on Mexico to release him.

Arizona Congressman Matt Salmon took to Twitter to say he was “overjoyed” to learn of Tahmooressi’s release.

“I have long maintained that he has been held in a Mexican prison for far too long, and needed to be returned to the United States to receive proper treatment for the PTSD that he suffers from as a direct result of his heroic service to our nation,” Salmon wrote in a series of tweets.

Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida said in a statement she was relieved Tahmooressi was out, and said she too hoped he got immediate attention for his PTSD.

“It was the dogged determination of Andrew’s mother, Jill, and the vast network of support here in America that are largely responsible for securing his release today,” she said.