Canadian woman vows to kill herself if convicted in Mexico with...

- A Canadian woman languishing in a Mexican jail for two years and apparently facing a conviction on money-laundering charges even though her lawyer has not filed a defence vowed Thursday to take her own life on the same day if she is convicted.Brenda Martin, 51, of Trenton, Ont., has been in jail in Guadalajara since Feb. 17, 2006. Mexican authorities allege she was part of a $60-million pyramid investment scheme that scammed about 15,000 people in dozens of countries.When asked Thursday in a phone interview with The Canadian Press what she would do if convicted, she said without hesitation: "I will commit suicide the same day. I have no prospects whatsoever. I will go home in a box or I will go home on my two feet."Martin said she is "hanging by a very thin thread," and is pegging whatever little hope she has remaining on Prime Minister Stephen Harper."I believe that the only person who's going to get me out of this hell is the prime minister," she said.Martin, who initially sounded stoic during Thursday's interview, wept when she spoke of her long-lost father."I've finally been reunited with my father after 49 years of never seeing him," she said. "I just found out he heard about my case."Mexico's deputy attorney general informed Martin this week, in the presence of a Canadian embassy official, that the judge in the case has already prepared a 500-page verdict, Martin's longtime friend Deb Tieleman said Thursday."Basically, (a verdict) has been rendered without Brenda having the opportunity to have a proper defence filed," Tieleman, who has Martin's permission to discuss the case with Foreign Affairs, said from Cambridge, Ont."Brenda's lawyer has never even finished answering the charges in the prosecutor's brief."Martin's lawyer Guillermo Cruz has argued that Mexican authorities abused Martin's rights because they used statements she made without a translator.A judge - who on Martin's birthday this week rejected a constitutional challenge to her detention - failed to take that into account, Cruz said."It says Brenda provided a confession before the court," Cruz said of the constitutional ruling, which he planned to appeal."She didn't get the right to get a proper translator, so that's why I believe that this decision is not something according to justice."Canadian embassy officials in Mexico City did not immediately return calls Thursday.The Internet-based scheme that resulted in Martin's arrest was run by her former boss Alyn Waage, formerly of Edmonton, who was convicted in 2005 and is serving a 10-year sentence in an American prison.Waage has backed Martin's assertions of innocence.Conservative politician Rick Norlock, who represents the riding that contains Martin's hometown of Trenton, Ont., was scheduled to meet Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier on Thursday to discuss the case following a similar meeting with Harper on Wednesday.Former prime minister Paul Martin, who is in Mexico on other business, pressed the country's vice-minister of foreign affairs in Mexico City on the issue this week before flying down to spend about 45 minutes with Brenda Martin - no relation - at the prison Wednesday."He told her that Canadians are worried about her and thinking about her," Paul Martin's spokesman Jim Pimblett said Thursday.Brenda Martin praised the former prime minister as "a wonderful man.""I can't believe he did all that for me, to come down here. ... He said he met with officials in Mexico City and he's doing everything he can to help me."Her distraught mother Marjorie Bletcher, 69, said in an interview she appreciated Paul Martin's efforts, but worried it might be too late to save her daughter, who she said has "gone downhill" in recent weeks."I thank him very much. He was trying to give her hope, but I don't even think that gave her hope," Bletcher said from her home in Trenton."She's got to get out of there soon or she's not going to make it. She's in such a depression. I think she's almost given up. She's already said goodbye to me."Bletcher said she firmly believes that all the signs point to her daughter's innocence, noting she had plenty of opportunity after her boss's arrest to leave Mexico."Maybe she signed something that's incriminated her," said Bletcher, who lost a 34-year-old daughter in 1999 two days after an accident involving an off-road vehicle."But if she had been given an interpreter, she might not have."Ottawa has sent a diplomatic protest note to Mexico. Norlock said Harper was considering the best way to help Martin, but worried about meddling in Mexico's justice system.Tieleman was unimpressed with how Ottawa has handled the case to this point."I don't think they've done enough yet," she said."If Canada cannot defend you under international law, then we need to send a travel warning out ... to every Canadian who leaves the country."