De stichting Hester zet zich in voor het bestrijden van geweld tegen vrouwen in (vooral) de Mexicaanse stad Ciudad Juárez, waar in 1998 Hester van Nierop werd vermoord. Ze steunt daarbij o.a. het werk van de plaatselijke organisatie Casa Amiga.
Artikel in de El Paso times
In de El Paso Times stond gister een groot stuk over de veroordeling van de moordenaar van Hester; "Suspect in Dutch woman's 1998 murder sentenced"
Suspect in Dutch woman's 1998 murder sentenced
A man convicted in the 1998 murder of Dutch citizen Hester Van Nierop in Juárez, Mexico, was sentenced to 35 years in prison, officials announced Tuesday.
Ramiro Adame-Lopez, 52, alias Roberto Flores, was found guilty of the rape and murder of the 28-year-old woman whose body was discovered in Hotel Plaza in downtown Juárez.
Dolf Hogewoning, the Netherlands' ambassador to Mexico, notified Hester’s parents, Arsene and Roeland Van Nierop, of the sentence, the Hester Foundation said in an email.
“The Hester Foundation is grateful to the Mexican government for its commitment, and sees this as a positive step … This struggle for justice continues even after this sentencing,” the foundation said.
The victim’s parents persevered for 17 years, at times traveling to El Paso and Juárez and Mexico City in their quest to seek justice for their daughter.
Chihuahua lawyer and activist Lucha Castro and Carlos Castresana, an international expert on organized crime, assisted the family with the investigation.
Castresana had served as an expert for a United Nations division that investigated the Juárez women’s murders, also called femicides.
Arsene Van Nierop, who wrote a book about her daughter’s death “Cry from Juárez,” previously told the El Paso Times that a witness helped to identify Adame-Lopez by his tattoos and a disfigured ear.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials announced Adame-Lopez’s deportation to Mexico in 2014.
“Adame-Lopez is charged with the murder of Hester Van Nierop, a Dutch woman who was raped and murdered in 1998. Her body was found in a hotel room in Juárez, the Mexican city bordering El Paso,” ICE officials said in 2014 statement.
“The 28-year-old victim was enroute to the United States after a short vacation with her parents and younger sister. She planned to look for an architecture internship in the United States,” ICE officials said.
U.S. authorities said that Adame-Lopez was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol agents and Terrell County (Texas) sheriff deputies in 2011 for suspected drug smuggling. He was convicted of possessing marijuana with intent to distribute and sentenced to three years in prison.
ICE placed an immigration hold on Adame-Lopez, who was turned over to ICE custody after completing his sentence at a prison in Jena, Louisiana.
ICE officials provided a history of Adame-Lopez other violations, including a 1986 arrest in Albuquerque by city police on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, receiving a stolen firearm, aggravated residential burglary and shooting into an occupied dwelling.
Two years later, immigration officials arrested Adame-Lopez for concealing his identity.
“Adame-Lopez, who used several aliases including Roberto Flores, had also been arrested in 1989 in Nebraska for conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance,” ICE officials said. He was sentenced to serve between five and eight years in jail.
In August 1998, an immigration judge ordered Adame-Lopez deported to Mexico. Hester Van Nierop was found dead in Juárez in September 1998. Mexican investigators said Adame-Lopez had signed the hotel register as “Roberto Flores.”
ICE officials said Adame-Lopez had been staying in the United States illegally.
In 1999, Albuquerque police arrested Adame-Lopez for cocaine trafficking and conspiracy, ICE officials said.
The following year, immigration officers arrested him in El Paso on suspicion of falsely claiming U.S. citizenship; he posted a $2,500 bond and absconded, U.S. officials said.
The Hester Foundation’s website is www.hester.nu.