Former Marine suffering from PTSD and jailed in Mexican prison over antique shotgun released in time for holidays

Follow @khalid45kk

A former Marine imprisoned in Mexico since August for carrying an antique shotgun was abruptly released Friday night and returned safely to the United States, his lawyer said.

“He’s out. Going home,” Eddie Varon Levy, Hammar’s lawyer, wrote in a message posted to Twitter.
A Mexican judge ruled Friday to free Jon Hammar, 27, from the notorious CEDES prison where he has been jailed since August after trying to declare the weapon at the border.
“These past few months have been an absolute nightmare for Jon and his family, and I am so relieved that this whole ordeal will soon be over,” U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, one of the most vocal proponents for Hammar’s release,  said in a statement. “ I am overcome with joy knowing that Jon will be spending Christmas with his parents, family and friends.”
A spokesman for Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) also confirmed to the Daily News that a gun charge against the former Marine will be dropped.
Earlier Friday, a representative of the Mexican attorney general’s office confirmed to Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) that Hammar would be released.
No American should be in a Mexican jail for five months without being able to have his case in front of a judge,” Nelson said in that statement. “We’re grateful; this is a good Christmas present.”
The court ruling came as a bit of a surprise. Mexico’s ambassador to the United States, Arturo Sarukhan, penned a letter this week saying Hammar had been rightly arrested in August for the “federal crime” of carrying a shotgun “restricted for the exclusive use of the Mexican Armed Forces.”
Hammar and a friend were en route to Costa Rica for a surfing trip when they passed through the border checkpoint in Brownsville, Texas, allegedly declaring the old shotgun to U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.
The agents allowed the pair to continue, allegedly telling them the gun wouldn’t be a problem at the Matamoros, Mexico checkpoint. There, Hammar tried to declare the gun and both he and his friend, a former Marine, were immediately arrested. His friend was released days later.
The chain of events at the border was almost “like a trap,” Hammar’s father, Jon Hammar Sr., told the  News earlier this month.
Hammar, who spent four years in Afghanistan and Iraq and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, was jailed in CEDES, a well-known lockup for criminals linked to Mexico’s violent drug cartels. His life has allegedly been threatened and his family says they received late night extortion calls to their home in Florida seeking thousands of dollars to keep the young man safe.
For his own protection, prison officials, with the help of U.S. consular officials, moved Hammar out of the prison’s general population. For a time, he was handcuffed to a bed because there were no cells available, a source said.
Hammar's parents began a very public push this month to get him freed. U.S. lawmakers, including Ros-Lehtinen and Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla),, joined the chorus of calls urging Mexico to drop the felony charge, which could have kept him behind bars for 12 years.
Hammar's defense attorney argued the arrest was based on a misunderstanding and the attempt to declare the gun showed he had no criminal intent nor was he aware of Mexico's gun laws.
Mexican officials maintained that Hammar was arrested according to the letter of the law, and that border guards did not have discretion to send him back to the U.S. checkpoint.  They also said the Marine's rights were respected and the judicial process was observed.