Notorious kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was officially sentenced to life in prison with an additional thirty-years. Though he reportedly flashed his wife the thumbs-up upon receiving word of his lengthy bid, a new report from the New York Post reveals some of Chapo's thoughts on the idea of returning to prison. Apparently, he likened his time in a Manhattan to jail as "torture," citing no shortage of unsanitary conditions. "I've been forced to drink unsanitary water. I’ve been denied access to fresh air and sunlight," he explained, pleading his case. "The only sunlight I have in my cell comes through in the air vent."
The words came directly from Guzman, and subsequently translated by his attorney Eduardo Balarezo. “In order to sleep, I have to clog my ears with toilet paper because of the air from the air duct,” he continues. “My wife has not been allowed to this day to visit me, I have not been allowed to hug my daughters." From the sound of it, the once-mighty kingpin also doubled down on claims of an "unfair trial," citing the bias of several jurors.
"I was extradited to the US to have a fair trial, where justice would be blind to my fame and would not be a defining factor in the administration of justice,” he claimed. “But what happened was actually the opposite. “You didn’t want to question the jury, so what you did was you alleged the actions of the jurors were not important because there was a lot of evidence against me. If that was the case, why did we go to trial? The jury was not necessary then. Why didn’t you just sentence me?"
His attorney echoed Chapo's own feelings, later describing the sentence as "inevitable." "This case was simply an inquisition," explains his attorney. "It was a show trial. And how it ended was perfect for that description. It didn't make a difference what the Jury saw, what they said. What they discussed or voted on. At the end of the day, all that mattered was the government's evidence, no matter how flawed. How many lunatics and sociopaths and psychopaths that it depended on. The Jury be damned." Do you think Guzman got what he deserved? Check out more from El Chapo's trial via The New York Post, right here.
