Mexico charges seven with aiding drug lord's escape

Mexico City, July 18 (IANS/EFE) The Mexican attorney general's office is asking a judge to order seven public employees held for trial on charges of assisting in last weekend's jailbreak by drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, a federal official said on Friday. Prosecutors' decision to bring the seven before a judge "means there are sufficient elements to presume their responsibility" for the crime, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The judge will have 72 hours to decide whether to release the seven employees or have them bound over for trial, the source said. In a subsequent statement, the attorney general's office vowed to act "against all those persons... who participated in any way in the events of July 11." Eleven other public employees detained for questioning in the case have been released, capital daily El Universal said in its online edition. Another Mexico City newspaper, Milenio, said 15 people were freed after interrogation, but with the condition that they make themselves available as needed throughout the course of the investigation.