MEXICO CITY (AP):

Mexico's Supreme Court has cut the sentence of a Frenchwoman convicted of kidnapping from 96 to 60 years.

The federal Judicial Council said in an announcement Tuesday that the court trimmed the sentence because it absolved Florence Cassez of one of the four kidnappings she was convicted of in 2008.

The decision came a week before French President Nicolas Sarkozy visits Mexico.

Cassez' French lawyer, Franck Berton, said yesterday the trial was not fair and denounced the sentence as "arbitrary".

Eight-year-old abducted

"The cards are now in the hands of the Elysee," he said, referring to the French presidential palace.

Cassez was arrested in late 2005 when police raided a house on the outskirts of Mexico City where three people had been held for more than two months. Among them was an eight-year-old girl.

Cassez maintains she is innocent, but at least one victim has identified her as one of her kidnappers.

Cassez' father, Bernard Cassez, appealed to Sarkozy to help his daughter.

"I'm not going to tell him not to go (to Mexico). Let him go, but all I ask is that he bring her back," he said on France-Info radio yesterday.

French government spokesman Luc Chatel said that Sarkozy plans to discuss the case during his visit and that the French government has long wanted to obtain the transfer of Florence Cassez to France.

Sarkozy's office is studying "possible options with respect to the independence of the Mexican judicial system and international conventions that link us to Mexico," Chatel said.