SEATTLE, Washington (Isabelle Zehnder reporting) -- The family of Jason Puracal, a Seattle man who was sentenced to 22 years in prison in Nicaragua, has asked the U.S. government for help and plans to rally outside the Paramount Theatre in Seattle this Sunday where President Obama will be speaking.
Jason’s young sister, Janis Puracal, told Q13 FOX News, “You can’t put an innocent man in prison or take away his entire life.”
Janis says the charges of international drug trafficking, money laundering, and organized crime, and conviction with a 22-year prison sentence, are bogus.
“Most people that go there are aware of their government system, the corruption and that possibility, but you never expect it to happen to you,” said Jaime, Jason’s youngest sibling.
According to Janis the prosecution had no evidence that Jason did anything wrong and said their key witness didn’t know what an “escrow account” was.
“Their theory at trial was there was money coming into the account, and money coming out of account, they aren`t recognizing the account was an escrow account for Remax, money for Remax clients buying property, which was held in the trust,” said Janis.
Jason’s sisters say their brother’s living conditions are horrible and they plan to appeal the decision. He is only allowed two monthly visits to see his son and wife, and he is recuperating from severe burns he got when he was boiling water with a make-shift device, Q13 FOX News reports.
Janis said the prison doesn’t have clean water and that the water is contaminated with parasites, making prisoners sick. She said they have to boil water or buy it at the prison store, and the store often runs out.
She said this has been a nightmare for their family for the past 10 months but they refuse to give up.
“Our biggest grounds for appeal is the fact that this judge is not a judge, not even a licensed attorney, just one appointed by their government to convict in this case,” said Janice. “He’s 29 years old, never even been in a court setting before.”
Rally during President Obama’s visit
President Obama will be making his visit to Seattle this Sunday, September 25.
He will be speaking at 11:30 a.m. at the Paramount Theatre located at 911 Pine Street, Seattle. The even will be covered by media, so this is a perfect opportunity for the family to get the attention of President Obama and his team.
Jason’s family is planning a rally in downtown Seattle on the northeast corner of 5th and Pine at 8:30 a.m. and walk to the Paramount Theatre at 8:45 a.m. to show their support for Jason.
Support Jason and his family – buy a t-shirt, attend the President’s speech
Jason’s mother, sisters, and close friends purchased t-shirts and tickets to the event. They say if you’d like to order a t-shirt for the event to call Customink at 800-293-4232 and ask for the “freejasonp” t-shirt and reference freejasonp@gmail.com. Rush orders need to be placed by 2 p.m. Thursday to receive the t-shirts by Saturday.
Click here to purchase tickets if you’d like to attend President Obama’s speech.
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