Puracal pleads with Nicaraguan court to free him

Jason Puracal, a U.S. citizen who claims he has been wrongly imprisoned in Central America, took center stage at his appeal hearing in Granada, Nicaragua on Monday.

Speaking in Spanish, Puracal asked a three-judge appellate panel to overturn his August 2011 conviction on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering. He spoke of his love for the country and his wife, Scarleth Flores, a native-Nicaraguan whom he met at an auto parts store in Managua.

Cameras inside the courtroom captured his plea, and rolled as Puracal flashed a quick smile and exchanged a brief conversation with his younger sister, Jaime.

It was the third day of the hearing for Puracal, 35, a Tacoma-native, University of Washington graduate and former Peace Corps volunteer. He is currently serving a 22-year sentence in La Modelo, a dilapidated prison on the outskirts of Managua, Nicaragua’s capitol city.

“I hope they follow the law,” Puracal told a reporter for the Nicaragua Dispatch as he was led into the courtroom on the first day of his appeal hearing Thursday.

“When he walked by I exchanged a quick word with him,” said Tim Rogers, a Boston-native who has worked as a freelance reporter in Central America for more than a decade. “I asked him how he was doing; he said he was ‘hanging in there.'”

Rogers said Puracal looked noticeably healthier, having been moved out of general population and into a cell reserved for politicians and high-profile inmates.

“He’s gotten better food and medical care, and he looked it,” Rogers told KIRO FM Friday. “He walked in standing very upright. He looked a lot heavier. He looked healthier. He looked confident.”

Puracal’s defense attorney, Fabbrith Gomez, also looked confident during the hearing, Rogers said. Judges had allowed in a key piece of defense evidence that was rejected at trial. Despite objections from the prosecution, the court accepted a letter from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency in which it denied knowledge of Puracal’s involvement in an international drug trafficking ring.

“The feeling that I get from Fabbrith, mostly, is one that he is very confident,” Rogers said. “I asked him, ‘How do you think things are going?’ And he said, basically, ‘We’re going to win this case, because they have no evidence against Jason.'”

Puracal was arrested in November 2010, along with 10 others, and accused of trafficking cocaine up from Costa Rica. The Nicaraguan National Police claim he laundered drug money through his RE/MAX real estate office in the resort village of San Juan del Sur.

Puracal has maintained his innocence since his arrest. During an interview with KIRO FM during his trial in Rivas, he denied his involvement in any criminal activity.

“Anybody that’s ever met me will tell you what kind of person I am and will tell you it’s not in my nature,” said Puracal, who was handcuffed and surrounded by armed guards. “I wouldn’t be involved with any of the things I’m accused of.”

“It’s like something out of a movie,” he said.

In recent months, U.S. officials have taken an increasingly aggressive stance on the Puracal case. In May, 43 members of U.S. Congress, including Rep. Adam Smith of Washington State, sent a letter to President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, urging him to order an independent review of the case.

“We wish to convey our serious concern about the trial and appeal of American citizen, Jason Puracal,” reads the letter, dated May 9, 2012. It argues that Puracal was denied due process and is being held in a prison that does not meet internationally accepted standards of human rights.

“There is a compelling need for a thorough and objective prosecutorial review of Mr. Puracal’s case to determine his innocence under Nicaraguan law,” the letter reads.

Also in May, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention called for Puracal’s immediate release after finding that his detention was in violation of international law.

Since KIRO FM first began covering the Puracal case in April 2011, the Nicaraguan government has repeatedly denied request for comment. Several requests for interviews via email, telephone and in-person at the Ministry of Government in Managua have been declined or gone unanswered.

While Puracal’s appeal hearing is expected to wrap up before mid-week, it is unclear when a verdict will be handed down. Each of the 11 defendants will receive a separate ruling.

Puracal’s sisters, Janis and Jaime Puracal of Seattle, will remain in Nicaragua for the remainder of the hearing.

“Every morning, we show up to the courthouse early and stand out in front and wait for the convoy of police to come by with all the defendants,” said Janis Puracal, who spoke to KIRO FM by phone from Granada on Friday. “We’re able to see Jason through the window […] so that’s always a very exciting moment in the morning.”

Janis Puracal said she has no expectations for the appeal, but said the thought that her brother could be released is “what keeps her going.”