* U.S. citizen who received a 22-year sentence is freed
* Remains unclear on why he was prosecuted
* Puracal has not ruled out future visits to Nicaragua
By Emily Flitter and Mary Slosson
NEW YORK, Sept 17 (Reuters) – When a guard at a Nicaraguan
prison showed Jason Puracal the newspaper headline saying he
would be freed, he tried to walk out of jail that instant, only
to be sent back to his cell.
A few days later, however, Puracal, the U.S. citizen who was
jailed in Nicaragua two years ago after being wrongfully
convicted of drug trafficking and money laundering, walked free.
“The whole process has been very surreal,” Puracal, 35, said
in an interview with Reuters on Monday.
He said he had faced hunger, squalid conditions and the
constant threat of violence while in prison.
“It’s a very hot, dirty, crowded, insect-infested place,” he
said. “I would just think of my son. He was the ray of hope that
kept me going.”
Continued…
