Anna M. Tolin, Attorney* anna@tolinfirm.

com

The Wrongful Imprisonment of Jason Z. Puracal: Synopsis of of Facts and Law Pertaining to His Arrest, Detention, and Trial On August 29th, 2011, United States citizen Jason Z. Puracal was wrongfully convicted of drug trafficking, money laundering, and organized crime by a Nicaraguan Court. What follows is a synopsis of the factual and legal issues behind the ten-month imprisonment of an innocent man who now faces a sentence of up to thirty years in prison for crimes he did not commit. Mr. Puracals defense team is preparing a thorough analysis of the trial that identifies the numerous violations of Nicaraguan and international law. These materials and exhibits will be available for review after release of the full trial transcripts and court case file. I. INTRODUCTION

Jason Z. Puracal, a U.S. citizen, has been held in prison in Nicaragua since November 2010 without evidence of a crime. Mr. Puracal moved to Nicaragua in 2002 to serve in the Peace Corps. After his service, he stayed in the country and eventually bought a RE/MAX franchise (RE/MAX Horizons) where he had been working as an agent. He later married a Nicaraguan woman with whom he has a four-year-old son. Mr. Puracal was a well-regarded member of the community in San Juan del Sur, where he had been living with his family. On November 11, 2010, the Nicaraguan police showed up at Mr. Puracals office wearing masks and carrying AK rifles. They raided the office, seized all the computers and files and took Mr. Puracal into custody. They then went to Mr. Puracals home, where they forced their way into the house without a warrant, while Mr. Puracals 65year-old mother and four-year-old son were sleeping. The police detained Mr. Puracal and his family for over six hours while they conducted their search. They found no evidence of any crime, but proceeded to detain Mr. Puracal in an unlawful arrest and threw him in prison.

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The prosecution charged Mr. Puracal, along with ten Nicaraguan nationals including one man who was running for mayor against the Sandinista government1 with international drug trafficking, money laundering, and organized crime. The police also seized Mr. Puracals bank accounts, including the RE/MAX Horizons escrow account containing money from clients held in trust for real estate purchases and tax payments. After numerous unlawful delays, a lengthy trial ensued. Mr. Puracal was wrongfully convicted on August 29, 2011, despite any viable evidence to prove the allegations against him. The proceedings failed to protect Mr. Puracals rights or afford him due process of law. Jason Puracal is innocent of these charges. Although police alleged they were investigating Puracal for nearly three years, they recovered no drugs during their investigation. Indeed, the prosecution offered no drugs as evidence in its case at trial. In addition, the prosecutions own expert on financial analysis confirmed that Puracal did not launder any money. The expert testified at trial that no money ever changed hands between Puracal and any of the other defendants. Those other defendants have confirmed that they never had any relationship with Mr. Puracal before the arrest. The prosecutions allegations arise solely from real estate transactions Puracal conducted through the RE/MAX Horizons brokerage he owned with three other Americans. The other owners were never arrested or charged with any crime. The failure of the police and the prosecutor to understand basic real estate procedures, including the function and use of an escrow account, has caused Puracal to suffer through sub-human conditions in prison for more nearly ten months. Moreover, the failure of the Nicaraguan judicial system to protect Mr. Puracals human and legal rights has resulted in an unjustified verdict in a trial that failed to meet even the minimum requirements for fairness and due process. The corruption and incompetence of the Nicaraguan authorities has been welldocumented by U.S. officials.2 The Nicaraguan press continues to uncover new incidents of police abuse and judicial corruption. Indeed, the press uncovered the fact that the judge recently appointed to preside over Mr. Puracals trial is neither a legitimate judge nor a licensed attorney. He was, instead, assigned to the bench by the Sandinista government in violation of Nicaraguan law. In addition, five police officers in

Mr. Puracals co-defendant, Roger Nuez, offered the testimony of Nicaraguan Congressman Alejandro Ruiz at trial. See Ramn Villarreal Bello, Last Details for the Start of Trial, LA PRENSA, August 3, 2011, available at: http://www.laprensa.com.ni/2011/08/03/departamentos/68674 (Exhibit 1). 2 See, e.g., 2010 Country Report on Human Rights Practices, U.S. State Dept., April 8, 2011 (Exhibit 2).

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Rivaswhere Puracals trial is taking placewere recently suspended for corruption in drug trafficking cases. Despite the numerous violations that have plagued the Nicaraguan authorities in this case and others, Mr. Puracal remains in prison pending sentencing and a lengthy appeal process. II. A. ANALYSIS Jason Puracals Innocence Was Evident by the Prosecutions Failure to Present Evidence to Justify the Charges Against Him.

Mr. Puracal was tried for money laundering, international drug trafficking and organized crime. A summary of the evidence presented and excluded for each of the charges at trial is discussed in turn below. 1. Money Laundering

The prosecution alleged Mr. Puracal acted as real estate advisor to another defendant, Manuel Antonio Ponce Espinosa, by making investments for Ponce to launder money. The prosecution claimed Mr. Puracal laundered drug money from Ponce by using RE/MAX Horizons (and five corporations owned and organized by Mr. Puracal) to purchase property and make real estate investments. According to the prosecutions written Accusation, Mr. Puracal made investments in Finca Las Nubes (a land corporation organized as a farm co-op in San Juan del Sur) and Finca El Peten (a coffee farm in Jinotega collectively owned by eight American families). The prosecutions written Accusation also alleges that Mr. Puracal helped Ponce make investments in Carins Restaurant in San Juan del Sur. A subsequent evidence filing by the prosecution admits that Ponce actually leased Carins Restaurant from someone unrelated to Mr. Puracal and no evidence was offered to support this initial allegation at trial. Similarly, the prosecutions case failed to include any evidence of investments made in Finca Las Nubes or Finca El Peten which are well-known sustainable organic farms. The prosecutions only allegations of money laundering by Mr. Puracal came through three witnesses: two police officers and a police financial expert. One witness, Officer Byron Stanley Alfaro Traa, testified that Mr. Puracal traveled to and from Costa Rica (Nicaraguas neighbor to the south) twice in 2009 and 2010. He alleged that the trips were conducted with the purpose of overseeing money laundering operations. However, Officer Alfaro could not say on which days Mr. Puracal allegedly traveled to Costa Rica. Another witness, Officer Berman Antonio Morales

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Castillo, testified that Mr. Puracal traveled to Costa Rica only once, not twice as Officer Alfaro testified. Officer Morales offered conclusory hearsay testimony that Mr. Puracal bought property with narco money. The officer did not provide any further detail, and the prosecution made no attempt to develop the testimony. With both testimonies, the prosecutor changed its original Accusation and introduced new theories in violation of Nicaraguan law, which requires that new facts be introduced only with an extension of the original Accusation. Furthermore, the Prosecutor, very conveniently, made no attempt to prove the theories in its original Accusation. Mr. Puracals immigration records, in fact, confirm that Mr. Puracal never traveled to Costa Rica in 2009 and traveled there only once in 2010. The trip in 2010, made shortly before his arrest, was with his wife and four-year-old son to pick up his mother, Dr. Daisy Zachariah, who was visiting from the United States to attend a seminar there. The judge, however, would not allow the testimony of Dr. Zachariah. In addition, Mr. Puracals passport shows that on October 29, 201014 days prior to his arrestthe Government of Nicaragua granted him the status of permanent resident. Mr. Puracal passed a police background check to qualify for permanent residency, rebutting the prosecutions unsupported allegation that the police had been investigating Mr. Puracal for three years. The prosecutions final witness to testify about alleged money laundering activity was Police Officer Victoriano Zepeda, an expert on financial analysis. Zepeda testified only that Mr. Puracal had a large amount of money being deposited into and withdrawn from his account since 2002, when Mr. Puracal moved to Nicaragua. On crossexamination, however, Zepeda admitted that no money ever changed hands between Mr. Puracal and the other defendants. Zepeda confirmed that there were no deposits by Mr. Puracal into the accounts of the other defendants and no deposits by the other defendants into Mr. Puracals accounts. Zepeda also failed to show even one suspicious financial transaction in Mr. Puracals accounts. Zepeda actually refuted the prosecutions own allegation that Mr. Puracal purchased property in the RE/MAX name for the benefit of Manuel Ponce and testified that RE/MAX never directly or indirectly purchased or owned any property. Despite Zepedas testimony, the prosecution still insisted on attributing the money associated with those property transfers to Mr. Puracal. The prosecution has made no attempt to confiscate the property or even interview Mr. Puracals clients who purchased these properties in legitimate real estate transactions. Zepeda also admitted that he is not familiar with escrow accounts, their purpose, or how they work. The prosecution appeared unaware that escrow accounts are

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commonly used by real estate agents to hold money in trust for buyers and sellers of land. Neither the police nor the prosecution made any attempt to investigate the source or purpose of the funds in escrow they claim as evidence of money laundering. The prosecutions expert, Zepeda, confirmed on cross-examination that Nicaraguan banks commonly require documentation of the source and purpose of any money deposited in excess of $10,000. Banks are required to report any suspicious activity, which they have never done in Mr. Puracals case. Although the prosecution had full access to Mr. Puracals bank records,3 the prosecutor never sought the banking documentation on file with respect to Mr. Puracals accounts. 2. Drug Trafficking

The prosecution alleges the eleven defendants received cocaine in Costa Rica and transported the drugs to El Salvador and Guatemalayet not a single gram of drugs was offered into evidence and none of the prosecutions witnesses gave any testimony to connect Mr. Puracal with drug trafficking. The prosecution, instead, relied on the testimony of Officer Carlos Alberto Ortiz Obando regarding a VaporTracer test conducted on Mr. Puracal and other defendants. When he was arrested on November 11, 2010, the police searched Mr. Puracal, his clothes, and his truck, even using a drug-sniffing dog at the prison in San Juan del Sur, but found no evidence of drugs. The police drove Mr. Puracals truck to the police station on November 11 and confiscated his clothes on November 12. On November 13th, police ordered Puracal to put his clothes back on and get into his truck where they repeated the drug test using a VaporTracer. (The VaporTracer is a machine used to detect microscopic traces of explosives and narcotics.4) According to the prosecutions witness at trial, the VaporTracer produced a result showing a 70% trace of cocaine. The witness could not explain what a 70% positive test result means. The prosecution refused to provide the defense with the documentation of the VaporTracer results and notably failed to offer any documentation of these results at trial. Moreover, the police have admitted at trial that they drove Mr. Puracals vehicle from his office to the police station before the test was conducted. The test allegedly produced a 95% positive result for one of the defendants and a 70% positive result for the other defendants, including Mr. Puracal, who were subsequently tested. The police witnesses, Officers Mario Jose Santana and Harlen Martin Acua, admitted on the stand that there may have been direct or indirect cross-contamination during the VaporTracer test. In the evidence document submitted by the prosecutor, it is recorded that the Vapor Tracer test was conducted on November 12, 2010, in Managua, where the Vapor
3

The defense was not able to obtain these bank records as the Judge refused to issue a subpoena for the records on behalf of the defense. 4 See www.ustesting.com/media/pdf/VaporTracer-DAT.pdf

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Tracer machine was located, a date that was confirmed by the prosecution witness on the stand. Only the police saw the test results and have never provided those results to the defense. Furthermore, it is highly contradictory that the police claim to have found traces of cocaine on the steering wheel and stick shift, after a police officer drove the car. The police also failed to run the test on Mr. Puracals hands, something they claimed to have done with other defendants. Mr. Puracals defense argued in the trial that the VaporTracer results violate the Universal Principle of Presumption of Innocence, because the prosecutors witnesses admitted during the trial that Nicaragua only has two officers trained in the use of the VaporTracer, and there is only one machine in all of Nicaragua. The defense, therefore, is left without any opportunity to conduct an independent test to confirm or deny the police allegations. The VaporTracer was given to Nicaraguan law enforcement by the United States and relies on Ion Trap technology. The limitations of this technology have been recognized by U.S. courts. For example, in United States v. Hibbitt, 5 the federal district court in Alaska was quick to point out that machines like the VaporTracer register trace amounts of drugs that may result from cross-contamination. This principle is especially important in Mr. Puracals case. The evidence testedMr. Puracals truck and clotheswas handled by numerous officers before it was tested and after those officers had tested the evidence from the other defendants. The officers admitted on cross-examination that contamination was possible. Commentators have reported on this very situation and the problem it poses with respect to the reliability of machines like the VaporTracer: The legal implications of such a machine that searches for drugs on a molecular level are enormous. Imagine shaking hands with a cocaine user that had used the drug only hours before. Unbeknownst to you, there is now likely to be a trace residue of cocaine on your hands. You later hug a loved one and transfer a molecular particle of cocaine to them. After showering and washing your hands thoroughly, a trace amount of cocaine is likely to remain on your body. Although you are unaware of your molecular possession, you could possibly be the victim of a humiliating search because the police, having reasonable suspicion to employ the Sentor device [similar

United States v. Hibbitt, 208 F.Supp.2d 1026 (D. Alaska 2000).

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to the Itemiser and VaporTracer] have detected a particle of cocaine as small as one part per one hundred trillion.6 Because of such risks, law enforcement in the U.S. is trained in the careful use of such machines and the limits as to what a particular test result really means. In this case, the testimony was the result of tainted evidence and amounted to junk science used in an attempt to fabricate evidence against Mr. Puracal. Mr. Puracals defense counsel also offered a letter from the United States Drug Enforcement Agency confirming the DEA had no involvement in investigating Mr. Puracala fact at odds with the prosecutions claims that this was an international drug conspiracy that had been under investigation for years.7 The judge refused to allow this evidence to be admitted. 3. Organized Crime

The prosecution offered no details regarding the charge of organized crime against Mr. Puracal, and only two of the prosecutions witnesses gave any testimony related to the charge. One witness, a police officer named Berman Antonio Morales Castillo, was allowed to give hearsay testimony that an anonymous informant told police he saw Mr. Puracal meeting with one of the other defendants on one occasion at a house in Rivas. The officer did not provide any details of the alleged meeting, and the prosecution did not further question the witness on the subject. On cross-examination, Officer Morales admitted that he had no photographs of the supposed meeting, and no video or tape recordings of any conversation. Morales did not even know the name of the supposed informant. In addition, one of the defendants attempted to call the owner of the house in Rivas as a witness to counter these allegations, but the judge excluded the witness testimony. The other prosecution witness, Officer Byron Stanley Alfaro Traa, testified that he heard from another anonymous informant that Puracal met with the other defendants at the RE/MAX Horizons office in San Juan del Sur. Again, the officer had no evidence to confirm the alleged informant tip and gave only the nickname of the informantEl Diablito, or Little Devil. Both of the testimonies violate Nicaraguan law and jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of Nicaragua that demand that all steps in police investigations be recorded in appropriate reports and that those reports, with photos, videos, surveillance records, and informants claims, be offered at trial.

Hibbitt, 208 F. Supp.2d at 1040 (quoting Peter Joseph Bober, The Chemical Signature of the Fourth Amendment: Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry and the War on Drugs, 8 Seton Hall Const. L.J. 75, 77 (1997)). 7 Letter from DEA to Congressman Adam Smith (Exhibit 3).

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Mr. Puracal has repeatedly confirmed that he has never had a relationship with any of the other defendants before the arrest. All of the other defendants have, over the past nine months since the arrest, confirmed that they had no business dealings with Mr. Puracal. Defendant Manuel Ponce, who testified at trial, confirmed that he did not know and had never met Mr. Puracal prior to the arrest. There was complete failure by the prosecution to link Mr. Puracal to any activities involving the co-defendants or any other criminal actors. B. Mr. Puracals Detention and Trial are Replete with Violations of Nicaraguan Law.

The police, prosecution, and the court have repeatedly violated Nicaraguan law over the past nine months, leading up to a sham trial. For example: 1. The presiding judge is not a judge or even a lawyer.

The judge appointed to preside over Mr. Puracal's trial (27-year-old Kriguer Alberto Artola Narvaez) is neither a licensed attorney nor is his appointment to the bench legal under the Nicaraguan Constitution.8 The secretary of the Supreme Court has issued a Constancia showing that Artola Narvaez is not a licensed attorney.9 To be a district court judge under Nicaraguan law (Article 137 of the Judicial Power Organization Act), one must (1) be an attorney, (2) have practiced for at least three years, and (3) have served as a local judge for at least two years. The Constancia confirms that Artola Narvaez has none of these qualifications, and the conviction was not rendered by a legal tribunal. Furthermore, just days before the trial began, the Nicaraguan press released news that Artola Narvaez was charged with aggravated fraud in late 2010.10 The

See Lsber Quintero, Abnormal Appointment of Judge in Rivas, EL NUEVO DIARIO, July 4, 2011, available at: http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/nacionales/106766-raro-nombramiento-dejuez-rivas (Exhibit 4); Ramn Villarreal B., Luca Vargas, and Eddy Lpez, Deputy Judge Unregistered Attorney, LA PRENSA, July 4, 2011, available at: http://www.laprensa.com.ni/2011/07/04/politica/65636 (Exhibit 5); Ramn H. Potosme, Ramn Villarreal, and Luca Vargas, Rivas Judge is Not a Lawyer by Error, LA PRENSA, July 5, 2011, available at: http://www.laprensa.com.ni/2011/07/05/nacionales/65706 (Exhibit 6). 9 Constancia (attached at Exhibit 7). 10 Lsber Quintero, Rivas Deputy Judge Has Charges of Fraud in Leon, EL NUEVO DIARIO, August 8, 2011, available at: http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/nacionales/110068-juez-suplente-rivasacusacion-estafa-leon (Exhibit 8); Lsber Quintero, Judge was Legal Advisor to NGOs that Never Existed, EL NUEVO DIARIO, August 9, 2011, available at: http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/nacionales/110189-juez-asesor-legal-de-ong-que-nuncaexistio (Exhibit 9); Lsber Quintero, Controversial Judge from Leon Reappears in Rivas, EL NUEVO

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allegations were referred to the prosecutor, but his political affiliations apparently won him a favor to avoid conviction. Artola Narvaez was charged with two other individuals. The prosecution has not pursued the charges, and one of Artola Narvaezs accomplices has fled the country in the face of an investigation for illegal weapons. 2. The prosecution refused to give the defense access to evidence.

Nicaraguan law permits the defense pre-trial access to the evidence the prosecution intends to present at trial. The prosecution repeatedly refused to allow the defense access to the evidence. The prosecution listed documents and other evidence on its Interchange of Evidence filed with the court, but it refused to acknowledge the defense right to see that evidence before it was presented at trial. For example, on the fourth day of trial, the prosecution called its expert on financial analysis, Victoriano Zepeda, who offered his 60-page report into evidence. That report had never-before been seen by the defense, despite repeated requests. The defense objected to the introduction of the documents, but Judge Artola Narvaez admitted it and allowed the expert to testify from it. The prosecution, furthermore, had in its possession exculpatory evidence seized by the police, but refused to permit the defense access to the evidence and declined to offer it at trial. For example, the police seized from Mr. Puracals office numerous documents showing title transfers by RE/MAX Horizons. The prosecution has not connected the title transfers to any illegal activity, and the defense could have used the documents to prove that the transfers were, in fact, legitimate sales of property for Mr. Puracals clients. The prosecution, however, refused to permit the defense access to those documents and refused to provide the defense with the names or properties listed on the titles. Because the documents were taken from Mr. Puracals office along with his computers and other files, the defense is without sufficient means to recreate the information in the documents. The same is true for other documents in the prosecutions possession, including the corporate documents of RE/MAX Horizons showing the purchase agreement and shareholder and accounting information. After a supposed three-year investigation, neither the police nor the prosecution could offer a single piece of evidence obtained prior to Mr. Puracals arrest.

DIARIO, August 8, 2011, available at http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/nacionales/110295 (Exhibit 10).

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3.

The judge repeatedly excluded helpful and relevant evidence offered by the defense.

In a preparatory hearing on the first day of trial, the judge ruled that much of the defense case would be excluded from trial, ruling that the evidence was irrelevant. The judge threw out: A letter from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration confirming that the DEA was not involved in the case.11 The Nicaraguan prosecution frequently alleges, for the first time during trial, that the DEA provided the prosecutor with information to pursue the charges. The defense is predictably left without an opportunity to rebut the evidence. Mr. Puracals defense, however, obtained the DEA letter in advance of trial. The judge ruled the letter was irrelevant. The accountant for RE/MAX HORIZONS. The accountant would have testified about the source and purpose of the funds alleged by the prosecution as evidence of money laundering. The accountant for RE/MAX HORIZONS was also the accountant for the other five corporations in Mr. Puracals name, which the prosecution has alleged are part of the wrongful activity. The accountant would have testified that those five corporations never saw any activity and did not have any bank accounts associated with them. The accountant would have confirmed that none of the other defendants were shareholders in either RE/MAX Horizons or the other five corporations. The testimony of Christopher Robertson. The prosecutions witness, Officer Byron Stanley, testified that Robertson was the individual who informed the police about Mr. Puracals allegedly illegal activity. The defense had previously named Robertson as a witness to testify to the contrary, but the judge struck his testimony, again as irrelevant. The defense later learned from Robertson that he had been interviewed by the police, but had not given them the information to which Officer Stanley had testified. Robertson had, in fact, told the police that Mr. Puracal came to Nicaragua to serve in the Peace Corps and later decided to stay. He also told the police that Mr. Puracals hard work was the source of his success in the real estate business. Robertson gave the police a statement to this effect, but the prosecution never disclosed that statement to the defense and did not offer it at trial. The testimony of Mr. Puracals mother, Dr. Daisy Zachariah. The prosecution alleges Mr. Puracal traveled to Costa Rica in 2009 and 2010 to receive drugs. Mr. Puracals immigration records show that he never traveled to Costa Rica in 2009 and traveled there only once in 2010 with his wife and son to pick up his mother at a medical

11

Letter from DEA to Congressman Adam Smith (Exhibit 3).

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conference. Mr. Puracals mother was offered to confirm that testimony, but was precluded from testifying. The crime scene expert offered by the defense to prove that the police refused to adequately investigate and failed to properly handle evidence. The judge threw out the testimony of the defense expert as irrelevant, but allowed the prosecutions crime scene expert to take the stand and testify that the police followed protocol. The defense expert would have explained that the police never had a crime scene, but an investigative facts scene, and would explain the very important difference between the two terms. He was also to testify about the importance of the chain of custody, which was repeatedly and flagrantly violated by the police. Besides excluding relevant evidence that supports Mr. Puracals defense, the judge repeatedly disallowed defense attorneys to question the prosecutions witnesses on significant issues. For example, the judge sustained objections from the prosecution to keep the defense attorneys from asking police about documents listed by the prosecution in its disclosure of evidence. III. CONCLUSION

The Nicaraguan Government has detained Jason Puracal for over nine months and subjected him to a sham trial in violation of Nicaraguan and international laws. The key fact finder at this trial with ultimate power to determine Mr. Puracals fate was a man with no authority to render the decisions with which he was tasked to decide. Indeed, four of the eleven defendants were never mentioned during the trial, but they were nonetheless convicted by Judge Artola Narvaez. And, still, Mr. Puracal must face this same judge to receive his sentence for this unlawful conviction.

*Anna Tolin has 19 years of experience as a criminal defense attorney and has advocated for clients at all levels of state and federal courts. She is a graduate of the University of Washington (B.A. 1989) and Cornell Law School (J.D. 1992). Anna is the current President of the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Beginning in the Fall of 2011, she will be a Visiting Lecturer and Supervising Attorney for the Innocence Project Northwest Clinic at the University of Washington School of Law.

Ultiman detalles para inicio de juicio - LaPrensa.com.ni - El Diario de los Nicaragenses

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Departamentos | martes 2 de agosto 2011

Ultiman detalles para inicio de juicio

En diversos momentos algunos pobladores se han opuesto a la detencin de once ciudadanos acusados de ser parte de una banda de apoyo logstico narco. LA PRENSA/ARCHIVO/R.VILLARREAL

CORRESPONSAL / RIVAS

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El diputado por el departamento de Rivas, Alejandro Ruiz Jirn, fue ofrecido como testigo para declarar a favor del excandidato a alcalde de San Juan del Sur, Rger Nez Ponce, quien desde el 11 de noviembre del ao pasado se encuentra detenido por ser supuestamente parte de una banda de apoyo logstico narco.

Se prev que el juicio comience este prximo 9 de agosto. Hay once detenidos en total. Mara Esperanza Pea, abogada defensora de Nez Ponce, pidi al Juez de Distrito Penal de Juicio de Rivas, Digenes David Dvila, que admita como parte de la ampliacin de prueba testimonial de esa defensa al diputado Ruiz Jirn.

El ofrecimiento detalla que Ruiz Jirn conoce al acusado desde hace ocho o nueve aos y es testigo desde el momento que Nez Ponce estaba buscando cmo conformar y organizar la Fundacin Abelardo Nez.

El testigo (Ruiz Jirn) le ha colaborado econmicamente, ya que a travs de dicha fundacin Roger Nez cumpla con uno de los sueos de su padre el seor Abelardo Nez (q.e.p.d.), ayudar a la poblacin ms necesitada de San Juan del Sur, para lo cual no contaba con recursos econmicos, por lo que por la honestidad e integridad de Rger Nez el testigo no dud en ayudarlo, detalla el ofrecimiento de ampliacin de prueba.

PROBLEMAS

El ofrecimiento indica que los problemas econmicos de Nez Ponce eran tan difciles que el mismo diputado Ruiz Jirn le otorg una beca para estudiar Derecho los sbados en una universidad de Rivas.

El Ministerio Pblico detalla en la acusacin que la Fundacin Abelardo Nez serva para lavar dinero de la supuesta banda narco.

En tanto el diputado Ruiz Jirn dijo que acept atestiguar a favor de Nez, porque considera que est acusado por un asunto poltico, y cree en su honestidad, a como tambin conoce la situacin econmica difcil por la que est pasando.

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Ver en la versin impresa las pginas: 7 B

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