Demand that Spain free Paco Larrañaga!

This man, Paco Larrañaga, and other boys (at the time) were accused of the rape and murder of the Chiong sisters in the Philippines in 1997 in Manila. Paco was in Cebu at the time and couldn't have committed the murder, along with the other innocent boys (now men).

It is now 19 years later. The boys were given the death penalty by lethal injection, but the death penalty was overturned by the Philippine government. The judge in the case committed suicide.

Larrañaga was allowed to transfer to a prison in Madrid, Spain, and was told he could possibly serve out his sentence out of prison, with his family, on parole. (Larrañaga is a citizen of Spain as well as the Philippines.) It was decided by a Spanish court, however, that Paco would stay in jail until the end of his sentence, when he will be 61 years old.

This is a terrible travesty of justice. Two presidents of the Philippines were involved in the original court decision and the murdered girls were members of a rich and influential family. The case was made into a movie documentary, Give Up Tomorrow, which was seen all over the world. The boys remain in prison, however.