Latin America
Related: About this forumUS Man Jailed in Bolivia for 580 Days
http://news.yahoo.com/nightmare-continues-us-man-jailed-bolivia-580-days-141454304--abc-news-topstories.htmlJacob Ostreicher, an American small businessman, a father of five and grandfather of 11, was arrested in Bolivia and detained for 580 days in Santa Cruz's Palmasola Prision, one of the toughest and strangest prisons in the world.
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Ostreicher languished for a year and a half, among the murderers, rapists and pretty drug criminals locked up in the bizarre and dangerous place, where prisoners run the prison and guards rarely enter. He was never charged and no evidence was brought against him.
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Then last month, thanks in part to "Nightline's" investigation into his case, there came a stunning breakthrough. Ostreicher was released after 13 government officials, several of them involved in Ostreicher's case, were arrested and charged with corruption and extortion.
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Ostreicher and his defense team say his successful rice business was the reason he was targeted.
ocpagu
(1,954 posts)I'm pretty sure he was not arrested for being a rice businessman. The accusation is money laundering.
Bacchus4.0
(6,837 posts)He was part owner of a successful business. 13 Bolivian officials were subsequently arrested on extortion charges. See if you can put two and two together.
ocpagu
(1,954 posts)...doesn't mean that the people they were blackmailing were saints...
The man is suspected of money laundering. Did they just made that up with no evidences to back? Or did they tried to extort him because they knew he was doing things illegally?
Bacchus4.0
(6,837 posts)s
naaman fletcher
(7,362 posts)A few days before Mr. Ostreichers release on Dec. 18, Mr. Penn held a news conference, with Mr. Ostreicher at his side, connected to an intravenous feeding tube. There is a cancer attacking at Bolivias heart, Mr. Penn declared, referring to official corruption.
Jacob and his family are living a nightmare of human abuse, he said. And this is a moment for me to call on my Bolivian brothers and sisters to lend their courage and compassion on behalf of a man known by all parties known by all parties to be totally innocent of any criminal activity.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/02/nyregion/from-brooklyn-to-bolivian-rice-venture-prison-and-sean-penns-help.html?_r=0
joshcryer
(62,270 posts)Wonder why I didn't see it posted around these parts.