Original upload date: Tue, 12 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT
Archive date: Fri, 03 Dec 2021 03:34:19 GMT
Francisco Juan "Paco" Larrañaga (born in 1977) is a dual-citizen of the Philippines and Spain convicted of murder and sentenced to death by lethal injection on February 3, 2004 for the kidnapping and
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murder of Marijoy and Jacqueline Chiong on July 16, 1997 in Cebu City, Cebu, Philippines. Paco left death row last year after the death penalty was abolished in the Philippines in June. He has since been moved to a new unit in the same prison of New Bilibid, southern Manila. The son of former Basque jai-alai player/pelotari Manuel Larrañaga and Margot González, Paco has better conditions now in his new cell than those he suffered on death row but is still awaiting justice for a crime that he denies committing.
More than 35 witnesses comprised of Paco's teachers and classmates at the Center for Culinary Arts (CCA) in Quezon City testified under oath that he was in Metro Manila, another city, when the crime is said to have taken place in Cebu. However, the trial court considered these testimonies as irrelevant. Many other witnesses classmates and companions at the R&R restaurant, were not allowed to testify.
Airline and airport personnel also came to court with their flight records, indicating that Paco did not take any flight on July 16, 1997, nor was he on board any chartered aircraft that landed in or departed from Cebu during the relevant dates.
Larrañaga's counsels Felicitas Aquino Arroyo and Sandra Marie Olaso Coronel urged the high court to admit the amicus curiae from the Basque Bar Council (BBC), Barcelona Bar Associations (BBA) and Bar Association of Madrid.
Former Ambassador Sedfrey Ordóñez claims he is the victim of a mistrial.
Fair Trials Abroad, an NGO working on behalf of EU citizens who face a miscarriage of justice, entered an Amicus brief which was submitted to the Supreme court by the European Commission's Manila delegate.
The case has also drawn the attention of Amnesty International. Go here for more information on their website (in Spanish): http://www.es.amnesty.org/actua/acciones/larranaga-ago05/.
http://framedinthephilippines.com/html/index.htm
*Update*: Please see a description of a new, award-winning documentary on the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) website:
http://www.aclu.org/blog/capital-punishment-prisoners-rights-racial-justice/tribeca-film-festival-highlights-internation
