The Guadian review

Our first review, from The Guardian no less!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/apr/07/crimson-petal-white-paco-review

Innocent! Paco & the Struggle for Justice (BBC4) was one of those stories for which the word Kafkaesque was both invented and yet wholly inadequate. In 1997 two girls, Marijoy and Jacqueline Chiong, were kidnapped, raped and murdered in Cebu, a part of the Philippines. Their mother claimed Paco Larranaga had been pestering one of them, the police found his name on a list of juvenile delinquents (a hangover from a car park scuffle years before) and he was one of seven arrested for the crime. This was despite his claim, supported by more than 40 witnesses, that he was in class in Manila, 350 miles away, at the time.

After that, waves of corruption, incompetence, media influence, human rights abuses and injustice closed over the Larranaga family's heads. After 10 months and a threat from the president, the police and prosecutors unearthed Davidson Rusia, who claimed to be present at the murders. After testifying, he was freed and became a friend of the Chiong family, which seemed the reaction of people grateful for services rendered, not those who believed he had been involved with the deaths of their children.

The trial was a farce and Paco was sentenced to death. The chief justice of the supreme court that affirmed the verdict was related to Mrs Chiong. After Paco had spent eight years on death row and following intervention by the charity Fair Trials Abroad, the Spanish government and the UN, the new president, Gloria Arroyo, abolished the death penalty. Twelve years after he was arrested, a treaty allowing the transfer of prisoners between the two nations was ratified and Paco came to Spain.

The final twist in this tale, that was as well-paced and engrossing as any thriller while incalculably more harrowing, was that once in Spain, Paco was due to be classed as a third-grade prisoner and released on parole, but remains incarcerated there still. The parole board requires him to admit his guilt. So far, he has refused. An incredible story, beautifully and persuasively told.