If you think you are having a bad day, consider the case of Pavel Kulisek, who was standing by a man at a hotdog stand who he had just met and was talking with him about dirt bikes. The man happened to be a key figure in a Tijuana drug cartel. The police showed up and arrested them both. Mr. Kulisek, who was literally at the wrong place at the wrong time, was thrown into jail for three years. Then he was sent to a Mexican psychiatric hospital. Makes you think twice about going South of the Border, doesn’t it?
Here’s the story, from Mexico’s Guadaljara Reporter:
“A Mexican judge has released a Canadian man who spent three-and-a-half years languishing behind bars in Mexico without trial – most of them in Guadalajara’s harsh Puente Grande penitentiary.
Pavel Kulisek has been reunited with his wife Jirina and their two daughters after spending the past three-and-a-half years languishing in Mexican jails.
Pavel Kulisek, 45, was released from a federal psychiatric prison last week and spent a night in Mexico City before being flown home to Vancouver for a tearful reunion with his wife Jirina and their two daughters.
Federal police arrested Kulisek at a hot dog stand in Los Barriles, Baja California in March 2008 in the company of a man he knew as “Carlos Herrera,” but whose real name was Gustavo Rivera Martinez, allegedly a major figure in the Tijuana drug cartel.
Kulisek, who was on an extended vacation in the area with his family, insisted he knew nothing of Herrera’s real identity and said he became friendly with him only due to their mutual interest in dirt bike racing.
For almost three years, Kulisek shared a 2.5-by-4-meter cell with one other inmate in the maximum-security federal facility in Guadalajara. Jirina and his children were permitted just seven minutes per week of access to him by phone.
As the protected legal case dragged on, the building contractor began to lose hope and after a failed suicide attempt in March, he was transferred to a psychiatric facility in the state of Morelos.
His wife and a small group of supporters battled long and hard to persuade both Mexican and Canadian authorities to speed along the case. They staged rallies and fundraisers, and Jirina and her daughters moved from their home into a refurbished garage to save money after spending over 100,000 dollars to fund his legal defense.
After the case finally came to trial last week, the judge acted swiftly to throw out all the charges against Kulisek, citing a lack of evidence.”
You can read the full story here.