By Reuters Reporter PUBLISHED: 00:55 EST, 14 September 2012 | UPDATED: 00:55 EST, 14 September 2012 A U.S. citizen sentenced to 22 years in prison in Nicaragua on drug-trafficking charges walked out of jail a free man on Thursday after his conviction was thrown out by an appeals court in a case that rallied international rights activists. Jason Puracal, 35, left La Modelo prison in Tipitapa, just east of the capital, Managua, on Thursday afternoon after the appeals court that heard his case last month ordered he be set free. Puracal was found guilty of drug trafficking and money laundering by a Nicaraguan trial judge last year, along with 10 Nicaraguan co-defendants, after being detained in 2010. He has maintained his innocence.
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U.S. citizen jailed after he was found guilty of drug trafficking and money laundering in 2010
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Appeals court ordered 22-year sentence be annulled after judge excluded evidence and didn't substantiate ruling
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Jason Puracal had worked as Peace Corps volunteer and in real estate
As a three-judge appellate panel mulls the 35-year-old American's fate, the case has drawn the scrutiny of @placeholder lawmakers and human-rights advocates