PANAMA – In an email addressed to his friends and supporters, American producer Fred Salaff indicates that while he hopes to know the date of his trial by the end of this week, he has also learned to temper his enthusiasm throughout his long ordeal in Panama.“My lawyer has informed us that we will know the trial date by the end of this week,” Salaff writes in the email. “We have heard this before and are not too hopeful. However, it is the only hope we have to end our nightmare.”
Salaff also notes that he recently “passed the 2 year mark without ever seeing a judge,” as he was originally arrested on January 23rd, 2005.
“Our original prosecutor was arrested a year ago for corruption and our new prosecutor has shown no interest in our case at all,” Salaff continues. “We are merely in a holding pattern until the judge has time on her over burdened schedule to fit us in for a thirty minute hearing.”
Despite the bleak history of the case, Salaff does have some reason for optimism, at least according to the new prosecutor assigned to the case.
“We have been told by the prosecutor that our nightmare will end the day of our trial,” Salaff writes. “It seems that some kind of game is being played at our expense and we feel that we are convicted without ever having gone to trial because of this interminable wait for justice.”
Salaff’s wife, who is Cuban, has been denied entry into Panama throughout Salaff’s detention there, resulting in a forced, involuntary separation that has now continued for over two years.
Isolated and held against his will in a foreign land, Salaff says he has had few options in terms of sustaining himself financially throughout his time in Panama.
“Work is spotty and clandestine and it is unbearable to have to rely on charity to survive,” Salaff writes in his most recent email. “I know that times are very tough in the USA for most adult companies and can not expect much financial help anymore but small amounts go a long way in Panama. Please contribute whatever you can!”
Salaff’s trial has been reported to be close at hand previously, only to be further delayed.
In November of last year, Salaff wrote an email to his supporters in which he expressed cautious optimism that his trial would be held late that month. Approximately eight weeks have come and gone since, and Salaff is still awaiting that trial.
Salaff was arrested on January 23rd, 2005, and he and his company, Rio Bueno, LTD, SA, were charged with coercing prostitutes to perform in his adult productions, failing to obtain and file the proper paperwork to film adult movies in Panama, and not taking proper measures to prevent minors from being exposed to sexual activity.
All charges except the one regarding the exposure of minors to sexual activity were subsequently dropped, almost immediately following the arrest, and that claim is founded upon nothing other than the uncorroborated claims of neighborhood children that purport to have climbed trees at the house next door to the residence where Salaff was filming, for the expressed purpose of viewing the sexual activity in question.
To donate to Salaff’s cause, go to http://www.fredsalaff.com and click on the “Donate by PayPal” link.
