RELEASED FROM PRISON THANKS TO TRADITION!

A man, who was serving a three and a half year prison sentence for defrauding clients of his insurance business out of four million pesetas between 1993 and 1995, is the person to be pardoned this year thanks to the El Rico brotherhood. He only started serving his sentence last December but he is now a free man – thanks to Spanish tradition.

According to the story, back in 1765 there was an outbreak of cholera which killed many citizens. Due to fear of infection, during Holy Week there were no men available to carry the statue for its yearly procession. Hearing of this, the prisoners of the county jail escaped in order to carry their Christ. All of them returned to jail voluntarily after the procession and the epidemic subsided. For this reason, the King Carlos III ordered for a prisoner to be released every Holy Wednesday from then on.

Each year the man granted a pardon leads the El Rico procession on the Wednesday of Holy Week, covered in a black mask. Juan Pascual was presented, hooded to the press by the Director of the jail at Alhaurín de la Torre, Antonio Guerrero, who said ‘Tradition is tradition, and that is why we are here'.

Juan told the press that it was ‘a new life' for him and that he would finally be able to relax after two decades trying to evade justice. However, he also admitted that some of his family did not view his pardon well, not liking all the paraphernalia which goes with the tradition.

He said he had made some good friends while in jail, both among fellow inmates and the prison officers, and that now he knew ‘what prison is about' which reading between the lines means that he has learnt a lot more ion the inside than perhaps is good for him? In a tradition which dates back to Carlos III in 1759, the El Rico brotherhood in Málaga has granted a pardon to a prisoner being held in the Málaga jail.