5-years and counting: UN questions why Seattle man is imprisoned in Philippines without trial

After fighting for her son's freedom from more than 6,000 miles away for five years, Shelley Campanella said it's easy to lose hope when she reads letters Scott McMahon writes from a squalid, overcrowded Filipino prison.

"When I wake up in the morning, I have hope, and I want Scott to have hope," Campanella said. "But he's doing terrible. He feels lost and he feels his country has abandoned him."

Thursday marked the fifth anniversary of McMahon's arrest and imprisonment for a rape that legal experts say they can prove he did not commit. McMahon has not been convicted of any charges-- in fact, he hasn't even had a trial.

Legal advocates told KIRO 7 this is the longest any American citizen has been currently detained in a foreign country without being convicted.

"He's missing his children grow up," said Campanella. "He lives in conditions that unless I'd seen them with my own eyes, I don't think I could've ever imagined it."

A legal team with the California Innocence Project says it has evidence proving the woman who accused McMahon of rape was not telling the truth. Now the United Nations is even coming to his defense because the Commissioner for Human Rights believes McMahon's rights are being violated. The UN sent a letter to the Office of the Foreign Minister of the Philippines with pointed questions about the accusations, along with questions about McMahon's physical condition.

Originally from Seattle, McMahon has a family with two children in the Philippines, where he'd built a successful construction company. In 2010, McMahon pressed charges against a neighbor, accusing her of abusing his kids. Campanella says the woman he accused in turn accused him of rape.

Even though witnesses can place McMahon and his family miles away from the alleged rape scene, he was arrested and has been jailed since.

Campanella said the accuser demanded cash to drop the charges.

"It's really a crime of extortion, corruption," she said. "That's really what this is."

Lawyers with the California Innocence Project have takenon McMahon's case. They say he's being framed by false accusations in a court system which has denied him without bail and cancelled several scheduled court hearings.

"And if they choose to believe (his accuser), then my son will serve a life sentence for a crime he didn't commit," Campanella said.

Campanella said her son is in prison conditions so filthy, inmates have died around him. "There are more than 100 grown men packed into an 800-square-foot prison," she said. "People are dying in there of things we're vaccinated for."

Now, by launching websites and social media with details on his case, she hopes to get the attention of officials here and the Philippines.

"Scott McMahon is factually innocent," said Eric Volz with the David House Agency, an organization fighting for McMahon's release. Volz said the UN letter questions the accusations and the lack of due process.

"The United Nations clearly believes that Scott is wrongfully imprisoned and in violation of his international rights," Volz said.

McMahon's sister, Jennifer Smith, said he's getting support from around the world via social media and an online petition, but his family is praying for his day in court and hope for justice.

"He's innocent and he needs to come home," Smith said. "It is extremely frustrating. You do spend a lot of time feeling hopeless but you can't wallow in those feelings because you have to imagine how hopeless he feels where he's at. He needs people on the outside to be strong for him because he can't do that for himself right now."

Cox Media Group