AgentM
Seems I still have to clarify my situation to some....
Extracts from Families Behind Bars..... published May 2008
In December 2000, in defiance of international law, my husband Kerry, then Managing Director of a British security company based in Laos, was abducted from his office by secret police. He was taken to an undisclosed location where interrogators tried, unsuccessfully, to make him sign a false
statement to support the illegal nationalisation of his client’s US$2 billion sapphire-mining company. When all attempts failed, I was detained. The Laos police thought this would coerce my husband into signing. Little did they know Kerry had spent the last 20 years in the Australian Special Forces, the elite Special Air Service Regiment (SAS). He had taken the job in Laos as a civilian, but was still a full-time serving member of the Australian Defence Force (ADF), working on extended leave as approved by the Army Chief of Staff.
End of extract.
{** Note to forum members.... Kerry was thinking of getting out of the army hence why he opted to test the waters before he got out. Loads of SAS were doing this in the early 1990's. He wasn't there spying...lol.}
The funniest thing is that the secret police who abducted my husband were from the Ministry of Interior.... the Jardine Securicor Company we worked for were the joint venture partners of the Ministry of Interior. The police colonel thought that being the case, Kerry would agree to roll over on one of his clients... forget liability etc.... stupid!
When Kerry wouldn't sign the false statement, they kidnapped him and took him to a place where they tried to beat him into submission. When that didn't work, they detained me and tried to use that against him. I was with the Australian Embassy at the time, they were trying to evacuate me and our two children across the border. Lao law states they can detain someone without charge for 1 year.
Kerry and I spent the next 10 months in a prison. We endured all manner of torture and mock executions because the situation got out of control. Once the Aust govt started pressuring laos, it all hit the media and the people who kidnapped us, panicked. they made their govt lose face and being communists, well.... you can imagine how that went down. lol. Our Governmetn told us to sit tight... they said that it was inevitable that we would be found guilty of something because that was the only way for the laotians to save face and let us go... but they said for us to not worry.
So the question the laotians faced was how the heck do we get these two aussies back home without looking stupid?
Long story short but nothing untoward on the part of the aust govt or lao govt really... just the idiots in between and they have all since dissapeared.
Extract.....
Thankfully the president at the time, Khamtay Siphandone, agreed on a solution which enabled us to come home. We were granted a Presidential Pardon. It was unprecedented. Not long after that, those who had orchestrated our detainment had been expelled from public office or were demoted from their once-prominent positions. They had underestimated our ability to endure their torture and ill-treatment. They had underestimated our strength and integrity to withstand false and very public accusations. They had underestimated our government too, which fully supported our innocence throughout the entire ordeal and stopped at nothing to bring us home.
We returned to our three children on 9 November 2001 and to a 200-strong media contingent wanting to understand why we hadn’t just given in and signed the false statements, so that we could come home. Nothing could ever be as simple as that, especially for two determined people, like my husband and I, who are not, were not and never will be prepared to compromise our integrity for any reason.
----------------------
"Standing Ground" will be released in March 2009. It details this incredible journey.
No I am not subject to any proceeds of a crime act because we were aquitted.
The presidential pardon in communist states is akin to an aquittal where there is no judicial process ie: appeal to overturn a decision.
Hope this clarifies the situation.
Seems I still have to clarify my situation to some....
Extracts from Families Behind Bars..... published May 2008
In December 2000, in defiance of international law, my husband Kerry, then Managing Director of a British security company based in Laos, was abducted from his office by secret police. He was taken to an undisclosed location where interrogators tried, unsuccessfully, to make him sign a false
statement to support the illegal nationalisation of his client’s US$2 billion sapphire-mining company. When all attempts failed, I was detained. The Laos police thought this would coerce my husband into signing. Little did they know Kerry had spent the last 20 years in the Australian Special Forces, the elite Special Air Service Regiment (SAS). He had taken the job in Laos as a civilian, but was still a full-time serving member of the Australian Defence Force (ADF), working on extended leave as approved by the Army Chief of Staff.
End of extract.
{** Note to forum members.... Kerry was thinking of getting out of the army hence why he opted to test the waters before he got out. Loads of SAS were doing this in the early 1990's. He wasn't there spying...lol.}
The funniest thing is that the secret police who abducted my husband were from the Ministry of Interior.... the Jardine Securicor Company we worked for were the joint venture partners of the Ministry of Interior. The police colonel thought that being the case, Kerry would agree to roll over on one of his clients... forget liability etc.... stupid!
When Kerry wouldn't sign the false statement, they kidnapped him and took him to a place where they tried to beat him into submission. When that didn't work, they detained me and tried to use that against him. I was with the Australian Embassy at the time, they were trying to evacuate me and our two children across the border. Lao law states they can detain someone without charge for 1 year.
Kerry and I spent the next 10 months in a prison. We endured all manner of torture and mock executions because the situation got out of control. Once the Aust govt started pressuring laos, it all hit the media and the people who kidnapped us, panicked. they made their govt lose face and being communists, well.... you can imagine how that went down. lol. Our Governmetn told us to sit tight... they said that it was inevitable that we would be found guilty of something because that was the only way for the laotians to save face and let us go... but they said for us to not worry.
So the question the laotians faced was how the heck do we get these two aussies back home without looking stupid?
Long story short but nothing untoward on the part of the aust govt or lao govt really... just the idiots in between and they have all since dissapeared.
Extract.....
Thankfully the president at the time, Khamtay Siphandone, agreed on a solution which enabled us to come home. We were granted a Presidential Pardon. It was unprecedented. Not long after that, those who had orchestrated our detainment had been expelled from public office or were demoted from their once-prominent positions. They had underestimated our ability to endure their torture and ill-treatment. They had underestimated our strength and integrity to withstand false and very public accusations. They had underestimated our government too, which fully supported our innocence throughout the entire ordeal and stopped at nothing to bring us home.
We returned to our three children on 9 November 2001 and to a 200-strong media contingent wanting to understand why we hadn’t just given in and signed the false statements, so that we could come home. Nothing could ever be as simple as that, especially for two determined people, like my husband and I, who are not, were not and never will be prepared to compromise our integrity for any reason.
----------------------
"Standing Ground" will be released in March 2009. It details this incredible journey.
No I am not subject to any proceeds of a crime act because we were aquitted.
The presidential pardon in communist states is akin to an aquittal where there is no judicial process ie: appeal to overturn a decision.
Hope this clarifies the situation.