Laura Ling and Euna Lee gets 12 years in jail
June 8th, 2009 - 8:43 pm ICT by GDLos Angeles journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee have been sentenced to 12 years each in labor prison. The news came out in media of North Korea last night. They are to serve their term in a prison in North Korea. The official KCNA has dispatched the news to Reuters, Associated Press and BBC.
Laura Ling is the sister of Lisa Ling, who is the former co-host of “the View”. Ling and Lee are fellow journalists who work for the news channel “Current TV”. The two were arrested by North Korean on March 17 where they were reporting a story for Current TV and were on the China-North Korea border. The guards took them away and they have been held as prisoners since then.
The charges brought against them have been of illegally crossing over the North Korean border and entering the nation. The 5 day trial had began last Thursday, June 4 and was held in the Central court of North Korea. At the end of the publicly speculated trial, the North Korean law found the two US citizen violating North Korean border laws and declared them guilty. A further appeal cannot be made in any other court as the verdict has come from the highest court in North Korea.
The US State Department said that outsiders and press alike were not getting allowed into the trial premises. Though communications have been limited between the victims and their families, it is reported that Ling, 32, and Lee, 36, are terrified and scared.
Current TV’s chairman, former Vice President Al Gore has surprisingly maintained an unnatural silence on this matter. So has Current TV’s other employees.
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Tags: al gore, associated press, bbc, co host, current tv, fellow journalists, former vice president, kcna, korean law, last thursday, laura ling, lisa ling, march 17, north korea, north korean, outsiders, premises, prisoners, reuters, us state department
