February 22, 2007

original article: http://www.horsetalk.co.nz/news/2007/02/076.shtml

British Horse Society president Noel Edmonds has written to Indian president Dr A P J Abdul Kalam to plead for the release of jailed British horse rider Daniel Robinson.

Mr Robinson, 38, of north London, was arrested last October for not having a visa after entering India to seek medical and veterinary help. He was nearing the end of a 200-day, 3000km ride along the ancient trans-Himalayan Tea Horse Caravan Road from Dequn in Yunnan Province, south-west China, to the Tibetan capital Lhasa.

The exhausted rider was denounced as a "Chinese spy" by the Indian authorities, thrown into jail and subsequently sentenced to a year's imprisonment. He is now said to be sleeping on the floor of an overcrowded cell containing 150 prisoners.

The US-based Long Riders Guild has told The British Horse Society that when Mr Robinson appeal is heard on 1 March the prosecutors are set to call for his sentence to be increased to 10 years.

In his letter, broadcaster Noel Edmonds, in his role as President of The British Horse Society, acknowledges that Mr Robinson committed a visa offence, while asking the Indian President to recognise that harm was neither intended nor committed, because the rider was merely seeking urgent medical and veterinary aid.

"The British Horse Society asks the Indian Government to accept that no disrespect of Indian law was intended, that no harm to the peace and well-being of the Indian people was ever likely to ensue from Daniel's error in looking to the Indian authorities for humanitarian assistance," said Mr Edmonds.

"To prolong his imprisonment would be to continue to punish a man for an offence which was committed wholly without intention to do harm."