by: Press Release

February 21 2007 Article # 8983

original article: http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=8983

Noel Edmonds, president of The British Horse Society, wrote to Indian president Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam today (Feb. 21) to plead for the release of jailed British horse rider Daniel Robinson.

Robinson, 38, 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, 3,000km (1863 mile) ride along the ancient trans-Himalayan Tea Horse Caravan Road from Dequn in Yunnan Province, in southwest China, to the Tibetan capital of Lhasa.

The rider was denounced as a "Chinese spy" by the Indian authorities, jailed, and subsequently sentenced to a year's imprisonment.

The U.S.-based Long Riders Guild has told The British Horse Society that when Robinson's appeal is heard on March 1 the prosecutors will call for his sentence to be increased to 10 years.

In his letter, Edmonds acknowledges that Robinson committed a visa offence, while asking the Indian President to recognize that harm was neither intended nor committed, as 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," Edmonds wrote. "To prolong his imprisonment would be to continue to punish a man for an offense which was committed wholly without intention to do harm."