Americans (in Trouble) Abroad
Amanda Knox, the 24-year-old from Seattle convicted two years ago in the 2007 murder of a British exchange student in Perugia, Italy (her appeal opened on June 28, 2011), is the latest in a long line of U.S. citizens to get in trouble on foreign shores. Click through the following slides to meet some other Americans who would have been better off staying home.
Related: The Neverending Nightmare of Amanda Knox by Nathaniel Rich
-
Frank Abagnale
Frank Abagnale's story was the inspiration for the film Catch Me If You Can (and the autobiography of the same name). As a longtime con man, Abagnale cashed millions in bad checks and "worked" various jobs – pilot, doctor, security guard, teacher – to make money. He was arrested in France in 1969 and served six months' jail time there, followed by six months in Sweden and four years in the U.S. He's now a security fraud specialist. [Tru TV]
Related: The Neverending Nightmare of Amanda Knox by Nathaniel Rich
-
Erik Audé
American actor Erik Audé was convinced by Razmik Minasian, an Armenian gym buddy to ferry leather samples from Islamabad, Pakistan to the U.S. The suitcase carrying the samples also held over seven pounds of opium, which Audé claims he was unaware of. Audé served a seven-year-sentence in Rawalpindi, and his release was secured in part by an appeal from New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who believed Aude was innocent. Minasian later admitted to stuffing the opium into the suitcase's lining. [BBC, TIME]
Related: The Neverending Nightmare of Amanda Knox by Nathaniel Rich
-
David Francis Bieber
David Francis Bieber killed a British police officer and injured another in 2003, in an effort to avoid getting picked up for a Florida arrest warrant. He is serving three life sentences in a British prison. [Murder UK, BBC]
Related: The Neverending Nightmare of Amanda Knox by Nathaniel Rich
-
Billy Hayes
Billy Hayes was a young American in Turkey who attempted to smuggle hashish back home in 1970. He was imprisoned there for five years. Weeks before his release date, he learned that he had actually received a life sentence, and managed to escape to Greece. Greece deported Hayes to the U.S. after attempting to interrogate him about intelligence on Turkey. Hayes told his side of the story in the autobiography Midnight Express, later made into a film. [National Geographic]
Related: The Neverending Nightmare of Amanda Knox by Nathaniel Rich
-
Eliadah McCord
Eliadah McCord was a broke 18-year-old in 1992, when her roommate told her that she had made $10,000 smuggling diamonds from Bangladesh. McCord met her roommate's employer and learned that she could smuggle drugs from Bangladesh into Switzerland for double the money. She was caught trying to smuggle seven pounds of heroin taped to her body. She was sentenced to life imprisonment in Bangladesh but was released in July 1996. [Christianity.com]
-
Laura Ling and Euna Lee
Journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were arrested by North Korean military in March 2009 sentenced to 12 years in a labor camp for what the government called "hostile acts" (the women had crossed over the border from China). Former President Bill Clinton traveled to North Korea to meet with Kim Jong Il and plead for the women's release. After 140 days of imprisonment, they were granted pardons. [CNN, NY Daily News]
Related: The Neverending Nightmare of Amanda Knox by Nathaniel Rich
-
Heather Mercer and Dayna Curry
Heather Mercer and Dayna Curry met when they worked for the evangelical Antioch Community Church, which offered them the opportunity to travel to pre-9/11 Afghanistan as relief workers. The pair was arrested in August 2001 after visiting a private home in Kabul (the Taliban forbids foreign visitors); the Taliban maintained that they were spreading Christian gospel rather than helping needy citizens. The invading U.S. military freed Mercer and Curry on November 15, 2001. [CNN, CNN]
Related: The Neverending Nightmare of Amanda Knox by Nathaniel Rich
-
Nguyen Quoc Quan
Nguyen Quoc Quan is an engineer, activist and National Endowment for Democracy fellow who, in March 2007, was arrested in Vietnam on terrorist charges. He and two other men were attempting to distribute pamphlets advocating democracy through non-violent means. He was tried on May 13, 2008 and sentenced to six months in prison but, because he had been jailed while waiting for his case to come to trial, Quan was released four days later. [PR Newswire, BNL, Reuters]
Related: The Neverending Nightmare of Amanda Knox by Nathaniel Rich
-
Lori Berenson
New Yorker Lori Berenson got involved with the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) while in Peru and stayed (unwittingly, she says) in one of the group's safe houses. She was arrested in 1995 and accused of being the leader of the movement, and she received a 20-year prison sentence. After nine years in jail, she was released on supervised parole. She's required to remain in Peru until her sentence ends in 2015. [freelori.org] [NYT]
Related: The Neverending Nightmare of Amanda Knox by Nathaniel Rich
-
Michael Fay
In 1993, then-18-year-old American student Michael Fay, living with his mother and stepfather in Singapore, went on a petty-crime spree which included spray-painting cars, stealing road signs. He briefly shot to fame after being sentenced to caning and jail time. Former President Clinton publicly asked Singapore to lessen Fay's sentence and, after much international coverage, Fay received four cane strokes instead of the mandated six. [NYT, LAT]
Related: The Neverending Nightmare of Amanda Knox by Nathaniel Rich