{"id":536,"date":"2006-09-05T00:17:00","date_gmt":"2006-09-05T06:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/09\/richardson-calls-on-old-friend-seeks-american-journalists-release-from-sudanese-prison\/"},"modified":"2006-09-05T00:17:00","modified_gmt":"2006-09-05T06:17:00","slug":"richardson-calls-on-old-friend-seeks-american-journalists-release-from-sudanese-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/09\/richardson-calls-on-old-friend-seeks-american-journalists-release-from-sudanese-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"Richardson calls on old friend, seeks American journalist’s release from Sudanese prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Bill Richardson has jumped on board with a host of other political leaders and journalists calling for the release of Chicago Tribune correspondent Paul Salopek<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson<\/st1:city> met with Sudan<\/st1:country-region>\u2019s ambassador to the United States<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> last week, and says he believes that country will seriously consider releasing Salopek on humanitarian grounds, according to an article from the KRT Wire<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Salopek, who is from New Mexico<\/st1:state>, was arrested last month in the Darfur region of Sudan<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> and charged with espionage and other violations. The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist was on a freelance assignment for National Geographic.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

A spokesman for the Sudanese Embassy said Richardson<\/st1:city>\u2019s meeting with the ambassador was positive, adding that he believes \u201cSudan<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> will reconsider the status of Mr. Salopek on a humanitarian basis,\u201d according to the wire service.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson, the former United Nations ambassador, said he was asked by the Tribune\u2019s editor and Salopek\u2019s wife to intervene. He called the meeting \u201cpositive,\u201d but said there was \u201ca lot of stuff I can\u2019t talk about,\u201d according to the wire service.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The two had good reason to ask for Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s help, according to the wire service. He has known the current Sudanese ambassador, Khidir Haroun Ahmed, for a decade. In 1996, when Richardson<\/st1:city> was a congressman from New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>, he negotiated the release of three Red Cross workers, an American pilot and others who were held by Sudanese rebels.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Back then, Ahmed was the translator who worked with Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. Two years ago, Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> told the wire service, Ahmed sent him a photo of their negotiating session, and the two have remained friends since.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> told the wire service that relationship helped.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI stressed that it was important for the Sudan<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> to release Mr. Salopek on humanitarian grounds,\u201d he said. \u201cI said he was not a spy.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Bill Richardson has jumped on board with a host of other political leaders and journalists calling for the release of Chicago Tribune correspondent Paul Salopek. Richardson met with Sudan\u2019s ambassador to the United States last week, and says he believes that country will seriously consider releasing Salopek on humanitarian grounds, according to an article […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}