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Erik Anthony Audé (born April 5, 1980) is an American actor, stuntman, restaurateur, and professional poker player who was arrested and imprisoned in Pakistan for alleged drug trafficking. Audé maintains that he was duped into carrying opium and believed he was importing leather goods.

Audé's experiences were adapted into a 2013 episode of the National Geographic television series Locked Up Abroad, and also into the 2018 documentary film 3 Years in Pakistan: The Erik Audé Story. He appears as himself in both works.

History

Audé was born in Los Angeles, California. He attended Bethel Christian School in Lancaster, California, and played American football there.

In 2002, Audé was persuaded to carry leather samples from Islamabad, Pakistan, to the United States by Razmik Minasian (who used the alias Rai Gharizian), an Armenian client at the gymnasium where Audé was employed. Minasian concealed from Audé the fact that the case containing leather skirts and jackets also contained opium. On February 15, 2002, Audé was arrested at Islamabad International Airport after being found, according to Pakistani authorities, with 3.6 kilograms (7.9 pounds) of opium in the process of embarking on his scheduled flight to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Pakistan is not a party to the United States' Prison Transfer Treaty program. The actor, convicted in January 2003, began serving a sentence of seven years at the Adiala Central Jail in nearby Rawalpindi. At the time, a number of articles in the press speculated on the odds of his surviving the full term of his seven-year sentence.

Audé's 2004 release followed an appeal by New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson just before Christmas, and followed Minasian's written confession that Audé was innocent of knowing he was being used to smuggle opium. A number of websites were set up to help promote his cause, and to document the struggle to free him. The actor arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on December 26, 2004, after entering the United States at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. As of 2009 Audé lives in the San Fernando Valley.

Filmography

References

1. "The End". Crime Library. August 18, 2007. Archived from the original on August 25, 2007. Retrieved November 26, 2012.
2. ""PM Actor Sentenced to 7 Years". Daily News of Los Angeles. January 8, 2003. Retrieved September 24, 2011.
3. "Witness to the Execution". Crime Library. August 18, 2007. Archived from the original on August 18, 2007. Retrieved November 26, 2012. The voices reminded him of the crowds back in Lancaster, California, the Poppy Capital of California, when he was playing football for Bethel Christian Academy.
4. Murr, Andrew; Moreau, Ron (March 2002). "I'm Guilty of Being Gullible". Newsweek. Archived from the original on August 9, 2011. Retrieved July 7, 2009.
5. ^ "Pakistan Releases Jailed US Actor". BBC. December 24, 2004. Archived from the original on April 19, 2013. Retrieved July 7, 2009.
6. "Annals of Globalization — India Has Its Own Spider-Man, Tailored to Local Tastes". North County Times. December 26, 2004. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved July 7, 2009.
7. ^ Smith, L. Christopher (August 2007). "Among the Terrorists". Men's Journal. pp. 104–205.
8. Spaeth, Sho (January 3, 2005). "Milestones". Time. Archived from the original on October 19, 2012. Retrieved July 7, 2009.
9. Smith, L. Christopher, "Among the Terrorists", Men's Journal, August 2007, Page 107

Further reading

• Gleason, Meg. "Locked Up Abroad: Where Are They Now? Erik Aude". (Archive). National Geographic. April 25, 2010.
• Fausset, Richard. "Mom Tries to Get Son Freed From Pakistan". Los Angeles Times. October 27, 2003.

External links

• Erik Audé at IMDb
• Erik Audé at AllMovie
• Crime Library article
• Erik Audé Blog - The Pokerdonk

• Male actors from California
• American male film actors
• American drug traffickers
• American people imprisoned abroad
• Prisoners and detainees of Pakistan
• 1980 births
• Living people
• American expatriates in Pakistan