Lisa Ling's Sister Gets 12-Year Prison Camp Sentence In North Korea
June 8 2009, Published 10:50 a.m. ET
The sister of ex-View co-host Lisa Ling was sentenced to a 12 years in a North Korean prison camp on Monday.
North Korean officials said during the conviction of Laura Ling (right in photo) and her colleague, Euna Lee, that the journalists had commited "grave crimes against the country." The 5-day trial was conducted in the country's highest court, which means the women have no recourse to appeal.
What exactly the two defendants were on trial for — other than allegedly crossing into North Korea illegally — has been unclear since their arrest on March 17. Ling and Lee had been working in China for former Vice President Al Gore's Current TV and were reporting on the international trafficking of women. Some believe that Ling and Lee never meant to cross into North Korea, and may have actually been abducted and taken across the border.
"I hope that we are able to communicate to them our deep, deep apology for whatever may have happened on that border," Lisa said at a candlelight vigil last week in Santa Monica, California. "If at any point the girls did cross into North Korea then we are so sorry and we beg the North Korean government to allow the girls to come home to their families." (Photo: Landov)
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