3 Years in Pakistan: The Erik Aude Story

Meagan Good,Quinton Aaron,Mark Hapka

Erik Audé is escorted down a bleak prison hallway to his cell and shoved inside. Today, Erik Audé is an actor of some acclaim. He is described by those that know him best as a tough guy who can laugh off his problems because he knows that there is also something worse. He enjoys playing poker and working for a charity that benefits rescue animal cause. Erik has agreed to do the documentary to get closure on his experience in Pakistan and show people why he is the way he is. Erik grew up in a broken home with numerous step brothers and a mother who was not an idea role model. Sherry, however, strongly declares Erik's innocence. When Erik was 12, Erik visited the film set of Lethal Weapon 3 and was taken with the action film genre. He wanted to act and be a stuntman. Erik was a decent high school football player mostly because he loved to hit. At 18 he headed to Hollywood. Erik always found work and was aggressive in pursuing roles, but he always had a job to pay the bills. One such job was working the front desk of the Burbank athletic club where Erik was known to be willing to talk with anyone who came in. Erik later became a personal trainer and one of his clients was Rai Gharizian. Another guy Erik new named Arra worked for Rai as a courier importing expensive leather good from around the world. Eventually Erik became interested in making one of these trips. He checked it with one of his mother's friends who worked for the FBI. The friend assured him that, though the criminality was frowned upon, the worst trouble he could get into was a fine. Erik's mother Sherry claims she overprotective of him when he was growing up, so Erik was ripe for the picking by a wolf in sheep's clothing appeared. In December 2000, Erik was in Istanbul, Turkey where he was given two suitcases to carry on a flight bound for Stockholm. In Stockholm, Erik was pulled out by a drug sniffing dog, but nothing of consequence happens. Rai suggests a trip for the very next month, but Erik is working as a stuntman on "The Scorpion King" production. He tells all his friends and family about the job he had with Rai hoping to recruit others and maintain the possibility for himself. When 9 11 happens, almost no one was willing to make the courier trips for Rai. Erik promotes his brother Peter for such a trip, but Peter backs out when he learned the destination was Pakistan. Though Erik had no time, he agreed to take the trip in Peters place because he did not want to let his friend Rai down. He does not regret going in Peter's place because Erik say the experiences he was about to face were not something he would rather have happen to him than someone he was responsible for getting involved with the job. In February, 2020, Erik arrives in Pakistan. He is told by his handlers that he is in the wrong city and should not leave his hotel room. Since he must wait on the delivery of the leather goods, Erik decides to go jogging through the streets of Islamabad where westerners are not welcome. When the goods are delivered to his hotel, there is only one suitcase. Erik calls Rai to confirm the limited quantity of goods he is expected to transport. In the airport, Erik is waived to the front of the line where his suitcase is inspected. They claim to find opium in his suitcase. Erik is put in prison. Sherry his mother is called by the American embassy and told Erik is charged with drug smuggling and faces a sentence of death by hanging. In front of the local magistrates, Erik fist faces physical remand, which in Pakistan entails beatings until he tells the truth. Christy Agor from the U.S. Embassy got his time of physical remand reduced from ten days to three days. As much of the documentary will be reenacted dramatically, Erik visit the prison set where Mark Hapka will play Erik and relive the experiences Erik had when he was 21. Erik is brought to a room where he is handcuffed to a chair. An interrogator questions Erik about his name, origin and career. When he is questioned about who gave Erik the drugs, Erik denies ever receiving any drugs. He is punched in the stomach. His neck denial results in a smack in the face. Then his chair is tipped over and he is beaten with a pole on the bottoms of his feet. Erik continues to proclaim he has told the interrogator everything he knows. The interrogator takes pride in torturing a Hollywood movie star. Another time he is attached to electrodes. Erik is chained standing for an extended length of time with his arms over his head. He drifts in an out of consciousness until the beating begin again. Finally, he was waterboarded. Because Erik is innocent, he had no "right" answers for his captors. Erik, however, had been wanting to appear on a show called "Fear Factor" and had practiced holding his breath in the shower and before he went to bed and was able to hold his breath for 3 minutes. He was held under water for a minute and a half and thought is was relatively easy. He was thankful he had watch the first episode of "Fear Factor." An exhausted Erik was thrown into an empty cell with a bucket. The next day he was lead down a set of stairs to the interrogator again. Erik told the interrogator that he was torturing an innocent man. The interrogator says if he confesses the drugs are his, this will all be over. Erik refuses and continues to proclaim his innocence. Erik has physique, discipline and pain tolerance for the torture he is enduring because of a bus accident in his youth his mother explained. He was hit by a bus and his pelvis was broken and he lived with pain most every day. Erik is taken back to customs lock up and is able to call his mother. In the US, the search is underway to locate Rai Gharizian. When they trace Rai's office phone, his mother talks to a Rai Ghanaian to whom she tells her son's story. Rai tells his mother that he knows who set up her son. his name is Razmik Minasian. Erik is taken to Rawalpindi to Pakistan's largest prison, the Central Jail Adyala . He is greeted by the numberdards, the prisoners who police other prisoners. While the prison guards bet on the outcome, Erik fights off 10 to 12 Pakistanis that day, a fight which Erik claims he dominated as a way to show his strength as he entered the prison population. Then a mishakti, a prison worker, lead Erik to another part of the prison. Just as he laid down to rest, he got into another fight because he was the American in the newspapers. Here he was overwhelmed and beaten. He was taken to kasoari, which was a closet sized room, where he would spend 132 days of his three-year confinement. Erik did not share his experiences while in prison with Missy Hoagland, his childhood girl friend or others in his close circle of friends as them being upset would neither help Erik nor themselves. Erik could not be in the general population because someone put a 5000 rupee bounty on his head. Back home, his mother not only tried to free Erik and keep his spirits up, but also worked to keep his name in the media so Pakistan felt the eyes of the works would be upon them. Prison officials felt the safest place for Erik in prison was on death row. There, he had his own cells. It was rat infested, exposed to the elements, but still his own. For the first few month he was always hungry because he was getting the same amount of food as the much smaller Pakistanis. He started to learn the Urdu language and that earned him some respect on the prison. The man in the neighboring cell on death row was a man named Mourad who killed 11 of his wife's family members after they sought revenge over the couple's decision to forego an arranged marriage. He spoke a bit of English and introduced Erik to the game of Texas Hold 'em Poker. At home, Sherry was running a maze finding many closed doors but still relentlessly trying to find someone who could help. Six months after Erik was arrested, Razmik Minasian. was arrested for importing opium after a Swedish woman was arrested in LAX for the exact crime in which Erik had participated. The Swedish woman was allowed to return to Sweden, but Erik remained in prison. DEA now believed in Erik's innocence but did little to get Erik freed. Erik would still have to deal with the Pakistani legal system. Meanwhile, a prison superintendent introduced him to four Palestinian hijackers of a Pan Am flight when he was moved to two cell. The high jackers had allot of clout with the prison guard. Erik was able to get a camera to take photos for a brief time. He also got a cell phone and was able to communicate with family and friends at night. Erik hired a lawyer and had numerous trips to court where the judge or a lawyer would not show up. His mother sought a statement from Razmik Minasian that Erik knew nothing about the drugs. She found him and wrote him a letter to Razmik about Erik and his shock that his friend Rai would set him up. She also mildly threatened Ramik's children in the letter. Minasian provided an affidavit of Erik's innocence. In a Pakistani court, a deal was cut for Erik that he would get a two year sentence and would leave in a couple months if he pleaded guilty. His interpreter asked him what means more to him? His pride or his freedom. Erik refuses to change his plea from not guilty. In November 2003, he is sentenced to seven years in prison. Erik's case was scheduled to go to go to high court. Sherry hired a highly recommended lawyer who tried to charge them $25000. Erik fired the lawyer, but he still shows up at high court and accepts the seven years on Erik's behalf. Erik hires a lawyer the hijackers recommend. They ask for the mercy of the court seven months later and do receive a second chance at high court. However, because of the large number of cases the high court hears, they were scheduled 16 months later. During this time, Erik takes one of the worst beatings of his life. In the prison there was a guard nicknamed "Goldleaf". Erik often contemplates suicide while in prison because of the pain he was in from a severe ear ache. When Goldleaf tried to shake down Erik for money for cigarettes, Eri fought back. His punishment beating was so severe and Erik planned on dying. In the midst of it, however, the prison superintendent appeared and Erik was able to explain the situation. Goldleaf was fired was fired on the spot. In January, 2004 while Erik was working on the landscaping in the yard, a man jumped the wall with a knife and came at him. After a brief fight, Erik ended up snapping his attacker's neck. After two years I prison, Erik has a job as a teacher. Because of his position, he was able to visit death row and see his friend Mourad. One day, Mourad invites him to enjoy a good meal and they spent many hours playing poker and chess. The next morning, Mourad was hung. In April, 2004, Sherry gets a meeting with the brother of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. Sherry asks for clemency for her son with letter she presents to the President's brother. Sherry also receives a response from Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico. As a congressmen, Richardson had many connections in Pakistan as well as a foundation that helped free prisoners of conscious. When Erik had a court date the assistant superintendents, numberdards and guards prayed for his release. The prison doctor was crying when he broke the news that Erik was going home. On December 26th, 2004, friends and family welcomed Erik home. In July 2002, Razmik Minasian had made deal with police that reduced his punishment and led to largest opium bust in Glendale history. Erik's only option for justice was to sue. Erik won a $20.4 million civil suit in 2007 but has been unable to collect the first nickel. Razmik Minasian was desired for an interview by the producers of the documentary but remains in hiding. Erik bounced back quickly for his three-year ordeal with help from friends and used poker to improve his life. The first night in a casino, he turned $50 dollars given to him by a friend into $2600 dollars. His friends endorse his honesty, the validity of his story, and the good warm-hearted person he has become. Erik says the experience made him less selfish and more appreciative even the smallest things he has in life. He continues to play poker, work as an actor and stuntman and travel the world with his girlfriend.