Former President Jimmy Carter has successfully freed the jailed American that was being held in a North Korean prison. Aijalon Gomes, 31, hugged Carter just before they boarded a plane at Pyongyang’s airport, Gomes was the fourth American arrested in North Korea for illegal entry in a year when he was seized in January, accused of crossing into North Korea from China.
The former president ‘courteously requested’ a special pardon for Gomes, which leader Kim Jong Il granted, North Korean state media said. Gomes had been sentenced in April to eight years of hard labor and a hefty fine for trespassing and committing a ‘hostile act.’
We ‘are relieved that he will soon be safely reunited with his family,’ State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. ‘We appreciate former President Carter’s humanitarian effort and welcome North Korea’s decision to grant Mr. Gomes special amnesty and allow him to return to the United States.’
