Prisoner 13498

Robert Davies first went to China in 1988 as an overland backpacker and, after a hair-raising two months touring Pakistan, found himself in Kashgar, the fabled Silk Road city. Here his life was irrevocably changed when he fell head over heels in love with Sharapet, an Uighur lady who was already married with a ten-year-old daughter. Love made them blind to the bureaucracy they had to face, strong for the thousands of miles they had to travel to obtain permission to marry, and resolute against the rage of Sharapet's revenge-seeking ex-husband. But Robert became involved in the trafficking of hashish. Arrested and taken 2,500 miles across China to Shanghai, he was sentenced to eight and a half years behind bars in one of the largest, most overcrowded jails in Asia - fighting against a corrupt system in grim conditions, with death a constant threat. He had suffered a legal process where law was merely a word and justice was as elusive as the holy grail and he believed the Chinese authorities had blatantly used him and other foreigners as propaganda tools.