An Unlikely Prisoner

With special guest:

• Sean Turnell
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

It is a special welcome to our guest today Sean Turnell. Sean survived for 650 days in Insein prison under the orders of the military Junta of Myanmar. In Sean’s new book An Unlikely Prisoner we hear how this unarmed University Professor who weighs 50kg wringing wet became a dangerous prisoner to a foreign government needing armed escorts wherever he went.

We hear from Sean that he was summarily arrested in his hotel before being confined to a small cell he shared with an enormous rat. Nothing could prepare a person for this ordeal and Sean did not see it coming. Yet as you will hear in this interview Sean maintained his faith in humanity, his sense of humour and mostly his health.

Perhaps the worst aspect was the uncertainty. Sean first thought that he would not be a priority for the authorities, that he would be fairly swiftly deported. It seemed that detention for a month would be the likely horrible outcome. But as the months went by there seemed to be no progress. Was he ever going to be released?

Podcast (mp3)