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Aussie appears in court on Hong Kong murder charge
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Kelsey Mudd has been charged with murder after a taxi crash.
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An Australian man has appeared in a Hong Kong court charged with the murder of a city taxi driver.
Kelsey Lord Michael Mudd, aged 22, appeared at Eastern Magistrates' Court today charged with the murder of the 58-year-old driver in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Mudd, dressed in a navy blazer, checked shirt and khaki trousers, confirmed his name and did not enter a plea during the short hearing.
Hong Kong police have charged a 22-year-old Australian man with murder following a fatal traffic accident in which a taxi driver was killed.
He wore a surgical mask in the dock, and cuts were clearly visible on his face. Mudd's parents both attended court.
His request for bail was turned down and the case was adjourned until a later date.
According to the Sunday Morning Post, which cited police sources, Mudd and the driver had had a dispute shortly before the incident, in Hong Kong's central district.
Click Here for full story
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Merauke Five arrive back in Australia
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Five Australians detained for nine months by Indonesian authorities are celebrating their first night back on home soil after finally being allowed to leave the troubled province of Papua.
First on the agenda were beers and meat pies, followed by a night watching the State of Origin rugby league match - if they could stay awake that late.
"I feel like a goldfish that has escaped a pool of piranhas," Pilot William Scott-Bloxam told AAP shortly after touching down on Horn Island, in the Torres Strait, on Wednesday.
Mr Scott-Bloxam, his wife Vera and friends Keith Mortimer, Hubert Hofer and Karen Burke, all middle-aged residents of the Torres Strait were detained by Indonesian authorities after flying to the Papuan town of Merauke without visas last September.
The so-called "Merauke Five" spent almost two months in rat-infested immigration detention before being released to a local house, only later to be moved to the local prison after being sentenced to between two and three years' jail.
Indonesia's Supreme Court this month overturned the decision but it took another fortnight of waiting for their official clearance to leave.
"It's hard to imagine that you end up in the highest court in the land for a misdemeanour case," Mr Mortimer said.
"We were all naive in thinking the system would look after us and it never did.
"At the end of it, it was the Australian government, the Australian people and the Australian media that got us out."
Click Here for full story
Five Australians leave Papua for home
Ordeal set to end for Merauke Five
Govt 'pleased' with release of Papua five
Why the Merauke Five feel betrayed by Australia
FPSS request Aust Government Urgent Intervention
Detained Aussies not spies: friend
Aussies jailed in Papua free to return home
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'Mum's free': Family celebrates Kuwait jail release
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Nasrah Al Shamery is due to arrive back in Australia at the weekend.
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The family of an Australian woman jailed for the past five-and-a-half months in Kuwait is celebrating after a surprise decision by Kuwaiti authorities to deport her.
Nasrah Al Shamery, 44, was sentenced in April to two years' jail for assaulting the ruling Emir of Kuwait.
The charge stemmed from an alleged insult against the Emir after arriving at Kuwait International Airport with her family on holiday.
Mrs Al Shamery always maintained her innocence and there was an appeal last week, but the reason for the sudden deportation is not clear.
Mrs Al Shamery is due back in Australia at the weekend.
Her family, who live in Sydney, hoped she would be deported but were not expecting it.
One of Mrs Al Shamery's seven children, Ahmad Al Shamery, says he did not expect this decision.
"They said 'mum's free' and in a couple of days she will be here," he said.
Ahmad says his family and the lawyers attempted to appeal the jail sentence, but they had little confidence in the system.
He says at this stage no-one know actually knows why she is being released.
Click Here for Complete Story
Emir insult: Sydney mother released
Happy surprise as Australian woman released from Kuwait jail
Aussie mother jailed two years for 'insulting' Kuwaiti emir
Mum jailed in Kuwait 'sick', son says
Sydney woman arrested in Kuwait .....
Kuwait lawyer of Australian: she might go to trial
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Pregnant Briton Samantha Orobator jailed for life in Laos drugs trial
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Samantha Orobator in court today
(Sakchai Lalit/AP)
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A pregnant British woman was sentenced to life in prison for heroin trafficking by a court in Laos today. A panel of judges found Samantha Orobator, 20, guilty of trafficking 680g (1.5lb) of heroin last August, when she was caught trying to board a plane to Thailand.
A British Embassy diplomat who attended the trial said: “We are now seeking access to Samantha so we can discuss what we can do next.”
Orobator, who became pregnant while imprisoned, could have faced the death penalty. It is hoped that she will not spend much time in jail in Laos thanks to a prison transfer deal struck between David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary and the Laos government last month. Laotian officials, however, could still veto her return.
A Foreign Office spokesman said that the Government did not know how long it would take to bring Orobator back home, or if it would be possible at all. “She would ask for the transfer and the then both states would have to consent to the transfer . It could take a number of months,” she said.
Survivors of Phanthong prison, where Orobator has been held since August, recently described the horrors of incarceration in the notorious jail where malnutrition, disease, abuse and torture are part of everyday life.
Click Here for Complete Story
Pregnant Briton sentenced to life on Laos heroin charges
Pregnant Samantha Orobator refused lawyer before Laos drugs trial
Prisoners quizzed over pregnancy of British woman held in Laos jail
Pregnant Briton 'faces execution'
Pregnant Briton 'faces execution'
Death penalty fears for pregnant Briton in Laos prison on drugs charges
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Schapelle Corby paranoid, clutching doll in Kerobokan jail
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Deteriorating ... Schapelle Corby is suffering depression while in an Indonesian jail. Picture: Lukman S Bintoro
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SCHAPELLE Corby has become paranoid, unkempt and has been seen carrying a doll about her prison cell as her mental condition deteriorates.
Her mother, Rosleigh Rose, has flown from Australia to Bali to be with her daughter - the best medicine the convicted drug smuggler can have, according to her doctor.
The 31-year-old was taken from Kerobokan jail, where she is serving a 20-year sentence, to Denpasar's police hospital late on Friday and is being treated by a private psychiatrist arranged by her family.
Dr Danny Tong visited Corby for 15 minutes yesterday and said that while her condition was improving she was "very depressed" and was on medication, including anti-depressants.
"Her mother is here. This is the best medicine for anybody in the world," he said.
Ms Rose spent the night in the hospital on Saturday and was with Corby again yesterday, as was Corby's sister Mercedes and her children.
Click Here for full story
Schapelle Corby release hopes
I've lost hope of early release from Bali jail
Schapelle Corby's teary breakdown behind bars
Authors Rally Behind Schapelle Corby
Letter of Appeal for Schapelle Corby
Corby's transfer request refused
Fun and games for happier Schapelle Corby
Corby, Lawrence get jail sentences cut
Corby's Indonesian sentence cut by three months
Schapelle Corby refused low-security transfer
McCauley's Corby claim 'laughable'
Ganga Queen generates overwhelming support in USA and Canada
Schapelle Corby case Informaiton
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AUNG SAN SUU KYI MUST BE RELEASED WITH NO HESITATION
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To: The Honorable Ban Ki Moon
Secretary General of the United Nations
On behalf of the "Party of the Government of Vientiane (PGVT)" in Exile and formerly so-called the "Royal Lao Government (RLG)" in Exile; together with the Lao Organizations and its Communities around the world are calling for the immediate released of Aung San Suu Kyi who was due to be released from house detention on Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 and she is now being indefinitely held on the ruse of an American who recently swam to her lakeside home to put her on a shame trial so as to extend her unlawful incarceration at this time. The Junta pledged to free political detainees and hold elections next year as part of a much-discussed "roadmap" to restore democracy to the country which has been ruled by the Myanmar military junta since 1962.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been charged with violating the terms of her house arrest, and if convicted would likely be in prison when the elections take place. This is no coincidence.
Click Here for Complete Copy of Letter
'Aung San Suu Kyi Case Information
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Australian beer mat mother Annice Smoel walks free in Thailand
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Free at last ... Annice Smoel is greeted by her husband Darren.
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IT took 18 days, an international outcry and a little leverage from the local Thai Governor - but Aussie mum Annice Smoel is finally coming home.
Mrs Smoel, who was unable to leave Thailand after being accused of stealing a beer mat when a drunken prank went wrong, was given a six-month suspended jail term and a 1000 baht ($38) fine in return for a guilty plea yesterday.
She was last night preparing for an emotional reunion with the four young daughters she hasn't seen for more than a fortnight.
"I don't know exactly how it all happened today," Mrs Smoel said.
"I think it was a combination of my lawyers here, my lawyers in Australia and my Government and the Thai Government.
"The Governor has apologised to me and been very kind. He seems like a lovely man. He has really looked after me."
Phuket Governor Wichai Praisa-nob paid Mrs Smoel's fine as an act of good faith. It is believed he intervened after being contacted by Thailand's Ministry of Tourism and the Foreign Ministry.
Until yesterday, Mrs Smoel feared she would spend at least the next four months in Thailand until a trial and possibly up to five years in prison if convicted.
But in return for her freedom, Mrs Smoel pleaded guilty.
Click Here for Complete Story
'Guilty' bar-mat mum on the way home after high-level Thai intervention
Melbourne mum arrested over Thai bar 'prank'
Melbourne mum Annice Smoel facing five years jail in Thailand
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Lao government continues to hold Hmong refugees hostage
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Yesterday, the Lao state-controlled newspaper Vientiane Times quoted the Lao Foreign Ministry spokesman criticizing Thailand for its recent offer to allow 158 UNHCR-recognized Hmong refugees resettlement in third countries. The offer was made last week while Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya was in Washington, DC meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to discuss this very sensitive issue.
The Lao FM spokesman belittled Thailand’s Foreign Minister for making such a statement saying he found it hard to believe that “a senior diplomat with much experience in foreign affairs would make such remarks.” This is an amusing comment by the Lao FM spokesman considering that deporting this group of UNHCR-recognized refugees is in clear violation of international refugee law.
For over 29 months now, the Lao government has basically been blackmailing Thailand into repatriating this group of Hmong refugees held at Nong Khai jail. On January 30, 2007, during a failed deportation attempt, Lao authorities were allowed up into the Hmong refugees cell area and gassed the resistant Hmong with an unidentified chemical agent. Those exposed to the chemical, including some young children, were sick for months later having chest pain, headaches, and difficulty breathing in their sleep.
Due to international outrage over the incident, which blatantly defied international refugee law, Thailand softened up and made a generous offer of allowing the group resettlement in third countries. The United States, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands all stepped forward agreeing to resettle the group. Then just days later, Thailand reneged on its promise due to a huge amount of pressure from the Lao government who threatened not to accept the remaining 8000 or so Hmong refugees remaining in Huay Nam Khao camp if the Thais allowed the 158 to go to third countries.
Now, well over two years later, Hmong parents and their small children remain held hostage under torturous-type living conditions until they “volunteer” to return. The Lao government is at it again, putting pressure on Thailand to bar these 158 from resettlement in third countries boldly stating that these countries must seek official permission from the Lao government and that they must be returned first.
How is it that a tiny country like Laos can get away with such a giant breach in international law while superpowers like the United States remain ominously quiet? The tortured and suicidal Hmong refugees in Nong Khai jail are waiting for you to step up to the plate.
Click Here for Complete Story
Tortured & Imprisoned, Students seek safety in Canada
BBC guide beaten by Thai military
Thai authorities arrest BBC guide for deportation
Hmongs returned by year end
The C.I.A.'s tribe in danger
Hmong Campaign Page
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Aussie mates in Thai jail nightmare
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Jacob McGrath (left) and Paul Johnson (right), are in a Thai prison. |
TWO young Australians, best mates since primary school, have been locked up in a Thailand jail after their dream holiday turned into a nightmare.
Jacob McGrath and Paul Johnson, both 22 from Yamba in northern New South Wales, had saved hard for 18 months to go on a fun-filled two-week trip to Thailand.
But on March 26, the day they were due to fly home, the Australians were arrested by Thai police and charged with making a false statement.
Police said that items the Australians claimed had been stolen – including a laptop, iPod, sunglasses and digital camera – were later found by officers during a search of their hotel room.
Family members back in Australia said details of the subsequent investigation and hearing in a Chiang Mai court were sketchy, but the pair pleaded guilty to the charge.
The Sunday Mail believes the use of an interpreter after the pair's arrest led to communication problems and a misunderstanding of Thai law.
Mr McGrath and Mr Johnson were sentenced to two months in the city's feared prison, where their heads have been shaved and they share a cell and open toilet with up to 35 other inmates.
Click Here for Complete Story
Local men in Thai prison
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Aussie caught with drugs faces 10 years in Bali jail
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Jason McIntyre
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The intention of the suspect was to have the hashish for his own use. -
Bali Police Drug Squad Colonel Kokot Indarto
An Australian pearl farmer faces up to 10 years' jail after he was allegedly caught with hashish outside a Bali bar.
Jason Scott McIntyre, 33, was arrested outside Crusoes Bar in Kuta in the early hours of Monday carrying about five grams of hashish, Bali police allege.
McIntyre will be charged with drug possession, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years' jail.
"The intention of the suspect was to have the hashish for his own use," Bali Police Drug Squad Colonel Kokot Indarto said.
"The defendant has not had the chance to use it."
Charges were expected to be laid over the next few days.
Click Here for Complete Story
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Guantánamo Detainee Phones Al Jazeera From Prison
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Given the opportunity to make a phone call from the U.S. detention facility in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, a detainee awaiting release reportedly phoned Al Jazeera to complain about his treatment.
In a video report (embedded above) posted on the Arab broadcaster’s English-language Web site on Tuesday, Mohammed El Gharani (whose name is transliterated differently by Al Jazeera) told a journalist for Al Jazeera, Sami al-Hajj, who was himself detained for six years in Guantánamo, that he had recently suffered abuse from guards at the prison.
According to Al Jazeera, Mr. Gharani said that guards had used tear gas on him when he refused to leave his cell and he had been beaten. The text of a written report on Al Jazeera’s Web site says that the detainee “said in a phone call to Al Jazeera that the alleged ill-treatment ’started about 20 days’ before Barack Obama became U.S. president and ’since then I’ve been subjected to it almost every day.’”
Mr. Gharani’s claim that he was abused at the detention facility in recent months echoes a statement by a detainee who was released to British authorities. In an interview with a British newspaper, Binyam Mohamed, who was released from Guantánamo in February, said that the election of President Obama did not immediately mark a change for the better for detainees. Mr. Mohamed told The Mail:
Since the election it’s got harsher. The guards would say, yes, this place is going to close down, but it was like they wanted to take their last revenge.
As reported in The Times in January, Judge Richard J. Leon of Federal District Court ordered the military to release Mr. Gharani after reviewing his case. According to that report:
The military accused the man, Mohammed el Gharani, of being part of Al Qaeda, working for the Taliban and fighting American forces in Afghanistan. Mr. Gharani is a Chadian who has lived in Saudi Arabia. Judge Leon said the accusations were based on testimony from other Guantánamo Bay detainees, which he found unreliable.
Click Here for Complete Story
Guantánamo inmate interviewed
Will the US adjust life at Guantánamo for detainees?
What Guantánamo Can Teach Us
Guantánamo Page
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Bali 9 appeals may be curtailed
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Myuran Sukumaran - Scott Rush - Andrew Chan
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INDONESIA'S Supreme Court has prepared a new edict giving prosecutors the right to speed the execution of death row inmates, including three Australian drug couriers under sentence of death in Bali's Kerobokan jail.
The edict has grave implications for Andrew Chan, Myuran Sukumaran and Scott Rush — the three members of the Bali Nine heroin smuggling syndicate facing death — not least because it raises the prospect their final appeals will be heard during Indonesia's election season.
Prosecutors have been pressing the Supreme Court to allow them to clear a backlog of death penalty cases, arguing the current system, which permits the condemned to wait as long as they like before launching their appeal, was a loophole being exploited to buy time.
In an interview with The Age, Supreme Court judge Joko Sarwoko said he had drafted the new edict, which would put power in the hands of prosecutors to determine when final appeals have to be lodged.
"It is up to the prosecutors to decide," he said. "Once they decide it, they must send a warning or announcement letter to the person on the death row informing them that their remaining legal avenue has to be exercised.
"If, after the proper time limit, the person does not exercise his rights, the prosecutors are entitled to execute the person."
Click Here for Complete Story
Death row ruling threatens appeals of Bali drug couriers
Indonesia increases use of death penalty
Families of Bali Nine tell their stories
Bali trio on execution list despite forthcoming legal appeal
Day by day in a Bali jail
Bali 9 case Information
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Pardoned by Thai monarchy, Australian writer returns home
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Harry Nicolaides — seen here at Bangkok's criminal court on Jan. 19 when he was sentenced to three years — spent more than five months in a Thai jail before being pardoned on Thursday. (Apichart Weerawong/Associated Press) |
An Australian writer, sentenced to jail in Thailand for insulting that country's monarchy, has been pardoned and whisked back to his country after spending more than five months behind bars.
"[I am] bewildered and dazed — nauseous," Harry Nicolaides, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. on Saturday.
"I've been crying for eight hours — I learned only a few minutes before boarding my flight that my mother has suffered a stroke."Harry Nicolaides — seen here at Bangkok's criminal court on Jan. 19 when he was sentenced to three years — spent more than five months in a Thai jail before being pardoned on Thursday.Harry Nicolaides — seen here at Bangkok's criminal court on Jan. 19 when he was sentenced to three years — spent more than five months in a Thai jail before being pardoned on Thursday. (Apichart Weerawong/Associated Press)
The writer, 41, was arrested last August and sentenced to three years in prison in January for insulting King Bhumibol Adulyadej and the crown prince in a passage in his 2005 book, Versimilitude, which sold only seven copies.
Under Thai law, insults against the monarchy result in sentences of three to 15 years behind bars.
Click Here for full story
Thailand frees Australian writer
Nicolaides in line for royal pardon
Jailed Australian writer Harry Nicolaides kept in 'medieval' cell
Writer sentenced for 'Thai insult'
Writer Harry Nicolaides jailed for insulting Thai king
Author guilty of Thai king insult
Australian govt criticised over jailed Aussie in Thailand
Thais hold writer for political reasons, says lawyer
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Free Roy Bennett from Zimbabwe’s Mutare Jail
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On Friday the 13th February 2009 Roy Leslie Bennett was arrested and charged with Treason in Harare. We call for the urgent release of Mr Bennett. Mr Bennett should be allowed to take up his ministerial post to help revive Agriculture immediately. The angels of suppression should accept that the winds of change are unstoppable.
The Junta keeps on flip flopping about the charges that Mr Bennett faces. It is inspiring to hear that Mr Bennett is in good spirits and he sends a message to all Zimbabweans through his lawyer "Whatever these challenges, if we remain unwaveringly dedicated, we will achieve peace, freedom and democracy in our life time - believe me,"
Click Here for More Information
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International Community ignores the torture of 91 children
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158 Hmong UNHCR Refugees are detained in the Immigration Detention Centre Nong Khai, Thailand. They have been there for 800 days - waiting to be relocated to a Third Country. 158 people including 91 children are locked up for 22 hours a day in dirty cramped, windowless spaces.
PLEASE TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS TO PROTEST THE DETENTION OF THESE INNOCENT CHILDREN.
THIS FORCED DETENTION OF CHILDREN GOES AGAINST ALL THE RULES KNOWN TO LAW AND CIVILISED MAN.
Tell your Friends, Politicians, International Organisations - tell the World. Please!
For more information Google: 158 Hmong Refugees in Nong Khai Detention Centre.
It is a very Political issue for UNHCR, IOM, American, Australian, Thai and Laos Governments – but while bureaucrats delay these people are LOCKED UP 22 HOURS A DAY. It has to be seen to be believed. The adults are stressed and trying to remain controlled for the sake of the children. They are all registered Refugees with UNHCR, but because of International Politics they are being denied the right to travel to a Third Country. They fear being repatriated to Laos and further oppression.
Please tell everyone you know so that they too can ask questions and help move all the detainees, every man, woman and child, to a deserved, and just, freedom.
Click Here for More Information
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Randy Sachs Campaign - Update Feb 08 2009
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Photo: Randy and his companion 'Lucky'.
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"I pray everyday that our family survive this dreadful ordeal.... all I have now of my son are snap shots that remind me everyday that he is no longer that silly boy who boarded a plane five years ago!"
Canadian Randy Sachs, spends most of his days trying to endure the harsh reality of a Vietnamese prison and a sixteen year sentence handed down to him in May 2003. Remarkably he remains positive despite the fact that he hasn't seen his family since his nightmare began. Randy told FPSS advocates that he didn't want to put his family through any further distress, either physically or emotionally.
"They don't have the money to spend on airfares... and I really don't want my Mom to see me in this place" said Randy.
On the 21 Jan 2009, Randy was able to get a message to his mother via the Embassy;
"Hey mom, I got my sentence reduced 7mths today! So its a start and that's what counts. Keep smiling mom..... Love Randy.xoxo"
It is in the simplicity of these messages that Randy's family maintain their hope that oneday soon, they will embrace. A tiny thread holds them together and reminds them that every moment they have is precious.
There has been no further news on Randy's appeal for Clemency or Amnesty. He was given a seven month reduction in sentence for good behaviour. Indications lead FPSS to believe that foreigners do not easily obtain a sentence reduction in Vietnam so this reduction is most welcomed. According to Randy's family, the Canadian Embassy is hoping to schedule a meeting with Vietnamese authorities in mid-February. We hope that they will push Randy's appeal for mercy forward so that he can move one step closer to returning home to family and friends who miss him dearly.
Click Here for Randy Sachs Campaign Page
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Life sentence an alternative to the death penalty
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A prominent human rights lawyer has suggested that life sentences are harsh enough for those facing the death penalty, claiming capital punishment fails to deter people from committing crimes and is a breach of the Indonesian Constitution.
Lawyer and rights activist Todung Mulya Lubis told a discussion at the launch of his latest book Controversy over the death sentence on Wednesday that capital punishment not only violated the right to life enshrined in the Constitution, but also risked killing innocent people.
He said the death penalty was bound to be handed out to the wrong person in Indonesia because criminal investigations often lack professionalism. A lifetime in jail, he argued, was a valid alternative to capital punishment.
The book, published by Kompas, details Todung's failed attempts to challenge the legitimacy of death sentences at the Constitutional Court throughout 2007.
Some of these cases are facing judicial review, which if granted, will pardon three convicted Australian drug traffickers from execution.
Click Here for Randy Sachs Campaign Page
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URGENT URGENT URGENT
High-level Thai delegation to visit Hmong refugees at Nong Khai jail
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On January 15, 2009, a high-level Thai delegation from Bangkok is expected to visit the 158 Hmong refugees held at Nong Khai immigration jail. The visit is expected to be just another attempt at convincing these Hmong refugees to “voluntarily” return to Laos.
The Hmong refugees believe that the real purpose of these visits is to break their human spirit. The “concerned” officials always ask the group why they are afraid to return to Laos but at the same time tell them that no third-country is willing to accept them, which is an outright lie! The Hmong detainees are also told that they are not political refugees even though they have the UNHCR documentation to prove it! Then, they are told that they only have two options available to them. One, they can “voluntarily” return to Laos. Or two, they can spend the rest of their lives in this small overcrowded immigration jail (photo attached).
Much worse than suffering from the awful physical and psychological conditions at the overcrowded jail is the fact that the United States, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands have all remained seemingly silent on this issue. These are the countries which had quickly stepped forward after a failed deportation attempt some two years ago and agreed to resettle these refugees.
Click Here for Complete Story
Hmong Watch Campaign Page
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Execution date has been set for January 27, 2009
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Don't let Texas kill an innocent man! Save Larry Swearingen
Swearingen was sentenced to death in 2000 for the abduction, sexual assault and slaying of a 19-year-old college student in Montgomery. He is scheduled to be executed on January 27. The Texas Criminal Court of Appeals rejected to hear his appeal despite:
The victim was killed and her body dumped in the woods while Swearingen was jailed on unrelated charges;
The changes to the victims private parts was not due to sexual assault, but disease;
DNA evidence could be preserved on the victims body: DNA testings excluded Swearingen as the biological donor both of the blood traces under the victims fingernails and the pubic hair found in the vaginal swabbing;
The Medical Examiner who performed the autopsy reviewed the case in 2007 and stated that several important findings were not made available to her during trial or pretrial proceedings;
These findings led to the ME reversing her opinion about the estimated date of victim's death, with now FOUR Forensic Pathologists reaching the same conclusion that the victim was killed while Swearingen was incarcerated; THE STATE PROVIDES A PERFECT ALIBI.
Click Here for Complete Story
Sign the Petition Now!
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Australian prefers Thai jail to home
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A MELBOURNE man who has been living in shocking conditions in a crowded Bangkok immigration jail cell for more than four years is refusing to accept Australian Government help to return home.
Colin Hansch, 61, has told Thai authorities he would rather stay in jail than return to Australia, even though he has only a mat to sleep on and receives a small daily serve of rice and soup.
"I've not been back to Australia for 30 years. I don't want to go back, I've got nothing to go back to," he said.
Mr Hansch, a computer engineer who left Melbourne in 1967, is worried he will not be able to obtain a passport to travel overseas again if he accepts the offer. It is believed he wants to be able to visit Malaysia or Cambodia.
"I think they [Australia] don't want to give me a passport … they don't want to set a precedent giving a passport to somebody while they are in custody," he said.
#A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs in Canberra said Mr Hansch had repeatedly rejected an offer from the embassy in Bangkok to issue a limited-validity document to let him return home immediately.
Mr Hansch has been held at the immigration centre in Bangkok, just around the corner from the Australian embassy, since September 2004. He was transferred there, supposedly pending deportation, after serving two years in a Bangkok jail for assault causing serious bodily harm, which related to a dispute with a bar girl in the beach resort of Pattaya.
Click Here for Complete Story
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Egypt could jail Australian dealer for 15 years
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AN AUSTRALIAN antiques dealer has been arrested in Egypt for allegedly trying to smuggle two 2300-year-old animal mummies and religious figurines out of the country.
It is believed Frank Bottaro, 61, who runs BC Galleries in Armadale, Melbourne, was on his way to Thailand on Tuesday when he was picked up at Cairo International Airport.
A security official became suspicious of the figurines that were allegedly wrapped as gifts and placed amid souvenir ceramic pots in his suitcase.
A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokeswoman confirmed yesterday that an unidentified 61-year-old was arrested for allegedly smuggling antiquities but had yet to be charged.
She said that, under Egyptian law, he could not be charged until he had appeared before a magistrate, and Egyptian courts were shut for several days during Christmas holidays.
She said officials were providing consular assistance to the man and his family in Cairo and Canberra.
A separate source later confirmed the man's name was Frank Bottaro.
The charge of smuggling antiquities carries a maximum jail term of 15 years.
Click Here for Complete Story
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Australian Andrew Hoods arrested in Thailand on drug charges
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Formally charged: Andrew Hoods (Reuters: Sukree Sukplang)
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AN Australian man faces the death penalty after being charged with drug smuggling in Thailand.
Thai customs have charged an Australian man with smuggling drugs after arresting him at a Bangkok airport with packs of heroin allegedly strapped to his body, officials said on Wednesday.
Andrew Hoods, 36, was arrested at Suvarnabhumi international airport's departure hall on Wednesday afternoon in possession of 12 packets of heroin weighing three kilograms in total, an official said.
A customs official estimated that the drugs would have a street value of 12 million baht (around $500,000) in Thailand.
Police said that another Australian, believed to be a friend, managed to escape.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said the arrested man was from New South Wales.
Click Here for Complete Story
The tragedy of Andrew Hoods - and his little girl
I did it for the money: alleged Aust drug smuggler
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Help to find Ryan Chambers - Last Seen in India
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This is the story of our youngest son, Ryan (DOB 20/3/1984) who has been missing in India since 24 August 2005.
We hope that this will help find him. It will certainly enable many more people in India to become aware that Ryan is missing and that he has a family in Australia desperate for some news of him. This includes his parents of course but also his older brothers Aaron and Jarrad and his extended family.
Many things have been tried- Australian authorities, Private investigator, Rotary International, Coca Cola India, State Bank of India and many new friends have assisted our search. Facebook has also been used extensively and this medium has resulted in two unconfirmed "sightings."
Psychics have also offered advice but no results have been forthcoming.
A few "sightings" have been reported over the past 3 years but never able to be confirmed.
Meanwhile, people around the world wait for word that Ryan has been found.
Please Click to Email us and let us know if you have any information on Ryan - your details can remain confidential should you wish
Click Here for Complete Story
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Australian man Shane Demos jailed for drugs in Bali
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AN Australian man convicted of drug use in Bali has been jailed for eight months.
Sydney man Shane Christos Demos, 37, was today found "officially and convincingly guilty" of using hashish and heroin.
Following a trial in Denpasar District Court, Chief Judge Nyoman Sutama imposed a sentence of eight months.
Demos had acted against the Indonesian Government's efforts to fight drug abuse in the country, Judge Sutama said.
Prosecutors had sought a years' imprisonment.
Demos was arrested in September outside a shop in Bali's Double Six nightclub area.
Click Here for Complete Story
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Renaes new-found peace and happiness proves love can bloom in unlikely places
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Renae only has eyes for cell mate Ira. The lovers have already exchanged
their own vows and now hope to have their union officially recognised.
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BALI 9
Convicted drug trafficker Renae
Lawrence – one of the Bali Nine
– says shes never been happier,
despite being locked in prison.
The 31-year-old smuggler, who was
caught with 2.7kg of heroin, has fallen
in love with her pretty Indonesian cell
mate, Ira Winarti, and plans to wed her
in a Hindu marriage ceremony.
Our love has given me hope, says Renae,
who met 27-year-old Ira when she was
convicted of using the drug ice and put in
the same cell in Kerobokan Jail in 2005.
Renae is scheduled for release in 2026,
but she says Ira – due to be freed next
year – will wait for her. In the meantime,
the couple have applied to the prison
governor to be married in the Bali jail.
Click Here for Complete Story
Click Here for Case Information
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Kelly Trueman free from Mumbai prison after three-year battle
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Kelly Trueman was found not guilty of drug charges by an Indian Court and is free after almost three years in a Mumbai prison.
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A RINGWOOD NORTH woman locked up in a Mumbai prison for three years will be reunited with loved ones after an Indian court found her not guilty of drug trafficking, it was revealed this morning.
Kelly Trueman, 25, was arrested in March, 2006 and charged with the possession, carriage and involvement in conspiracy to export 5.7kg of hashish.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade this morning confirmed Ms Trueman had been acquitted and released into the custody of her family.
Her father, Michael Trueman, told Leader: "Kelly will be out today and will have her mother and her sister with her."
She was held on remand in Mumbai’s Byculla District Women’s Prison for almost three years.
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Kelly Trueman trying to be positive after Mumbai jail term
Waiting game for Melbourne woman wanting to leave India
Kelly Trueman released from prison at last!
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AGO to execute five convicts
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JAKARTA: The Attorney General's Office (AGO) is preparing to execute five convicts who are on death row before the end of the year.
Assistant attorney general for general crimes Abdul Hakim Ritonga said one of the five convicts was a Nigerian, who had been found guilty of a drug-related crime. The rest are Indonesians.
Ritonga, however, denied reports that premeditated murder convict Gunawan Santosa was among the criminals who would soon face a firing squad.
"(Gunawan) is still appealing," Ritonga said.
Also, the execution of three members of an Australian drug ring known as the "Bali Nine" was still hanging in the balance due to their case review appeal, Ritonga said.
The executions will take place on Nusakambangan Island, where several maximum security prisons are located and where the three Bali bombers were executed early this month. -- JP
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Burma democracy activists sentenced to 65 years in prison.
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Today the regime sentenced 14 leading democracy activists in Burma to 65 years in prison.
If they are forced to serve their full terms, they will die in jail. The sentences were handed down at around 1pm,
behind closed doors in Insein prison special court in Rangoon. Family members were not allowed to attend the hearing.
The sentences today relate to only five charges. They are all charged with a total of 21 charges and face further
sentences as their trials continue.
Those sentenced are all prominent members of the 88 Generation Students group, which led the peaceful demonstrations last September.
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Aussie man jailed in Thailand over tourist's murder
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Aussie man jailed in Thailand over tourist's murder
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A 60-year-old Australian man has been sentenced to jail in Thailand for the murder of an American tourist earlier this year.
William Thomas Douglas will serve two years and nine months for killing Gary Poretsky of Hawaii in March.
The pair had been drinking at a restaurant in the northern city of Chiang Mai and in the early hours of the morning, got into an argument.
Douglas took out a gun and shot Poretsky dead.
He was initially sentenced to five and a half years in prison, but the court reduced his term because he confessed.
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Rachel Diaz Case Update - Nov 10 2008
Trying to keep the wolves from the door
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Well the $10,000 dollars that was generously donated by Hong Kong businessman, Mr. Rockowitz, was paid to the Australian Government [NSW] as the compulsory prisoner transfer fee. The Diaz family fully expected Rachel to be transferred back to Australia within a matter of weeks. It seemed as if their prayers had finally been answered. Unfortunately they were informed that the transfer would be delayed, possibly for a further three months, due to administrative staff changes in Hong Kong.
Given that Rachel is not a celebrity, there is no way of pushing her transfer forward. Neither she or her family have the key ingredients that would otherwise see them all reunited this Christmas; a public profile, a big shot lawyer coupled with strong support from an Australian Government willing to intercede, and a significant amount of human and financial resources to push the process to a successful conclusion.
Just when things couldn't get any worse for this struggling Sydney family, they are hit with more terrible news. Mr. Diaz's salary is being subjected, in part, to a garnisheed order due to his failure to repay his credit card debt of several thousand dollars accrued over the last three years of his daughter's detainment. Mr. Diaz has offered to repay the debt by installments but the debt collection is already in motion and begins at his next pay day, leaving him and his family with only $300 per week to survive on.
"This is an impossible situation. Mr. Diaz is really struggling" says Martin Hodgson, senior advocate for the Foreign Prisoner Support Service. "The family is hurting badly at the moment and has been for the last three years since their nightmare began!"
Foreign Prisoner Support Service advocates are working to engage a lawyer to assist Mr. Diaz 'free of charge' and the aim is to get a stay in the order to seize salary.
"Time is the biggest difficulty we face because everything has to be done like yesterday! Second to the problem of funding" says family advocate Kay Danes. "I've been with this family ever since their ordeal began [2005] and I'm amazed by their endurance... but I fear this burden will overcome them at some point. I really worry for Mr. Diaz.... it's a wonder he hasn't had a nervous breakdown by now!"
With Christmas approaching the Diaz family will have very little cause for celebration unless a miracle happens. Rachel's two young brothers seem certain to face yet another festive season without the usual trappings on their family Christmas tree. Times are tough and this decent family is paying a very high price that makes every day a living hell.
If you would like to offer any support to the Diaz family please contact us or send your support directly!
Campaign for Rachel Diaz
The Diaz Family
P.O Box 158
Panania NSW 2213
Australia
Click Here for full story
Hong Kong Business man comes to the rescue
No jail swaps if family don't pay
Cost crushes young prisoner's hope of transfer to Australia
Rachel Diaz admitted to hospital in Hong Kong
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No jail swaps if family don't pay
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THE NSW Government is charging traumatised families thousands of dollars to bring convicted relatives back to Australia - a cost-recovery measure that has infuriated the Rudd Government.
Under the NSW prisoner transfer policy, the families of people convicted overseas who want to serve the remainder of their jail terms in a state prison must pay for a police escort's airfare and accommodation.
The parents of convicted drug smuggler Rachel Diaz, a 20-year-old Australian jailed in Hong Kong, are among those who cannot afford the $10,043 charge to bring their daughter home to serve the rest of her jail sentence in Sydney.
Click Here for full story
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High flyer who ended up in jail
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Fake licence: Brian Burgess |
BRIAN Burgess came to Australia under the British Boy's Movement for Australia aged 17 in 1969.
His first job was as a labourer and his second as a bank teller.
He then he got a job with Ansett reservations and was promoted through the ranks.
He was office manager of a new Ansett office in Sydney before becoming Australian sales manager of Continental Airlines.
After this he bought a travel agency, which he sold for $500,000, and went into the property market.
This was short-lived when the recession hit and the bank foreclosed on a loan.
In his early 40s, Burgess became depressed, began drinking, became bulimic and a cocaine user and fell into debt, losing his $1.7 million home.
He saw importing cocaine as a way out, and in 1996 he pleaded guilty to importing 2kg of cocaine with a street value of $656,000 and was sentenced to four years in prison.
An international human rights group threatened to take the Federal Government to the European Court of Human Rights over his deportation to Britain.
Click Here for full story
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Brit Gets 4 Years in Dubai Prison For Speck of Pot Smaller Than a Sugar Grain on His Shoe
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West Midlands youth worker Keith Brown has received a four-year jail term in Dubai for a piece of cannabis found on the bottom of his shoe so small that it can't be seen with the naked eye. He was returning from Ethiopia where he has family and land.
Another man has awaited sentencing since November for a similar amount of cannabis. The UAE's zero-tolerance drug laws have also jailed a Swiss man who customs officials found with three poppy seeds that fell off a bread roll at Heathrow Airport.
Another man was arrested for melatonin supplements used for jet lag. Fair Trials International said last night that extreme caution should be used for those traveling to Abu Dhabi or Dubai, who note that cases like these have soared in recent months.
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British pair face three months in Dubai jail for drunken sex on luxury hotel beach
A British couple were sentenced to three months in prison yesterday after being found guilty of having sex on a Dubai beach following a champagne-fuelled brunch.
Vince Acors, 34, of Bromley, south-east London, and Michelle Palmer, 36, of Oakham, Rutland, were also fined 1,000 dirhams (£155) and will be deported after serving their sentences. They have 15 days to appeal.
The sentences were shorter than the maximum tariff of two years, and were described as lenient by prosecutors. But they are likely to cast a pall, at least temporarily, over Dubai's Friday brunches, which are attended by thousands of expats and have become a routine way of starting the weekend. Just as Dubai's Muslims head to the mosque for Friday prayers, beachfront hotels lay on "all you can eat and drink" spreads for a fixed price.
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Aussie arrested in Bali refusing help
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A 37-year-old NSW man has been arrested in Bali on charges of possessing heroin and marijuana.
Shane Demos was arrested on Tuesday morning in the Seminyak nightclub district, with police allegedly finding a packet of heroin and another of marijuana.
It is believed neither drug was in sufficient quantity to justify charges of drug dealing which carries a death sentence under Indonesian law.
Mr Demos has refused consular support from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, though a spokesperson confirmed they were ready to help should he change his mind.
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Aussie detained, questioned in Bali
Australian man arrested for heroin, marijuana in Bali
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Narcotics Prison to Be Built in Bangli
US$1 Million Set Aside to Build Facility to Move Drug Offenders Out of Bali's Kerobokan Prison.
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(9/20/2008) NusaBali reports that a custom-built penitentiary for convicted narcotic offenders will soon be constructed on a 2 hectare site in Bangli starting in 2009.
To be built in close proximity to Bangli's current mental health asylum, an allocation of Rp. 9 billion (US$1 million) has been set aside to construct a prison to help house the 400 narcotics offender now imprisoned at Bali's Kerobokan prison. Those convicted of narcotic offenses represent more than half of the current inmates in Bali's main prison.
While little details are available on the new prison, government officials say they are intentionally placing the new prison in a location near Bali's main mental health facility. Those officials hope easy access to the mental health facility will assist jailers in their efforts to rehabilitate convicted drug users.
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Priest relives firing squad deaths for court
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THE fate facing condemned Australian drug smugglers and the three Bali bombers was played out in grisly detail as the court hearing the bombers' death penalty challenge was yesterday given a firsthand account of an Indonesian firing squad.
A Catholic priest, Charlie Burrows, softly echoed the moans of the two Nigerian drug traffickers as their lifeblood ebbed away near midnight on June 26.
"They were moaning again and again for seven minutes," he told Indonesia's Constitutional Court. "I think it is cruel, the torture."
Desperate to provide some sort of consolation, Father Burrows sang Amazing Grace as the pair slowly died from their bullet wounds. They were pronounced dead 10 minutes after being shot.
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Lao officials attempt discreet visit to Hmong refugees held at Nong Khai IDC
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On September 16, four plainclothes Lao officials arrived at Nong Khai IDC trying to get access to the 158 Hmong refugees still being held there. Two of the officials happened to be ethnic Hmong and were able to question one elderly refugee before being asked to leave by Thai prison authorities.
The plainclothes Lao officials questioned the old man in his native Hmong language, asking him where he came from and why he lived in the jungle. They asked him where his wife and children were currently living and what the Thai authorities had told the Hmong refugees regarding prospects of their future.
These types of sneaky visits by Lao officials have been an ongoing problem for the Hmong refugees. On past occasions, Lao officials have been allowed free access to the Hmong and even brought up to their second floor cells. They’ve even been allowed to photograph and freely question the Hmong refugees.
On the other hand, UNHCR, western diplomats, human rights groups, and journalists have all been forbidden access to these Hmong. This obvious double standard has enraged the Hmong refugees, who feel they have absolutely no recourse to justice.
Meanwhile, just days earlier on September 11, the Lao government had invited a high-level Thai military delegation to visit Ban Pha Lak, the highly promoted Hmong returnee village. Whisked in by Lao military helicopter, Thai officials and some invited local news media were carefully escorted through the village by the Lao government appointed village chief. Not a jungle returnee himself, but rather a long-time trusted communist official posted there, he painted a very positve view on the progress of this new settlement site and how happy the Hmong returnees were.
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Hmong refugee drama in the North
Update: More Hmong refugees deported to Laos
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Australian charged with insulting Thai royals
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Thailand's King Bhumipol Adulyadej and his family are revered, and insults are punishable by jail terms. [Reuters]
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A Melbourne man has been arrested in Thailand for allegedly insulting the royal family.
South East Asia Correspondent Karen Percy reports Thai immigration authorities detained Harry Nicolaides on an outstanding arrest warrant as he arrived at Bangkok's international airport on Sunday night.
Mr Nicolaides published a book in 2005 which mentions members of the Thai royal family.
He based his book on travels and working in Thailand for several years from 2003.
He has yet to face the court and is currently in the Bangkok Remand prison.
If found guilty, he faces three to 15 years in jail.
While foreigners have been jailed in the past under Thailand's tough lese majesty laws, King Bhumipol Adulyadej has generally pardoned them.
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Let me say sorry, pleads man who dissed the king
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Bank freeze hypocritical: bandit
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Life story: David Everett's book. |
David Everett, the former SAS soldier turned violent criminal who has become one of the first targets of tough new rules to prevent criminals profiting from their crimes, has accused authorities of unfairly singling him out for special treatment.
WA Director of Public Prosecutions Robert Cock last month won the right to freeze Mr Everett's bank accounts and confiscate his property to stop him benefiting from his new memoir, Shadow Warrior.
But Mr Everett claimed yesterday he made no money from the book, and that he had not been served with the correct papers to contest the ruling.
He now faces losing his property outright if he does not meet a 28-day deadline to appeal, the papers for which have not yet been delivered from the WA DPP to his Canberra home. The first he knew of the action was when he was refused money at a bank on Wednesday last week, leaving him unable to buy medication for a recent foot operation, he told The llst Australian.
He is now relying on military pension payments.
Mr Everett spent a decade in jail after leaving the SAS and embarking on a spree of robberies and kidnappings in the 1990s.
He said he did not receive royalties from Penguin for Shadow Warrior, and that he donated all money from publicity appearances to charities to aid military veterans and the Karen people of Burma.
"They have frozen my life, not seized book profits - there aren't any to seize," he said. "A simple call to the publishers would have cleared it all up. I have no contract with them, I haven't signed anything."
Mr Everett also asked why other former WA criminals - such as convicted fraudsters Alan Bond and George Brownrigg, both of whom have published memoirs - have not received the same treatment. "These blokes haven't been touched. If you've got a law in place everybody should be subject to it," he said. "It appears to be a selective process of hanging me out for special treatment."
"I have no difficulty with the principle that people should not profit from their crimes."
But he said authorities should "do a bit of simple investigation before they just freeze the income of a pensioner".
Mr Cock refused to comment on other potential cases, but said a police investigation was under way to determine how much money Mr Everett had made from the book.
The procedure was to freeze assets if the Supreme Court believed there was reasonable suspicion a former criminal was profiting from past crimes. If Mr Everett was not making royalties from the book, those details would be established in due course, Mr Cock said.
Click Here for full story
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Tourists become prisoners dut to their own ignorance
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Kerobokan Prison
Schapelle Corby
Kay Danes
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IT'S hardly a typical holiday postcard scene. Vertical metal bars interrupt views of shiny silver razor wire. Any tempting smell of local cuisine is replaced by the stench of sewage. The cool, clear ocean is far removed from these scummy washbuckets.
This is life in Bali's notorious Kerobokan Prison, a nightmare destination not featured in any travel brochure.
But each year, Australian tourists and expatriates find themselves shut in the world's prisons.
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade figures show 206 Australians were in foreign jails as of August 10, and another 114 were awaiting trial.
Kay Danes, who lives at Wellington Point in Brisbane, is a family advocate with the Foreign Prisoners Support Service, which provides assistance to prisoners and their families.
It is a cause close to her heart. She and husband Kerry Danes were wrongfully accused of embezzlement and were facing seven years in a Laos jail before being cleared in 2001 and released.
Ms Danes has since devoted her time to assisting Australians in foreign prisons.
She said that while Australian travellers had learnt a lot from recent, high-profile drug cases, there would always be someone who would risk everything for a few dollars or a free trip.
"Whether you believe Schapelle Corby or not, whether she put the cannabis in her bag or not, it would be very hard to prove," she said.
"Australians really have no protection when they leave the country.
"Bag weights aren't recorded, so if anything is added to your bag, there really is no way of proving it.
"We now have a generation of youngsters with passports, who want to travel but can be quite naive and get into trouble, sometimes through no fault of their own."
Corby, 31, from the Gold Coast, is arguably Australia's most notable foreign prisoner. Indonesian judges convicted her of trying to smuggle 4.2kg of cannabis into Bali in 2004.
Throughout her trial and appeal, the former beauty therapist maintained her innocence, saying she had been unaware of the drugs in her boogie board bag. Her pleas were unsuccessful and she is not due for release from Kerobokan Prison until 2024.
Ms Danes, who is in regular contact with Australians jailed overseas, including Corby, said travellers were often ignorant of the laws and potential sentences for crimes committed on foreign soil.
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Judge delays execution of condemned Texas inmate
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A federal judge delayed the planned execution of an inmate Thursday pending an evaluation to determine if the inmate is able to understand why he is to be put to death.
Jeffery Wood was to have been executed Thursday evening for taking part in the 1996 robbery of a convenience store in which a clerk was fatally shot.
But U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia in San Antonio granted a request by Wood's attorneys to delay his execution so they could hire a mental health expert to pursue their arguments that he is incompetent to be executed. Texas courts had previously refused similar appeals.
Wood's "motion presents non-frivolous arguments suggesting (he) currently lacks a rational understanding of the connection between his role in his offense and the punishment imposed upon him," Garcia wrote in his order.
While Garcia wrote that the evidence was far from compelling, there were enough facts to conclude Wood had made a "substantial threshold showing of insanity."
Garcia wrote that his decision was based on the state trial court's refusal to afford Wood fundamental due process protections mandated by the U.S. Supreme Court's 2007 decision, which blocked the execution of a mentally ill Texas murderer because lower courts failed to consider whether he had a rational understanding of why he was to be killed.
Wood's attorneys say he suffers from paranoia and delusions, but the state does not recognize he suffers from mental illness.
"We applaud the (court) for upholding Jeff Wood's rudimentary due process right to have his competency evaluated," said Andrea Keilen, executive director of Texas Defender Service, a legal group also representing Wood.
Click Here for full story
Jesff Wood Case Informaiton
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Barred from jail time at home
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New Zealander Glenn McIsaac is serving his sentence for smuggling P in Tokyo's Fuchu Prison.
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They are the country's least desirable exports: New Zealanders who commit crime overseas. And they are winding up in foreign prisons in ever-increasing numbers - around 751 at last count, compared with 599 three years ago.
Most are in Australia, where many are residents. But at least 45 others are in 13 different countries. And that is where they are destined to remain because New Zealand refuses to sign an international treaty for the transfer of prisoners.
This stand is revealed in a campaign being waged by Glenn McIsaac from behind bars in Japan's oldest jail.
In September 2004, McIsaac was caught smuggling 1.5kg of crystal methamphetamine or P - a quantity worth around $1.5 million on the streets here - into Japan. He claimed he was the mule in a trafficking operation that involved buying the drug in Malaysia, then flying it to Japan.
The plan came unstuck at Tokyo's Narita Airport. The 30-year-old was nervous and it showed. His pallor caught the eye of a female Customs officer, who asked him if he was unwell. When she told him to open a bag, McIsaac knew he'd been caught.
Half a kilogram of P was found inside the bag's retractable handle compartment. The rest was in a second case, hidden inside a tacky tourist souvenir, two candles, and the speaker of a child's talking book.
Four months later, he pleaded guilty before a panel of three Japanese judges. His trial lasted an hour, and he was sentenced to seven and a half years behind bars.
Today he is one of more than 3000 inmates at Fuchu prison, Japan's largest and oldest jail, in west Tokyo. He is in a three-storey wing that holds most of Japan's foreign prisoners, including seven other New Zealanders.
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Three Australians arrested over heroin haul
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THREE Australians have been arrested in Hanoi for allegedly trafficking around 2kg of heroin.
The three were arrested at Ho Chi Minh City airport yesterday, according to a report in Vietnam's Cong An Nhan Dan (People's Police) newspaper.
The suspects, who are of Vietnamese origins, were not named, nor did the report say what flight, or flights, they had intended to board.
Police in the communist country also confiscated $10,000 and six mobile telephones, the report said.
Vietnam is considered a major trafficking hub for the heroin trade, including to Australia.
Just last week, Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith used a visit to Vietnam to urge the country to spare two Australians sentenced to death for drug-trafficking.
Mr Smith said he had received assurances from Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung that the Government was giving "careful and proper" consideration to appeals for clemency made by the two.
Jasmine Luong, 34, of Sydney, was sentenced to death on appeal in March after police found 1.4kg of heroin hidden in her shoes and luggage as she prepared to board a flight home from Ho Chi Minh City last year.
Tony Manh, 40, of New South Wales, was sentenced to death in September 2007 after he was arrested with just under 1kg of heroin hidden on his body as he too tried to board a plane to Sydney from the same airport last year.
Several Australians of Vietnamese origin have been arrested in recent months for suspected drug trafficking.
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Australian arrested in Vietnam for heroin trafficking
Vietnam law commission wants death penalty for fewer crimes
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A Nightmare of his own Making...
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Photo Right: Randy Sachs, Canada. [Pictured middle]
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Randy Sachs from Hamilton Ontario [Canada] turned 31 years old this year and unless he is granted Clemency from the Vietnam President, he will have to face another decade in a nightmare of his own making before finally being allowed to return home to family and friends.
In May 2003, Randy Sachs was arrested with 1000 pills of ecstasy in his possession. Caught 'Red handed' there's no denying that he broke the law and deserves to be punished. Even Randy himself admits that he was foolish to risk his life for easy cash. His friends say he let himself down, that he brought a great deal of shame on his family who were horrified when told the news of his arrest. They were then politely asked by authorities to pay for the body bag prior to his pending execution. Vietnamese authorities later commuted his sentence of death to the lesser charge of 16 years for drug possession.
Now 5 years on, Randy Sachs is presently housed in North Vietnam's Thanh Xuan Detention Centre, the only prison in the north of the country that has a strong focus on re-educating foreign prisoners. There are of course, hundreds of Asian and Western prisoners in the Thanh Xuan Detention but the conditions are considered better there than elsewhere in the country.
This year's Tet Festival or Vietnamese Lunar New Year was celebrated in Thanh Xuan prison. A time for family reunions, commemoration of ancestors, harmony and exchange of best wishes, special food, new clothes, new beginnings and other festive activities. Dozens of prisoners in Thanh Xuan prison had dressed in striped uniforms and made themselves busy by preparing meat and pork pies in anticipation of the celebration. In the middle of the activity stood Randy Sachs, eager to catch a 100kg pig by himself.
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Randy Sachs Campaign Page
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Mercenary jailed 34 years for coup plot
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A FORMER British commando who traded a privileged upbringing for life as a gun for hire will spend three decades in an "infamous" African jail for his role in a foiled coup plot in Equatorial Guinea.
Simon Mann - described as a "man who had everything" - gambled it all on catching the country's presidential guards by surprise. Instead his plane packed with mercenaries never left the tarmac in Zimbabwe, where they were trying to pick up enough weapons to take over a country.
Mann comes from a famous family of British brewers and cricket captains and attended Eton College and Sandhurst military academy, where princes William and Harry have also been schooled in the ways of the English upper class.
He has seven children at home in England, the youngest of which he has never met - and will not meet anytime soon. Mann has been sentenced to 34 years and four months behind bars in a prison reputedly well known for its brutality.
Mann, 55, was said to have been the brains of the coup plot. He and his co-accused, Lebanese-born Mohamed Salaami, who received an 18-year sentence, had both said during their trial that they were sorry for their parts in it.
After the sentence was handed down, Mann told a British TV crew he did not know if he was allowed to appeal against it. "I don't know how it works here. Maybe you can appeal, I don't know," he said.
However he seemed to be accepting his fate and preparing for a long stretch in prison: "I'll just have to push it. At least I know now I can push it, after four years in Zimbabwe," he said. Mann spent four years in a Zimbabwean prison awaiting extradition to Equatorial Guinea.
Britain's Times Online described the jail where Mann will serve his sentence as being one of Africa's most infamous. It described the Zimbabwean jail as being "equally notorious".
Click Here for Complete Story
Mann gets 34 years
Simon Mann jailed for 34 years for Equatorial Guinea coup plot
Mann sings in E Guinea coup trial
British mercenary goes on trial over EGuinea coup plot
Equatorial Guinea - The Mercenary Confesses
Drama, farce at Simon Mann coup trial
Mercenary Simon Mann's path from Eton to an African jail
Simon Mann Case Information
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Australia asks Vietnam for clemency for 2 Australians convicted of drug trafficking
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HANOI, Vietnam: Australia urged Vietnam on Wednesday to spare two Australians convicted of drug trafficking from the firing squad.
Visiting Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said he received assurances from Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung that the government was giving "careful and proper" consideration to appeals for clemency made by two Australian citizens of Vietnamese origin on death row for drug trafficking.
"I've made the point that Australia supports those bids of clemency," Smith said.
Jasmine Luong, 34, of Sydney, was sentenced to death on appeal in March after police found 3 pounds (1.4 kilograms) of heroin hidden in her shoes and luggage as she prepared to board a flight home from Ho Chi Minh City last year.
Tony Manh, 40, of New South Wales state was sentenced to death in September 2007 after he was arrested with 2 pounds (0.948 kilograms) of heroin hidden on his body as he too tried to board a plane to Sydney from the same airport last year.
At least four Vietnamese-Australians convicted of drug trafficking have had their death sentences commuted following requests from the Australian government, which banned the death penalty in 1973. Vietnam has not executed any Australians for drug offenses.
Several Vietnamese-Australians have been arrested in recent months for suspected drug trafficking, including three accused of trying to smuggle heroin onto airplanes.
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Drug trade leads to ban on prison gifts
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The Corrections Department has decided to ban gifts delivered in person or by mail to inmates in its latest bid to counter the drugs trade in prisons.
The move comes after corrections officials found drugs in toothpaste, curry and even dead toads thrown over prison walls.
Department chief Wanchai Rujanawong said drug trafficking into jails had become more elaborate, but each prison had only two staff to screen gifts.
Since early this year, corrections staff have intercepted drugs stuffed in basic necessities, such as toothpaste and baby powder, sent to prisoners. Drugs were also found hidden inside thaepoh pork curry (speed pills hidden in straws inserted inside the morning glory stalks) and inside fried eggs.
Some people even removed the insides from dead toads, replaced the organs with packets of methamphetamine, and then tossed them over the prison walls.
Therefore, gifts and postal packages would no longer be allowed, Mr Wanchai said.
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Vietnam heroin charges for Victorian woman
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A VICTORIAN woman has been arrested in southern Vietnam after she collapsed with heroin in her stomach, state media reported.
Tran Thi Ngoc Dung, 35, was leaving her hotel in Ho Chi Minh City on her way to a flight home on Sunday when she fell unconscious and was rushed to hospital, Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper said.
Doctors found she had two condoms full of heroin in her stomach and one of them had burst, the paper said.
Ms Dung was still in the hospital but had been put under arrest.
It was unclear how much heroin she was carrying.
Vietnam has some of the world's harshest drug laws.
Possession of 600g or more of heroin is punishable by death.
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Viet-Aust woman busted for attempted heroin smuggling
Australian drug mule 'stopped breathing'
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Indonesia executes Nigerian drug traffickers: official
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Drugs are destroyed in Jakarta |
JAKARTA (AFP) — Two Nigerian drug traffickers were executed by firing squad early Friday in Indonesia, an official said.
"A firing squad of 12 people executed them in an outdoor area some three kilometres away from their prison," provincial prisons chief Bambang Winahyo told AFP.
He said the execution was carried out just after midnight near Nusakambangan island prison in central Java.
Samuel Iwachekwu Okeye and Hansen Anthoni Nwaoysa were caught smuggling some seven kilogrammes (15.4 pounds) of heroin into the country through Soekarno Hatta airport in 2001.
Their requests for clemency from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono were rejected in 2004.
Winahyo said the Nigerian embassy had asked Indonesia to take care of their burial.
The last person to be executed for a drug offence in Indonesia was an Indian national in 2004.
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Planned execution of Nigerian convicts incites riot in Nusakambangan prison
Drug convicts' execution needs acceleration: Police Chief
Indonesia shoots two drug smugglersBy Karen Michelmore in Jakarta
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Drug traffickers get long prison terms
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VietNamNet Bridge - Seven people were found guilty of drug trafficking by a HCM City court yesterday, and sentenced from seven to 22 years in jail.
Nguyen Tuan Khanh (first from the left) and his accomplices at the court (Photo: VNE)
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Nguyen Tuan Khanh, 49, the head of the ring,received 22 years on charges of illegally storing and trafficking drugs. He is an Australian national.
The HCM City People’s Court gave Vu Quang Anh, a 32-year-old resident from Hai Phong, an 18 year jail term for drug trafficking.
Five other members of the drug ring were convicted of the same charge. Tran Thanh Tuan, a 29-year-old resident of HCM City’s District 7, was sentenced to 9 years in jail. Nguyen Hoang Hung, 38, of Nha Be District and Pham Doan Dang Vinh, 25, of Tan Phu District received 8 years imprisonment each; while Phan Duc Tai, 39, of District 8 and Luu Trung Dung, 35, of Tan Phu District received 7 year jail terms.
According to the court verdict, between October 2006 and March 2007, Khanh led an organisation that supplied HCM City bars and dance clubs with drugs. Khanh gave Anh 3,450 pills of amphetamines and over 45 grammes of ketamine, and sold 250 pills of amphetamines to Vinh.
Anh and Vinh then sold the drugs to Dung, Hung, Tuan and Tai.
According to documents provided by Australian police, Khanh was reportedly involved in smuggling 440 grammes of ephedrine from Viet Nam to Australia.
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Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City police burdened with drug busts
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Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention extended
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Yesterday, the regime extended Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention again.
No formal announcement was made, but reports say the detention is for at least another six months.
She has now spent over 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest. Her current period of house arrest began in 2003.
The regime is once again breaking its own laws by extending her detention for a total of more than five years.
The State Protection Law 1975, under which she is held, only allows the regime to detain her for a maximum of five years. Around 20 members of the National League for Democracy were also arrested yesterday as they marched to her home to call for her release.
Even though UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon was in Burma in the run-up to Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention expiring, he did not call on Burma’s generals to release her. In fact, he didn’t even mention her name. The international community is failing to put pressure on the regime because it is afraid it will affect aid deals. However, the current humanitarian crisis is being caused by a political problem, a dictatorship that refuses to allow aid to reach the people and Aung San Suu Kyi is key to solving that political problem.
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UK Citizen Michael Newman dies in Lao Prison.
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Michael Newman Phonthong Prison Feb 2007. Copyright FPSS. This photograph is subject to copyright and not to be copied or used elsewhere without written permission from FPSS.
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UK Citizen Michael Newman was found dead in his prison cell this morning where he was detained in the squalid conditions of Phonthong Prison, Laos. His Thai wife Jeab has been notified as has his family in the UK.
Friends who kept in touch with Mike said they believed he suffered terribly in the Laos jail where human rights are practically non-existent. He battled depression and constant sickness to which he was denied proper medical treatment and care.
FPSS advocates had been campaigning for Michael Newman's repatriation to the UK for several years. They have repeatedly requested the UK Government to urgently negotiate a prisoner transfer agreement that would allow its citizens detained in Laos, Vietnam and other Asian countries, to be repatriated to correctional facilities in the UK. FPSS has issued numerous warnings to the UK Government and others about the fatal conditions inside Phonthong Prison Laos where foreigners and political prisoners are
systematically tortured and ill-treated.
The UK Embassy has endeavoured to expediate the Laos- UK Prisoner Transfer Agreement with very little success.
Many human rights activists believe that Michael Newman died needlessly. He had endured years of mental anguish and suffered everyday of his life in Phonthong Prison. Some would say that he got what he deserved. Others would argue that he was only human and like many humans, prone to mistakes. At the end of the day, he paid the ultimate price with his life.
Who will mourn Michael Newman? Those who witnessed his death will mourn him.. They shouted to police to come and assist but no one came. Life is cheap in Phonthong prison and Michael was after all, a criminal. The saddest reality of all is that his passing won't matter to those who didn't know him or care. But it will to those who believed that despite his past mistakes, he still deserved to live with some dignity at least.
'Mike once told me that he was grateful that we [FPSS] had tried to help him get back to England. He also said he didn't know how much longer he could hang on waiting for that day' said Kay Danes, advocate for FPSS and former political prisoner of Laos. 'I know the Embassy staff tried to do what they could to help him but unfortunately, it was never enough.'
Fellow UK prisoner, John Watson, remains in Phonthong prison on a life sentence for drug related offences. John met with his Embassy outside the Lao prison on the day Michael Newman's body was removed. He was deeply distressed and angry that his fellow countryman had died despite numerous appeals for help. Watson begged the Embassy to assist him in his own plea to be repatriated to the UK.
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Laos Jail Death - 'boiler room' boss dies
Michael Newman [UK] Case Information
John Watson [UK] Case Information
Phonthong Prison Information
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India to repatriate ill UK inmate
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Tihar jail is India's largest prison
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A seriously ill Briton serving a jail term for drugs offences in a notorious Indian prison is to see out his 10-year sentence in the UK, officials say.
Stephen Jenkins, 58, from Yorkshire, is being held in Delhi's crowded Tihar jail after being convicted in 2006.
Prison officials say he wants to die in his homeland. The UK says arrangements for his transfer are nearly complete.
Jenkins will be among the first inmates to benefit under a 2005 India-UK accord on prisoner transfers.
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US Supreme Court Dances with the Thought of Killing Capital Punishment
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Last week's decision of the United States Supreme Court to uphold, by a 7-2 majority, the State of Kentucky's three drug cocktail lethal injection protocol has been reported in some quarters as a green light for executions. While the case has caused a moratorium on executions that has lasted since last September to come to an end in some States, its long term significance may be more associated with strengthening the movement to render all executions in the United States in breach of the Eighth Amendment and, thereby, unconstitutional.
At issue in the case was the question whether using a three drug cocktail without safeguards to ensure the unconsciousness of the prisoner from the administration of the first drug, sodium thiopental, created such a risk of a painful death as to amount to a cruel and unusual punishment. The medical evidence in the case indicated that, if sodium thiopental did not produce a sufficient level of unconsciousness, the second drug, pancuronium bromide (used to produce paralysis) and the third drug, potassium chloride (intended to stop the heart) would produce excruciating pain in circumstances where witnesses to the execution would be completely unaware of this occurring and the paralysed prisoner would be unable to communicate his or her circumstances.
Although the majority in favour of not disturbing Kentucky's protocol was 7-2, these numbers hide an important sub-text of the decision. The lead judgment was written by Chief Justice John Roberts, a George Bush appointee and considered part of the more conservative wing, and was joined in by two other judges, Justices Anthony Kennedy and Samuel Alito. The judgment is framed against the assumption based on past decisions that capital punishment is constitutional and does not stray outside consideration of the precise question before the Court. The key conclusion is expressed in the following terms:
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Death Penalty Information
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Amb. To Laos: U.S. Working To Find Missing Men
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The U.S. ambassador to Laos said Wednesday that he is working with Laotian officials to
find three St. Paul men who went missing while touring in Laos in August, reportedly at the hands of the Laotian military.
"We have not been successful in finding them at this point, but we are pursuing the issue and working with Laotian officials," Ambassador Ravic R. Huso said during a tour of The International Marketplace, a cluster of Hmong shops just north of the state Capitol.
Last August, the families of Hakit Yang, Conghineng Yang and Trillion Yunhaison reported
that the men had gone missing after traveling to Laos to sight-see and pursue business opportunities.
Hmong advocacy groups claimed the men were arrested by Laotian military and security forces,
though the government of Laos has denied that allegation.
Huso, appointed by President Bush eight months ago, traveled to St. Paul to meet with refugees who have made
St. Paul one of the largest Hmong enclaves in the United States. As many as 60,000 Hmong, many of whom fled
Laos in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, have built lives here while remaining closely tied to their homeland.
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Toddlers live behind prison bars / In Mexico City, female inmates can keep their children with them up to age 6
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Victoria Jaramillo, 40, holding her 3-month-old daughter, Frida,
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The increased activity of women participating in drug dealing has increased dramaticaly in the last
two decades and so has the percentage of young children living with them in jail.
They lack proper pediatric, nutricion and psychological attention besides the adecuate conditions for their physical,
mental, spiritual, moral and social growth.
I had the opportunity to visit the prison in the city of La Paz and meet and visit four women living inside
a small cell with 4 bunkbeds, a stove and kitchen utenlils all crowded together with their personal belongings,
in this case with 2 small children.
The motive of my visit was to assist my friend Dr. Lourdez Gonzalez Aleman who was doing medical volunteer
work there at the time.
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Mexican Prison Information
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The Killing Fields of Laos
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On February 8, 2008 Radio Free Asia reported the Lao government had stepped up it's efforts to exterminate the Secret War Veterans and their families still hiding in the mountains. The LPDR given "shoot to kill" orders to it's military, and has offered a bounty of 6,000,000 Kip ($600 US), promotions, and membership in the communist party, for the bodies of Hmong still in the remote jungles. In an apparent effort to prevent reports of atrocities Laos has solicited the help of Vietnam to use high-tech devises to detect the location of satellite phones that have been furnished to the groups in hiding by the Fact Finding Commission.
Radio Free Asia's report can be seen: here
The Fact Finding Commission continues to receive reports from the jungles of Laos of the attacks by the Lao Military. The follow report was received on February 12, 2008:
Nou Ma Chang and Chia Xang Yang from the jungles of Laos reported from January 15, 2008 to February 10, 2008, there had been a total of 71 deaths altogether. 22 of died from being attacked by the Lao military forces. 49 died because of starvation. Those that died are as follows:
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Campaign For Hilltribe Prisoners In Thailand
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Since the military coup in Thailand on 19th September 2006 the newly installed regime has lost no time in digging out corruption in the ousted government of Thaksin Shinawatra. Evidence of corruption has not been hard to find, thus providing some justification for the coup. Ex-Prime Minister, and former policeman, Thaksin, now a wanted man in Thailand and on the run, has found sanctuary in the U.K. and in Singapore where he has business dealings. Meanwhile, his associates, cronies, officials and police in Thailand are being investigated and arrested for corruption.
Thaksin's ruthless war on drugs in recent years, with well over 2,000 killings, many of them extra-judicial killings by Thai police in which many hilltribe people lost their lives or were imprisoned, is one area where the police involved face prosecution. Drugs cases make up a lion's share of about 80% of Thailand's prison population, currently put at about 160,000 by the Department of Corrections. The U.K. has a similar population to Thailand at roughly 60 million, but with only half as many prisoners as Thailand the U.K.'s prison system is creaking at full capacity. Thai officials and other commentators have for years said that 20% or more of prisoners in Thailand are innocent, many of them victims of corrupt police and other officials. Hilltribe people are soft victims. While they comprise less than 2% of the official Thai population, they make up a far larger proportion of the Thai prison population, with estimates in some institutions of 50% or more hilltribe inmates.
The new, military backed government has made recent efforts to assess and release innocent prisoners. About 8,000 prisoners registered for consideration, out of which 560 were selected for further investigation and possible release. The government is also reported to be considering the release of prisoners who have already served more than 10 years.
The post-coup government obviously realizes that there are serious problems in the justice, police and prison systems that need to be addressed urgently. Deep-seated corruption in these institutions has contributed to the problems Thailand has in the south of the country, as well as to the suffering of hilltribe people in the north. However, recent bombings in Bangkok and the south indicate that the cleaning up of corruption in Thai institutions may not be so easy, and that there is a danger of the country falling back into military dictatorship.
The future of Thailand now hangs in the balance, while history affords little confidence that a clean, functioning, democratic government will emerge. Meanwhile, the King remains very popular and appears as an island of stability in the midst of a troubled state. Having celebrated 60 years on the throne as of 9th June 2006, the King is the longest reigning monarch now living in the world. Prisoners in Thailand are eagerly awaiting the King's 80th birthday on 5th December 2007 in hope for a big amnesty.
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US Military Doctors Infect Guantanamo Detainee with HIV
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US Attorney H. Candace Gorman has revealed that her client Abdul Hamid Al-Ghizzawi has been infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Al Ghizzawi believes the infection happened during medical procedures at Guantanamo in 2004 when he was given a blood test which resulted in alarm amongst the hospital staff. Al Ghizzawi was not given any explanation for the alarm at the time. As a result Al-Ghizzawi has now been told that he is suffering from Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Having already been suffering from Hepatitis B and Tuberculosis (which he also acquired at Guantanamo) Al Ghizzawi has been held in severe isolation in Camp 6.
Gorman filed an emergency application with the US Supreme Court asking that the US military be ordered to treat Al-Ghizzawi's medical problems and for medical records to be turned over to her. Chief Judge Roberts denied the motion despite it being stated by the chief medical doctor at Guantanamo, Dr Sollock, that Al-Ghizzawi did not suffer from any ill health on arrival to the base.
Al-Ghizzawi's health has rapidly deteriorated and Cageprisoners calls for the immediate release of his medical records so that adequate medical treatment can be given to the detainee. Spokesman for Cageprisoners and former Guantanamo detainee, Moazzam Begg said,
"That a man who has endured more than half a decade in the world's most infamous prison - without charge or trial - is now infected with the world's most dreaded disease is preposterous. How will the US administration explain this one to his family? More 'robust interrogation techniques'?"
With Al-Ghizzawi's condition as it is, Candace Gorman made the following plea,
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American freed in Nicaragua goes into hiding
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MANAGUA, Nicaragua (CNN) -- An American man held in a Nicaraguan jail was released Friday and left the country, four days after a court overturned his conviction on charges of murdering his former girlfriend.
Magazine publisher Eric Volz had been sentenced to 30 years.
But Eric Volz "will be in hiding, due to reports of threats against him," his family said in a statement.
"We have reason to believe he is being followed and are taking every precaution to assure his safety."
Volz's family also expressed both enormous relief and worry after his release.
"We are so thankful, so thankful for this gift," his mother said upon arriving in Atlanta, Georgia, from Nicaragua on Friday night. Video Watch Volz's mother describe her feelings »
But Volz is very sick, Maggie Anthony added.
"We're really concerned for his health. And mentally and physically, this past week has been ... just [an] incredible strain on him, on his mind and body," she said.
Volz has kidney stones, according to a family spokeswoman.
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Eric Volz case Informaiton
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Testing time for forgotten prisoners
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MORE than 200 Australians, ranging in age from 16 to 67, will
see in the new year from behind the bars of foreign prison
cells.
There are 213 Australians convicted or awaiting trial on remand
in overseas prisons, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs
and Trade.
Of those, 105 have been sentenced on narcotics charges,
including three aged just 15, 16 and 17 at the time of their
arrests in Hong Kong and Cambodia.
"Some of them are guilty, some of them are innocent, some of
them are missing," said Martin Hodgson, senior advocate for the
Foreign Prisoner Support Service.
Fifty Australians are being held in jails in Europe, 27 in North
Asia, 56 in South-East Asia, six in the Middle East, 30 in North
America, 16 in South America and 27 in the Pacific.
While a handful of cases, such as Schapelle Corby and the Bali
nine, have received publicity, most of those serving time in
foreign prisons never come to public attention.
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Prisoners of conscience unfairly convicted; face possible 10-year prison terms
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Amnesty International today condemned the convictions of two human rights defenders in Ethiopia on charges of provoking and preparing "outrages against the Constitution", saying that the two men are prisoners of conscience arrested solely for their peaceful human rights work. Both have been held in prison since November 2005.
Daniel Bekele and Netsanet Demissie were convicted today by a majority verdict of the Ethiopian Federal High Court after a trial of over two years. The presiding judge dissented from the guilty verdict passed by the other two judges.
They were acquitted of the main charge of committing “outrages against the Constitution”, which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment or death. However, on the basis of certain witnesses’ statements which were strongly contested by the defence, they were convicted on the lesser charge of “provocation and preparation” for the offence, which carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.
Sentencing will take place on 26 December after the prosecution and defence have made their final submissions.
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Thousands of prisoners to be freed or have terms cut
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Some 25,000 prisoners will have their sentences
reduced or be freed, in a move to celebrate His
Majesty the King's 80th birthday.
Some 85 inmates on death row will see their
sentences commuted to life terms, as part of the mass
clemency in honour of the King. They include Dr Wisut
Boonkasemsanti and Major Chalermchai Matchaklam, who
were both found guilty in high profile murder cases.
"This makes merit in dedication of His Majesty and
also gives convicted inmates a chance to reform,"
Corrections Department directorgeneral Wanchai
Roujanavong said yesterday.
Wanchai said many inmates who had behaved well had
had their sentences reduced.
"More than 10,000 convicts will be released," he
said.
Those being released on royal pardons include
inmates with excellent behaviour and whose remaining
sentence is less than two years, those who have less
than a year left to serve and inmates who have lost
their sight or limbs.
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Thailand to free 25,000 prisoners to mark king's birthday
Thai king grants pardons for 10,000 jailbirds
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Mauritius jails Aussie drug runner for 28 years
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An Australian woman has received a 28-year sentence for smuggling heroin worth nearly $1.5 million into Mauritius.
Arrested on arrival from Nairobi in November 2005 with almost 4 kilograms of heroin in her luggage, 52-year-old teacher Susan Dalziel told police she was carrying the packages on behalf of someone else.
She had pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking.
"Having regard to the huge amount of heroin, the manner in which it was hidden and its street value of 40 million Mauritius rupees, I find that she is a trafficker," Judge Paul Lam Shang Leen wrote in his case report.
"I sentence accused to undergo 28 years penal servitude," he wrote, noting that she had been on remand for some two years since the arrest and had no previous criminal record.
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Pardon plea may free teddy teacher
Susan Dalziel case Information
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Former Australian terror suspect reveals torture in prison
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Former Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib has told a court he was tortured in Egypt and Pakistan.
Testifying at the New South Wales Supreme Court, Mr Habib described receiving electric shocks, being beaten and drugged.
He is giving evidence in his defamation case against Nationwide News, the publisher of the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
A jury found an article in February 2005 defamed Mr Habib, by implying he knowingly made false claims about torture.
The hearing will decide if the newspaper has a defence and whether Mr Habib should be awarded damages.
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Habib charges contradictory, records show
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Video of Hmong in Jungle by Roger Arnold
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Roger Arnold, a world renowned photojournalist living in Thailand has been into the jungles of Laos
to film and photograph the remnants of the US Secret War Veterans who are still hiding in the jungles of Laos
(along with their remaining family members).
These Veterans and their families were abandoned by the United States when we left Laos following our Secret War in 1975.
Click Here to view video
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Australia's approving silence on US torture
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Abu Ghraib'Action in the political field should be considered one of the most effective ways of bringing about a more just social order' — Pedro Arrupe SJ.
Prime Minister John Howard and his political rival, Labor leader Kevin Rudd, are offering right leadership and new leadership respectively. But evidently neither corresponds to their electoral pitch. There's been little morally 'right' under Howard's watch and Rudd's 'me-tooism' purports nothing new or decent.
Rudd's recent back flip on Labor policy regarding foreign affairs spokesman Robert McClelland's moral comment on the death penalty is hypocrisy given his self-promoting Christian image — Christ himself was arrested, imprisoned, tortured and the sublime victim of the death penalty. As Pax Christi director, David Robinson, states, 'Christ is being crucified today through the practice of torture.'
Leadership is the present pre-election focus and Australians are challenged to deem what essential human qualities and skills are required to govern well so that as a nation we can walk proud. Rather than pampered politicians, for exemplars I turn to Jesuit Fr Steve Kelly, and Franciscan Fr Louis Vitale, who were sentenced this 17 October to five months imprisonment for trespass at the Army's main interrogation training facility, Fort Huachuca, Arizona.
Fathers Kelly and Vitale's non-violent protest against the practice of torture by US military and intelligence and their subsequent imprisonment went virtually unnoticed by the press. On 19 November 2006, they attempted to give a letter protesting against the practice of torture to the Fort Huachuca commander, Major General Barbara Fast. Fast was formerly the head of intelligence for the US command in Baghdad and in charge of interrogators at Abu Graib where prisoners were physically, psychologically and sexually tortured.
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Aussie facing death in Bali
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Barry Hess: Arrested and charged after police found hashish and marijuana in his Kuta home.
Photo: AFP |
A 50-YEAR-OLD executive from Melbourne could face the death penalty in Bali after prosecutors decided to charge him with trafficking marijuana and hashish.
Barry Hess, a former Ansett executive and general manager of Bali's collapsed airline Air Paradise, was arrested last month after police allegedly found 14.4 grams of hashish and 2.7 grams of marijuana in his Kuta home.
Initially police charged Hess with drug possession, which carries a 10-year sentence.
They claimed Hess admitted buying the drugs for personal use, and said a urine test detected the presence of drugs in his system.
At the opening of his court hearing yesterday, prosecutors announced they were also charging Hess with intending to sell the drugs, upgrading his possible penalty to execution.
They also included several alternative charges, the most lenient that of being a drug addict who had not reported to authorities. Such an offence is punishable by a maximum of six months' jail.
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Melbourne man facing death penalty in Bali
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Danes thanks Downer
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Kay Danes thanks Foreign Minister Alexander Downer (right) for bringing them home. She is pictured with her children (background) and Federal MP Andrew Laming (left).
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Foreign minister Alexander Downer received an emotional welcome from Kay Danes while he was in the Redlands last week.
Kay Danes and her husband Kerry were unlawfully arrested in December 2000 by authorities in Laos, detained in a detention centre
and then sentenced to jail.
Mr Downer and the government worked tirelessly with relevant authorities to bring the Danes' back home,
but had never met the couple in person since their release in November 2001.
IN an interview with the Bayside Weekly, Ms Danes said she was completely 'overjoyed' to finally meet Mr. Downer.
"This is the first time I have met him face to face," she said. "I have been waiting six years to meet him."
The meeting took place at the Icon Bar in Cleveland, where Mr. Downer was meeting with Redlands residents as part of current Federal Member Andrew Laming's re-election campaign.
When introduced, Ms Danes said she asked Mr. Downer if he knew who she was.
"I was just overjoyed, it was very emotional, and I was extremely nervous," she said.
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Kay Danes Website
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Gitmo: America's Black Hole
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I am writing from the Combined Bachelors' Quarters on the leeward side of Guantanamo Bay. Particularly in the age of “don't ask, don't tell,” it is a strange name for a military barracks. Yet the irony of this place runs deep, as does the tragedy. The base motto is “Honor Bound to Defend Freedom,” even though my clients, who are prisoners in the detention center, have none.
I've been here meeting with them this week, but I can't tell you what anyone has told me, as it must all go through the censors. It does not matter that the topic may be as innocuous as Speedo swimwear, for each word is considered a potential threat to national security. (Why would a lawyer talk about Speedos? Because, a few weeks ago, a commander alleged that I smuggled in Speedos and Under Armour underwear to one client, apparently so he could paddle around in the only pool available to him, his privy.)
Most of the secrecy in Guantanamo involves suppressing bad news about the base rather than anything that should really be classified. But I obey the rules or I go to jail, so until I get permission, I can only write about what I see, not what is said.
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Death sentence for Aussie smuggler
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A SYDNEY man was sentenced to death in Vietnam yesterday for trying to smuggle almost a kilogram of heroin to Sydney in his underwear, as two other Australians prepared to face trial in Hanoi tomorrow on unrelated heroin trafficking charges.
The convicted man, 40-year-old Tony Manh, will be supported in his expected appeal for clemency by the Australian Government, a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said last night.
"Recently, the fact that many Australians of Vietnamese descent are involved in trafficking heroin from Vietnam to Australia has become a phenomenon," said Phan Tanh of the People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City.
Manh was caught with the drugs on March 3 at Tan Son Nhat Airport in Ho Chi Minh City as he prepared to board a flight to Sydney. He told the court he was paid $US10,000 to transport the drugs out of the country.
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Govt to help Aust man in death penalty appeal
Vietnam sentences Aussie to death
Aussie man sentenced to death
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U.S.: Laos Mum On 3 Missing St. Paul Hmong
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(AP) Bangkok, Thailand Laos' government has not responded to repeated requests for information about three Hmong-American men from Minnesota who are missing in the country after reportedly being taken into custody by security forces, a U.S. Embassy official said Thursday.
The three men from St. Paul, Minn., were arrested Aug. 25 by Laotian military and security forces, according to Philip Smith, the Washington director of Lao Veterans of America. The government of Laos denied the allegations.
He said it wasn't clear why the men were arrested, and that they had no known political or family ties to dissident groups. Smith said the men were traveling in Laos sightseeing and looking to start businesses.
Amy Archibald, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Laos, said embassy officials were aware of reports that the three were being detained in Laos but so far were not able to confirm it.
"Officials in our embassy are working to confirm these reports, gain consular access to any detained Americans and provide appropriate consular assistance," Archibald said. "The central government of Laos has not yet responded to U.S. officials' request for an official confirmation."
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Three Hmong Men From Minn. Missing In Laos
State Dept. looking into missing Minnesotans
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Man Sentenced to Death Wins a Reprieve
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HOUSTON, Aug. 30 — Hours before his scheduled execution as a disputed accomplice in a 1996 murder, Kenneth Foster won a rare commutation to life in prison today after Gov. Rick Perry followed the recommendation of his Board of Pardons and Paroles and granted a death row reprieve.
The case has sparked international protests by death penalty opponents because Mr. Foster, 30, was not the man who pulled the trigger but the driver of a getaway car in a San Antonio robbery spree who was convicted under a Texas law of parties making co-conspirators equally liable for death in certain cases of homicide.
"It makes me feel wonderful," said Mr. Foster's father, Kenneth Foster Sr., who had been visiting his son with other family members just before word of the governor's action came and held a raucous celebration with supporters outside the walls of the death house in Huntsville.
Since taking office in 2000, Mr. Perry has granted commutations sought by the pardons board only twice before, and once overruled the panel's recommendation, the governor's office said.
Mr. Foster's lawyer, Keith S. Hampton, who had run out of options except for a final — sixth — appeal to the United States Supreme Court, said, "I'm very relieved, for Kenneth and all his supporters." Mr. Hampton said that Mr. Foster could conceivably get out of prison some day, perhaps after serving another 30 years.
The Texas pardons board, appointed by the governor, took the unusual action of voting 6 to 1 Wednesday to recommend commutation of Mr. Foster's death sentence. The result was not released until Thursday morning and shortly afterward, Mr. Perry, a Republican, announced he had accepted the recommendation.
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Click Here for Case Information
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Mentally ill 'held like animals'
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Yatala Prison |
MENTALLY ill people are being held within South Australian prisons in conditions unfit for animals, a legal inspection team says.
The SA Law Society's Human Rights committee has described the treatment of mentally ill prisoners as a "scandal which must be seen to be believed".
It has told a government committee that none of the prison facilities in SA "is able to provide adequate psychological or other longer term counselling and treatment for the mentally ill".
"The absolute failure in the treatment of the mentally ill in the prison system has now reached the stage of being an unmitigated disaster and crisis," its report says.
The report was written for the Correctional Services Advisory Council by five senior lawyers who last month visited the Adelaide Remand Centre, Yatala Labour Prison, Northfield Women's Prison and City Watch House amid widespread concerns about chronic overcrowding.
It calls for the urgent upgrade of Yatala's maximum-security G-Division and its medical infirmary, describing them as unfit for humans.
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Click Here for Australian prison Information
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FPSS APPEAL AGAINST DEATH PENALTY
Death ... Australian drug traffickers, from left, Si Yi Chen, Matthew Norman and Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen. Inset: Scott Rush / Reuters, AP
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Foreign Prisoner Support Service are urging everyone to call upon His Excellency,
the Honorable Alexander Downer, Minister of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
[DFAT] to lobby Indonesia for clemency for the Australians facing death by firing squad in Bali.
The Australian Government publicly opposes the death penalty and has agreed to support all applications for clemency from Australians on death row or those facing the death penalty.
The death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights. It is a premeditated action of killing another human being. It violates that persons right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In opposing the death penalty, we mean no disrespect for the victims of violent crime and their relatives. We feel that there can never be any justification for torture or cruel treatment of another human being.
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Prisoner-swap hopes rise for teen in Cambodia
SCHAPELLE Corby is not the only prisoner inching closer to home.
An Australian schoolboy sentenced to 13 years in a Cambodian jail
at the age of 16 is a step closer to a return, after the Cambodian
Government notified Canberra of its willingness for a
prisoner-exchange treaty.
Sydney teenager Gordon Vuong, now 17, is housed in a squalid
cell in Phnom Penh's Prey Sar prison, having been convicted for
attempting to smuggle 2.1 kilograms of heroin to Australia in
January last year.
Family and friends of the Christian Brothers, Lewisham, student
claim he was coerced into the drug run by two men — a
47-year-old Cambodian man and a 25-year-old Cambodian-born
Australian — who were arrested along with him.
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The Schoolboy - The Gordon Vuong Story
I'm innocent, says teen jailed in Cambodia
Australian jailed for 18 years over opium: report.
Australian Federal Government has to get involved.
Gordon Vuong Case Page
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Former ABC foreign correspondent Peter Lloyd has been released from Singapore's Changi prison.
