Slap on the wrist.
Posted on 05/28/2005 3:37:09 AM PDT by infocats
JAKARTA, Indonesia, May 27 - A drug smuggling case that has captivated and outraged Australia came to a climax on Friday when a 27-year-old Australian woman was given a 20-year prison term for trying to bring nine pounds of marijuana into Bali hidden in her bodyboard bag.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Any relief aid to Indonesia should be predicated on the country converting to Christianity.
"Any relief aid to Indonesia should be predicated on the country converting to Christianity."
Ann Coulter was right!
It's hard to work up any sympathy for her. She should have considered the possible results from her criminal activities. It could have been worse, some countries have the death penality for drug smugglers.
Carrying a stash that size might bring similar consequences in America. She states it was planted, but a nine pound bundle doesn't sound like something that could have been slipped into her luggage from somebody's pocket.
She should be glad it was only Indonesia and not Singapore. Forget the caning they are (in)famous for -- she'd be shot dead in 48 hours. For that reason, the airport there offers an inspection service on the international side of the airport. For a fee of about $5 they will search your luggage carefully (presumably if drugs are found, just discard them) then wrap it in about a ton of plastic wrap before it officially goes into Singapore.
It's my understanding that the Indonesian Government didn't have to prove she was smuggling; the burden of proof was upon her to prove she wasn't. It is generally an impossible burden to prove a negative.
I believe that the defense's contention was that both the drugs and the money were moving in the wrong direction for this to be considered a classic case of drug smuggling.
Is Bali normally a source of growing pot? Making this case like taking coals to Newcastle?
I guess it's arguable as to whether an increment of nine pounds of highly compressed pot would be noticed by the carrier of the luggage; it would pretty much depend upon how much she was initially carrying.
If it was slipped into her luggage, it was probably done at the airport by professional smugglers.
I couldn't have known all that from reading a 45 word excerpt from the NYT. It's permissable to excerpt up to 300 words, which may have given a little more detail.
I thought the harshness of the sentence was the issue.
Number ten was meant to be addressed to you. (It's early here)
Slap on the wrist.
Yes, they grow very potent strains of pot in Indonesia which is what gives pause for thought as to the verdict. Normally, smuggling would go in the other direction...from Bali to Australia.
This reminds me of the satirical spot (Andy Rooney?) about the trash compactor that smooshes 20 pounds of trash -- into 20 pounds of trash. (Give the garbage man a hernia with a can full of these wads)
How heavy is a body board? How big is it? Seems like a lot of weight in one spot would make it clumsy to handle.
I thought the harshness of the sentence was the issue.
Yes...the harshness of the sentence was the issue. Recently, the NY Times must have changed their policy which now requires articles to be excerpted.
I chose the auto excerpt option which limited my post to about 100 words. Next time, I'll manually excerpt for clarity and relevance.
Despite personally supporting the legalization of marijuana, I can't find this woman's claim credible. NINE POUNDS? That's several cubit feet of pot, and it's absurd to think she didn't know something that takes up that much space in her bag wasn't noticed.
Furthermore, the warning signs are everywhere in those countries about their harsh treatment of drug traffickers. Passengers are always asked if they packed the bags themselves. When a friend asked me to bring some shoes to his sister in Vancouver - I had to tell customs at the local airport I didn't pack everything so they opened the parcel and inspected it.
They're really serious about their drug laws.
A much more plausible explanation is this is a stupid woman who thought she can make money selling grass to the other western tourists in Bali and got caught.
The fact she's a young, good looking woman is irrelevant - only the fact she is obviously stupid and engaged in criminal activity.
But that would also go for the motivation of whoever was trying to stowaway the stuff on her luggage -- IF they did. Why would a professional smuggler try that in Australia (meaning he'd also have to expect somebody on the Indonesia side to remove it) if he could just buy it in Bali? Lots of people bring in body boards; for the accomplice to find the right one would be difficult. Nobody else with a body board has complained about their board being "potted."
It does look more like an amateur, fly by seat of pants attempt by someone who has no idea that pot is very plentiful in Bali.
As another poster pointed out, that's about what to expect for drug smuggling in the U.S.
As for their law requiring one to prove their innocence, that is standard law in some countries and if she did smuggle drugs she should have made herself aware of that.
Any time I have tried to excerpt too many words I got the message that 300 words was the max. Maybe the NYT is different.
Dont do the crime if ya cant do the time!
Nice pix. Is that from (damn...the name escapes me at the moment) the picture about the guy and his girlfriend trying to smuggle hashish out of Turkey?
This is a classic case of the smuggling going in the correct direction...from producer to consumer...not as in Bali which presumably went opposite.
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