New Zealander Antony de Malmanche waits in a holding cell before his trial in Denpasar court on May 7, 2015. PHOTO: Sonny Tumbelaka/AFP
While it was just announced that a Kiwi charged with trafficking drugs in Bali was handed a jail term of 15 years, reports are saying that the New Zealander’s lawyers will appeal the sentence.
Antony de Malmanche was caught coming into Bali with 1.7 kilograms of meth in December 2014, but his lawyers maintained throughout his trial that the man was manipulated and set up by a woman who he believed he was dating online. He was a “trafficked person, not a trafficker,” they argued.
De Malmanche’s lawyers also argued that their client has a history of mental illness and was easily susceptible to such a scam.
Though the lengthy trial wrapped up on Tuesday with the judges’ decision, de Malmanche’s legal team is saying it ain’t over yet, with attorney Craig Tuck saying that there’s “a number of appeal grounds” for the legal team to go over, reports Lauren Priestley of NZME.
“Virtually across the board in terms of procedural irregularities, behavior of the judges [and the] prosecution, all sorts of claims made by the prosecution, lack of disclosure of certain aspects, there’s just so many different points,” Tuck told Radio New Zealand, as quoted by NZME.
“The system is quite different to what we have in New Zealand, but having said that the rule of law applies, and they have a criminal procedure code which simply just wasn’t followed from day one, and we will be appealing those points.”
But the scary part is that appealing the decision could make the maximum penalty of death for de Malmanche’s drug trafficking charges a possibility.
“But having said that there are strong grounds, there are strategy that we’re working on at the moment with Indonesian lawyers to ensure the matters that came up at trial continually, week after week, can be put in front of another judicial panel one step up from the Denpasar District Court.”
But don’t expect this to be resolved quickly. The appeals process could be months, according to Tuck.
