JAKARTA: New Zealander Antony de Malmanche has been sentenced to 15 years’ jail for drug trafficking by a Bali court unmoved by evidence of his mental illness and manipulation by online scammers.
THE 53-year-old says he didn’t know 1.7kg of crystal meth was in his backpack when he flew to Bali on December 1, where he believed he would be meeting a woman he had been chatting with online.
The judges could have imposed the maximum sentence of death.
Prosecutors wanted 18 years’ jail for de Malmanche, arguing his passport, plane ticket and a Customs declaration form in the same bag as the drugs were enough to prove ownership.
His defence claimed the Kiwi was a victim of trafficking, rather than a trafficker, and called experts to testify about his mental illness, low IQ and vulnerability to brainwashing by online scammers.
In sentencing, chief judge Cening Budiana said the trafficking argument was considered, but “in this case, what applies is Indonesian law”.
He regarded de Malmanche as “healthy physically and mentally, able to communicate, able to travel abroad and able to answer questions during the trial”.
“The defendant cannot escape his criminal responsibility and we found no excuse or justification for what he did, so the defendant must be punished,” he said.
In addition to 15 years’ jail, the court imposed a Rp4 billion ($390,000) fine interchangeable with an additional three months in prison.
De Malmanche was silent after learning the verdict and put his head down as he walked back to his holding cell with one of his sons, who had flown to Bali.
His lawyer, Chris Harno, said he would consider an appeal.
“In our view the judges since the very beginning have believed the (police) dossier of facts rather than considering the resulting trial,” he told reporters.
De Malmanche’s trial has heard he was abused as a child and has been institutionalised for mental illness.
He was lonely and looking for love online when he met “Jessy Smith”, and received an invitation for an expenses-paid overseas trip followed.
After meeting men he believed were Jessy’s staff in China, he was flown from Hong Kong to Bali, where airport customs found the drugs in his backpack.
Around 450 pages of chat logs between de Malmanche and Jessy were submitted to the court showing how the scam progressed.
The trial was disrupted in April when de Malmanche collapsed in court and was rushed to hospital with a heart complaint.
