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Kiwi drug-accused to be sentenced

Author
AAP,
Publish Date
Tue, 30 Jun 2015, 7:18AM
Antony de Malmanche (Getty Images)
Antony de Malmanche (Getty Images)

Kiwi drug-accused to be sentenced

Author
AAP,
Publish Date
Tue, 30 Jun 2015, 7:18AM

A New Zealand man who was lured to Bali by online love and was arrested for drug trafficking will soon learn his fate from an Indonesian court.

Prosecutors want 18 years' jail for Antony de Malmanche, 53, who says he was tricked into carrying crystal methamphetamine into Bali in December.

The judges in Denpasar court can still impose a maximum sentence of death on Tuesday.
Fourteen drug offenders have been executed in Indonesia this year.

The New Zealander's barrister, Craig Tuck, says de Malmanche is aware the death penalty is possible.

"He is friends with Lindsay Sandiford, who was sentenced to death when the prosecutor only wanted 15 years," Mr Tuck told AAP.

"He understands how the system works."

Sandiford, a British grandmother, is set to appeal her shock death sentence, handed down in the same court in 2013.

She and de Malmanche are in Kerobokan jail, where Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan were imprisoned before they were sent to the firing squad in April.

De Malmanche's trial has heard he was abused as a child, has been institutionalised for mental illness and has a low IQ.

He was lonely and looking for love online when he met "Jessy Smith", and 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, on December 1, customs found 1.7 kilograms of crystal meth in his backpack.

His defence has argued the prosecution failed to prove his link to the drugs - with no CCTV footage or fingerprint evidence presented in court.

The prosecution argues the fact that de Malmanche's passport, plane ticket and a customs declaration form were in the same bag is enough to prove ownership.

The trial was disrupted in April when de Malmanche collapsed in court and was rushed to hospital with a heart complaint.

Mr Tuck says it has been stressful for de Malmanche's family, including his son Shaun, who will be in court for the verdict.

"Hopefully the judges will bring back the right result and let their dad go home to New Zealand," he said.

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