This is too much! Too much!
How can a Oz newspaper allow a article suggest the suspected
ABC
drug trafficker 'Get out of Singapore'?
the worst is that the article is written by a Oz radio
announcer!!
I think The High Commissioner of Singapore to Oz shall
protest
to this article.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24066623-5017701,00.html
By Chris Smith
July 24, 2008 12:00am
I CAST my memory back
to an Australian-born blonde, who was arrested in Bangkok in 1996
for smuggling drugs.
With 4kg of cannabis and 500 amphetamine tablets, she faced a
death sentence. There she sat, curled up and weeping, inside Lard
Yao women's prison, also known as the "Bangkok Hilton".
To describe this facility as dangerous and disgusting is
supremely generous. She was sitting with 120 other women, in a
rat-infested dorm.
Soon after, her rich daddy came to the rescue, posting $80,000
bail. An Australian Embassy car took her from prison and she was
never seen in public again.
Twelve years later, Lisa Marie Smith remains one of the world's
most wanted fugitives.
Some reports say she could be in Europe, maybe Greece, where she
has undergone cosmetic surgery to avoid detection.
Australian Peter Lloyd, a well-read journalist who has reported
on the fate of Schapelle Corby and the Bali Nine, may well have
thought of Lisa Marie Smith's escape when he was granted release
from a Singapore jail yesterday after posting $45,000 bail.
Escape is a risky manoeuvre. If it backfires, it could see him
slapped with 20 additional years on whatever sentence he got if
found guilty for drug trafficking and/or possession of the drug
ice.
Is there room, secretly, to adopt the Michelle Leslie strategy,
and pay his way out of the more serious charges? In the days after
her arrest, Leslie's boyfriend made a series of cash transfers,
which have since been alleged to be the first steps towards bribing
her way out of police custody.
That is justice Bali-style, but in strict Singapore that could
see him face further charges.
Instead he could defend his serious charges of seemingly
indefensible proportions - a perilous route to traverse.
Not for me, not ever. He should flee the region at the first
opportunity. I would, without question.
Walking into one of Asia's most filthy and intimidating jails
will immediately convert anyone to angelic pursuits. Whether it's
Singapore's Changi Prison, or Bangkok's Bang Kwang maximum-security
jail, it's enough to bring on acute nausea.
At the latter jail, nearly 8000 men in death row conditions
serve sentences of 20 years or more for big-ticket crimes - from
drug smuggling to murder.
I met convicted drug trafficker Paul Hudson there in the '80s.
Maybe it was the ball and chain that threw me most; then again, the
decrepit and putrid group cells turned my stomach.
Then there was the sight of the late Australian League player
Paul Hayward, shivering and sickly in his cell. The armed guards
had this sneering nastiness, like some tatty gang of bandits ready
to maim the next prisoner who stepped out of line.
These are the realities now facing our alleged drug trafficker
and popular TV reporter as he contemplates life in his own
unmitigated hell hole. He has lost his career. He now risks
contracting disease, such as HIV through prison rape. And reports
of his status as a gay man will not help.
My advice is to run, Peter, run - because there's a ball and
chain with your name on it.
Why your first-hand experiences of life inside such deadly
squalor, gained as a reporter, were not enough to steer you clear
of trouble in this region, is an unfathomable mystery to me.
Chris Smith is the afternoon
announcer for Sydney radio station 2GB.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/index/0,,5017701,00.html
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24054978-5017701,00.html
IF you've been having trouble sleeping lately, consider the
thoughts that must have been keeping journalist Peter Lloyd awake
these past few nights.
