Hehir on the Kiwi in Bali

writes:

De Malmanche lived down the road from our family farm and I went to school with his boys. It was a very small school and I don't think the roll ever got to 30 when I was there. Like many rural schools, it has now closed. It only survived as long as it did, however, because all the parents pitched in and invested their time to keep things going.

The de Malmanches never had a lot of money but they were reliable contributors to the school and community. Tony cleaned and maintained the swimming pool. He was also into and diving and one year he helped the school to set up a saltwater aquarium.

This Christmas, however, he will be sitting in an Indonesian jail awaiting trial on drug trafficking charges. In the worst-case scenario, he could face the death penalty. If that sentence is handed down, he will then sit for years in an Indonesian prison waiting for it to be carried out. Then, one night, he will be suddenly woken up, driven to a field in some remote place, tied to a wooden cross and shot to death.

That is the grim reality of the death penalty in Indonesia.

De Malmanche maintains his innocence and his family have protested that he simply does not have the intellectual capacity to be an international drug trafficker. They say he has been unwittingly caught up in a sophisticated scam. Police in Bali, on the other hand, say they are confident he is part of an international drug ring.

Based only on my own experience of the man, I have to admit I find that proposition hard to believe.

I tend to think he is very stupid rather than an international criminal.

However, questions of guilt or innocence are really beside the point. Tony de Malmanche is facing execution by a foreign power. Whether or not he has committed a crime, we should recoil at the prospect of a New Zealander facing such a barbarous fate over drug charges.

The New Zealand Government is providing consular support and has said that, if the death penalty is handed down, it will make representations to the Indonesian Government. That is how it should be. Protecting New Zealanders abroad should always be at the forefront of our foreign affairs agenda.

He has broken Indonesian laws and will have to face a penalty for that. But I don't support the death penalty for anyone, and where it is legal, should be for the worst criminals only.

Quite apart from all that, however, are the costs of defending the charge. These are likely to be significant – death penalty cases inevitably involve complex procedures and appeals. Lawyer Tony Ellis has speculated that the bill might be as much as $100,000.

Somehow, the family are going to have to scrape this together. It won't be easy and they've asked for help. There is a page at the Spark Foundation's site givealittle.co.nz where people can make a donation to the Antony de Malmanche Legal Fund.

I am going to end with a transparent plea to readers to go to that site and make a donation.

People with an interest in New Zealand politics are prone to boasting about how compassionate they are. But there is so much more to compassion than voting a particular way once every three years. Some things are just much more important than politics.

A fellow countryman caught up in a frightening foreign legal process, where his very life could be at stake, is one of those things.

Over $10,000 has been donated so far.

I've just donated also. Not because I think he has done no wrong. But because I don't want him to be without good legal representation.

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