Pubdate: Sun, 13 Nov 2005
Source: Sunday Times (Australia)
Copyright: 2005 Times Newspapers Ltd
Contact: http://www.sundaytimes.news.com.au/letters/letters.html
Website: http://www.sundaytimes.news.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/438

THE ECSTACY AND AGONY OF AUSSIE MODEL

JAKARTA - An Australian model has apologised and appealed for mercy 
from an Indonesian court trying her for possession of two ecstasy 
pills, her lawyer said.

Leslie told a court on the resort island of Bali that a friend gave 
her the pills and told her they were medicine for stress that would 
replace Ritalin, a drug prescribed by her Australian doctor, lawyer 
Christo Imanuel Dugis said.

"A day before she was arrested, she ran out of Ritalin. Her friend 
gave her a drug which she said had similar effects. She didn't 
exactly know what it was until she was arrested," Dugis said.

"Miss Leslie apologised to the people of Indonesia for violating the 
law here. She said it wasn't her intention and she did it out of 
ignorance. She appealed for mercy," he said.

The lawyer said he expected Leslie to be sentenced to three months in 
prison if the court considered her an "occasional user".

This means she could walk free as soon as the verdict is passed 
because of time already served.

In their indictment, prosecutors said Leslie had "unlawfully 
possessed psychotropical drugs", an offence carrying a maximum 
sentence of 15 years.

Denny Thong, a doctor testifying as an expert witness, said that 
Leslie had sought occasional refuge in stimulant drugs to overcome 
anxiety and stress due to her career as a model and troubled 
childhood, lawyer Dugis said.

Thong said Leslie as a child was often in conflict with her mother, 
who is from the Philippines, because of their different cultural backgrounds.

Leslie was arrested during a police raid near a party in Bali's 
Jimbaran area in August. She said last month she had converted to 
Islam a year ago and that her new faith had prevented her from going 
"crazy" in her police cell in predominantly Hindu Bali.

The 24-year-old had modelled lingerie and swimwear before her arrest 
but she has been wearing an Islamic headscarf in Bali.

Leslie is among 12 young Australians facing execution or long prison 
sentences in Indonesia for drug offences.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman