INDONESIA'S Constitutional Court has dealt a severe blow to the Bali nine by endorsing the death penalty and the execution of drug offenders. In a split decision, the court upheld the validity of capital punishment, rejecting pleas that it breached Indonesia's constitution and international obligations. Three of the nine-judge bench opposed the verdict. The decision leaves the six Australians who face firing squads dependent on a last-ditch appeal to the Supreme Court, which has already upheld or imposed their death penalties. [continues 544 words]
SCHAPELLE Corby will attempt to overturn her 20-year drug smuggling sentence with another appeal, this time to Indonesia's Supreme Court, despite a controversial court ruling that reduced her sentence to 15 years. An angry Corby has condemned the ruling, demanding the Australian Government be blamed for her plight. Her family is insisting she should be freed. In a deal apparently made between Corby's lawyers and some of the judges hearing her first appeal, Corby's conviction for smuggling four kilograms of marijuana was upheld, but her term cut by five years. [continues 111 words]
Denpasar -- "IT'S like jumping into the lion's den and everybody trying to take a piece of you," says model Michelle Leslie to Norah Cullen, amid a legal and physical nightmare in a Bali police cell. Ms Cullen, as much mother as friend, flew to Denpasar the day after Leslie was arrested for carrying two ecstasy tablets. The Lebanese-born Sydney businesswoman was confronted too by the media circus that has enveloped her friend in the past fortnight. She found Leslie jammed into a cockroach-infested cell little more than two metres square with 12 women. [continues 594 words]
Michelle Leslie, the Sydney model Bali police say they caught with two ecstasy tablets on her way to a dance party, could be jailed for up to 15 years if convicted. The 24-year-old, who also uses the surname Lee, was arrested on Saturday but has refused to answer police questions, spending much of her time in tears. An intelligence officer with the Bali drug squad, Major Mardiaz Kusin, said police had searched a car Leslie and two of her friends were in, outside a party at Bali's GWK Park - the site of the first anniversary commemoration of the Bali bombings. [continues 545 words]
Phone taps by police have nearly tripled in the past three years. The biggest proportional increase was in Victoria, driven largely by attempts to crack down on drug traffickers. An inquiry into the Telecommunications (Interception) Act has found that warrants to place phone taps - issued to state and national police forces, the National Crime Authority and anti-corruption commissions - increased from 675 in 1997-98 to 1689 in 1999-2000. Victoria Police received 82 warrants for phone interception in 1997-98, rising to 253 last year. [continues 172 words]
Exports to the world's biggest buyer of Australian steroids have been stopped after revelations it was supplying the international black market. Troy Laboratories, a large manufacturer of veterinary steroids, has announced it will no longer sell steroids to its Mexican distributor, Denkal. Troy's steroids were identified this month being sold to American drug dealers and teenagers from outlets in Tijuana. Nearly 30 per cent of Australia's steroid production is sent to Mexico, the centre of the illicit trade, with Denkal accounting for half of them. [continues 363 words]
Australian steroid exports were a national disgrace and should be banned, the Australian Veterinary Association said yesterday. It will demand tough action from a meeting of state and federal governments in Perth today. The Ministerial Council on Drugs Strategy is likely to consider controls on steroid exports, limits on steroid production and a taskforce to investigate steroid abuse. Last weekend The Age revealed that Australia was a leading supplier to the international steroid black market. Steroids destined for the illicit trade are being certified and endorsed by federal authorities. [continues 424 words]
Nearly every potential Olympian has signed a pledge to repay any public funding and incentives if he or she tests positive to drugs before or during the Sydney Games. More than 1,000 of our leading athletes and support staff have made the pledge as part of their team agreement with the Australian Olympic Committee. Sponsors of athletes have also included an anti-doping clause in their agreements at the instigation of the AOC. The secretary-general of the AOC, Mr Craig McLatchey, said any athlete who had not signed the pledge would not be selected for the Olympics. [continues 336 words]
"These warnings about steroids are bullshit. Eight years I've been on them. I went from being 70 kilos and super-aggressive to 100 kilos feeling calm and confident. Look at my eyes," says Jim, agitated and enthusiastic, muscles bulging from a tight black T-shirt. "No wrinkles. I don't know if it's the steroids, but the only wrinkles I've got are the frown lines." Jim is a mid-level player in one of the four major national networks supplying steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs to an expanding market. Originally it was body-builders; these days, says Jim, the gay community, young professionals, fitness fanatics and nightclubbers are keen customers. [continues 2165 words]
The Australian Olympic Committee is demanding a national task force to combat a booming illegal trade in performance-enhancing drugs, alleging government and police inaction just months away from the Sydney Games. The call has been backed by the chairman of the National Expert Advisory Committee on Illicit Drugs, Dr Robert Ali. Studies had totally underestimated the size of the trade, which would be exacerbated by the Olympics, he said. A confidential report of the committee, recently distributed to State and Federal justice, police and health ministers, says: "There has been a 25-fold increase in Customs interceptions of illegally imported performance- and image-enhancing drugs (PIEDS) in the past four years." [continues 521 words]
