Pubdate: Tue, 10 Jan 2006
Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Copyright: 2006 The Sydney Morning Herald
Contact:  http://www.smh.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/441
Author: AAP
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

I'M GUILTY, LAWRENCE ADMITS IN COURT

THE accused drug mule Renae Lawrence has admitted she tried to 
smuggle heroin to Australia, but denied she had done the same on 
previous visits to Bali.

"I'm guilty of carrying this stuff to Australia but I'm not guilty of 
owning, selling or anything else because Andrew Chan owns it, not 
me," she told Denpasar District Court yesterday.

The 28-year-old from Newcastle, the only woman among nine Australians 
arrested in the case, was one of the accused mules caught at Bali 
airport with packages of heroin strapped to their bodies, intending 
to board flights to Sydney.

Chan, accused of being a drug ring boss, was also arrested at the 
airport but had no drugs on him.

The mules claim that Chan and another man, Myuran Sukumaran, strapped 
the drugs to their bodies and threatened them and their families' 
lives if they tried to back out of the smuggling operation.

In a statement to the court, Lawrence admitted knowing Chan wanted 
her to take drugs back to Australia. She said Chan told her several 
days before her scheduled departure from Bali to postpone her flight 
a day because he was "having trouble getting the stuff through the 
airport at Jakarta [en route to Bali] because of tight security".

When asked by the prosecutor, Putu Indriati, what was meant by 
"stuff", she admitted guessing it was drugs when the packages were 
being strapped to her body.

"Obviously, if they're having trouble getting something through an 
airport, it's illegal," she said.

"In my opinion, it was drugs. But I didn't know it was heroin. All he 
[Chan] said was 'stuff'. Stuff could be anything."

Lawrence said she was nervous when checking in at Bali and wanted to 
take off the packages, but was scared that Chan would carry out his 
threat against her or her family.

Mr Indriati asked Lawrence whether two previous trips to Bali, before 
the group's arrest in April last year, had also been drug smuggling operations.

Her passport shows she went to Bali on the same dates as Chan and 
other members of the group. She insisted both trips had been 
holidays, paid for by herself.

But the third trip, during which she was arrested, was paid for by 
Chan, with whom she worked at a catering firm in Sydney.

Lawrence said Chan never promised her anything if the smuggling 
mission was successful, and blamed a misinterpretation for comments 
attributed to her in a police statement in which she apparently said 
Chan had promised her $5000.

Lawrence and her co-defendants face the death penalty if convicted. 
Her trial was adjourned until January 13.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman