Plea for drug-charges trio angers Thais

Press, 23 October 1978, Page 7

Plea for drug-charges trio angers Thais

NZPA London A demand from Canberra for three Australians in custody in Bangkok on serious drug charges to be given airconditioned cells has angered the Thai authorities, “The Times” reports from Bangkok. The case threatens to damage relations between the two countries. Some of the 390 Australian residents of Bangkok are under police surveillance, and in the last week at least three of them were arrested and later released.

Paul Hayward, one of the accused men. is a rugby league star. A solicitor sent by his club to Bangkok to ' represent him was denied

access to his client for six days until a police officer, breaking regulations, allowed him into Hayward’s cell. He and Warren Fellows, another Sydney man, have been charged with illegal possession for sale and attempted smuggling of B.4kg of heroin to Australia, where its wholesale value is about S3M. Wiliam Sinclair, a Bangkok resident, has been accused with aiding and abetting them, and all three have been further charged with endangering society and Thailand’s security. The Australian Govern, ment instructed its ambassador to ask General Kriangsak Chammanand, the Thai ‘Prime Minister, for a normal

public trial for the three after it was learned that the police had recommended summary punishment under article 27 of the interim constitution, which empowers the Prime Minister to order summary execution or imprisonment. The Prime Minister will consider the request after being advised by a board of judges. The case is seen in Thailand as a test of Thai resolve to deal uniformly with all drug offenders. Despite the uproar in Britain over Rita Nightinggale. a Lancashire nurse serving 20 years in Bangkok for attempted heroin smuggling, Thai courts deal more leniently with whites than with Asians.