‘Mr Asia’ case files given to lawyers

Press, 29 March 1980, Page 6

‘Mr Asia’ case files given to lawyers

NZPA

London

The weighty file of prosecution evidence against 11 people charged after the death of an alleged SouthEast Asia drug ring leader was this week handed to defence lawyers.

The defence now has almost two months to consider the Crown’s case against five people charged with murdering a New Zealander, Christopher Martin Johnstone, and six others charged with contravening the British Drugs Act. They appeared in court at Chorley, Lancashire, again yesterday for a remand hearing.

chatted among themselves as they sat, handcuffed to each other, in the dock. Aucklander Karen Soich, aged 23, who is charged with conspiring against Britain’s drug laws, did not call out from the dock as she has done repeatedly in the past,, but she smiled broadly at journalists and with theother ''defendants burst out laughing when one of the solicitors in court for the first time was abruptly asked who’ he was by Mr Roy Fischer, the chairman of the Magistrate’s tribunal. Another of the accused, Frederick Russell, aged 38, of London, made animal noises and pulled faces at a journalist who was looking at him.

defence, or it may fight the committal.

By fighting the committal, the defence can call witnesses and have any evidence read over in the presence of magistrates. The magistrates may decide that some witnesses are unreliable, or that some of the evidence should be struck out, even if they find a prima facie case proven. As a “dress rehearsal” of the trial, such a committal could last several weeks. Alternatively, the defence may allow the evidence to be read in to the court in a procedure that would only last a day.

This has been done weekly since their arrest last year and will be repeated until the prosecution case is presented in the Magistrate’s Court at Chorley in a committal hearing set down for May 19.

The tight security imposed on every aspect of the case when the first arrests were made last November was still in force in the Lancashire market town yesterday as the defendants —three of them New Zealanders—were again remanded in custody. Everyone entering the court was searched, asked for proof of identity and had their names taken —lawyers, journalists, and members of the public alike. The area surrounding tiie court, linked to the police station by an underground tunnel, is patrolled by unir formed police, some of them armed. . r - Journalists covering the committal hearing in May will be issued special passes and if a prima facie case is established at that stage the trial is expected to be held In Lancaster, about 50 km north of Chorley. The 22 weeks they have spent in custody has apparently done nothing to depress the accused. Yesterday they joked and

By deciding not to dispute the evidence at that time, the defence makes no admission of guilt, but speeds the pace towards a full trial. Defence lawyers in the Chorley case have not said which committal they will ask for, and it is possible that they will not do so until the case opens. It will also be then that British journalists find out whether they can report the case in full.

With New Zealander Alexander Sinclair, aged 34, and three others, he is accused of murdering “Mr Asia,” Auckland drugs leader Martin Johnstone, of conspiring to murder him and of drugs conspiracy. The other six, including Soich and another New Zealander, Erroll Hincksman, aged 31, face only the drugs conspiracy charges. No applications were made for bail yesterday and none is expected before the committal hearings. The British Director of Public Prosecutions’ Office explained that during a committal hearing, compulsory under British law, the prosecution must satisfy magistrates that a prima facie case exists for trial at a Crown court. .

Committal law provides for only bare reporting of personal details and charges, unless one of the accused asks for restrictions to be lifted. Court officials believe these restrictions would not apply to journalists reporting to another country. A New Zealand Press Association report from Sydney said that two former Australian narcotics agents were charged on Thursday with’ leaking information to Terence Sinclair, the man accused of murdering John- . stone.

In reply, the defence may take either of two courses allowed under the British Justice Act. It may accept the evidence and reserve its