N.Z. woman’s long wait For Thai justice

Press, 26 February 1981, Page 12

N.Z. woman’s long wait For Thai justice

NZPA Chiang “Mai, Thailand The double-storeyed former royal villa which, serves as Chiang. Mai’s court ho use sits in spacious grounds but the road is close • enough for traffic noise to filter through the two open windows of the small No 3 ■courtroom on the first floor. ... '

From the open doorway at the other end of the room, people passing — some of them male prisoners whose-leg irons clank as. they shuffle along — add . to ' the , distractions. Auckland divorcee, Andrea Resetar, aged 26, has been in and out of that courthouse several times during the past 15 months, and this became just another of those occasions.

It was a day that started with the hope of a verdict .on the charges she faces, alleging drug trafficking. But as has happened many times it ended with, an adjournment — this one to -March 4.

Since being detained by the Thai police on Novem-. ber 26, 1979, Miss Resetar ha become fairly resigned to the processes of the Thai;.judicial system. But she says she will keep fighting to prove her innocence until set free.

Miss Resetar is charged with possession of 262.3 grams of heroin under

Thai law, possession of more than 100 grams is regarded as trafficking. It is an offence which carries ■ death as the maximum sentence, but noone, least of all Miss Resetar, expects her to suffer that fate. If found guilty, a long prison sentence is possible. This adjournment was a surprise. Miss Resetar, well groomed and tidily dressed in a yellow sunfrock, arrived at the Court in the front seat of a paddy-waggon expecting a verdict. It was not until she was seated in the courtroom awaiting the arrival of Judge Sunthee Tansiwong that she learnt of the adjournment. “I don’t mind about the delay” she said in the holding cell late. “I prefer to know what to expect beforehand, and this gives me more time to find out.Chiang Mai is a small place, and word gets around.”

In court, his quiet voice almost drowned by outside -noises, Judge Sunthee spent ; about 20 minutes making , the adjournment order. A report from ? the previous hearing needed to have an alteration sighed by the: second defendant, he said. It would have no effect on her case, but’ the papers, needed-' to go to Chiang Mai’s chief justice

before a decision could-be given. The first defendant was Matthew Cosio, also of Auckland. ’ Mr Cosio was released last yer afterh Court was told that the Director-Gen-eral of the Prosecution Department (Mr Prathuang Kiratibutr) wished the charge withdrawn because of Mr Cosio’s ill-health.

Mr Prathuang " subsequently denied making such an order, and officials in Thailand say that the case against Miss Resetar has become an extremely sensitive issue. Miss Resetar said that Mr Cosio’s release had raised her hopes of her being freed.‘‘There is really no evidence against me, It was all against Matthew. If this was happening in any other country I would have been released,” she said.

Miss :Resetar said she. went to Chaing Mai after meeting Mr Cosio in Bangkok. It was a spontaneous decision, she said. She had gone to see Mr Cosio in his- hotel room when a policeman, accompanied by the manager, arrived and conducted a search which located the heroin.- ■' Miss Resetar said the seriousness of the charge did not.hit her, initially. “I was quite happy about it. at first. But I did not realise I would be on remand so long. I thought the judicial system; would be fairer.”

The 15 months living in conditions which she describes as terrible have had their effect on Miss Resetar, according to New Zealand embassy officials.

She is very thin and her complexion is pale. Last

month she was very sick and was meant to have been offered hospital treatment, according to the New Zealand ViceConsul, Mr W. J. Ashwell. The embassy has asked why the treatmnet was apparently not offered to Miss Resetar. The women’s section at Chiang Mai’s jail consists of two rooms — a dormitory upstairs and a general area downstairs, according to Miss Resetar. It houses more than 50 prisoners, of whom eight or nine are non-Thai.

The food was not edible, she said.

“You get brown, coarse rice and it has got things crawling in it. It is so hard that if you are not careful you can break your teeth.” In Thailand prisoners are allowed to receive food from outside and Miss Resetar, a vegetarian, receives fruit, vegetables and other foodstuffs regularly from her Auckland boyfriend, Jeff Pearce, who has lived at Chiang Mai since her arrest.

Embassy officials say that Mr Pearce has been of great strength to Miss Resetar. She. is riot so sure about the support she has received from the New Zealand Government.

One of her complaints concerns a New Zealand police report admitted as evidence. It detailed • her alleged involvement with drugs, in New Zealand including her only conviction, for possessing a small quantity of marijuana some years ago. Miss Resetar said the worst thing about being in prison was the separation from her daughter.