Jail, caning for drug offences

Press, 26 November 1981, Page 1

Jail, caning for drug offences

NZPA-Reuter Singapore Two New Zealand soldiers were yesterday sentenced to three years jail and three strokes’ of the rattan (cane) for selling cannabis at the New Zealand military camp in Singapore.

Selwyn Hirini Kahukura, aged 26. of Wairoa. and Hugh Gordon Clark, aged 22. of Whangarei. were tried by a Singapore district court after the Army handed over the case to the local authorities. Both men, soliders in the Ist Battalion, Royal NewZealand Infantry Regiment, stationed in Singapore under a regional defence arrangement, had pleaded guilty to selling a few sticks of cannabis to colleagues at their barracks late last year. The two had earlier pleaded not • guilty, but changed their pleas a'fter the Ministry of Defence declined their request for a military court-martial. It was the first time that New Zealand" soldiers based in Singapore had been handed over to civilian courts for trial under Singapore's stern drug laws. The defence lawyer, Mr Dennis Tan. who represents the two soliders. said that Kahukura and Clark would either appeal to a higher court or seek clemency from the president of Singapore,

Mr Devan Nair, within the next 10 days.

Appealing for the conditional discharge of the two men. Mr Tan told the court that the two soldiers were victims of a "spreading drug epidemic" in the New Zealand Army.

Even before they were posted to Singapore in 1979. the drug problem at the Army’s Dieppe barracks in Singapore had reached unmanageable proportions in spite of the efforts of the military authorities, he said. Mr tan said this led the New Zealand Army to surrender its jurisdiction to the local central narcotics bureau. "It need not have done this." he said. "The New Zealand Army authorities want to make use of our law to punish their men and make an example to others indulging in drug abuse in their camp," Mr Tan said. Mr Tan said Kahukura and Clark, charged with selling three sticks of cannabis for 60 Singapore dollars ($4O) committed the offences inside their barracks under the control of the New Zealand Army, and did not involve any local population.

A total of 23 other soldiers also were arrested on drug charges in the camp, but all of them were sent for trial before an Army court-mar-tial.

Except for one soldier who was sentenced to nine months Army detention, the others were either fined or given minor jail terms, Mr Tan said.

District Judge Soon Kim Kwee ordered that the threeyear jail sentence begin form the time when the two soldiers were detained by the Army about eight months ago.

The trial of a another soldier, Tony Alfred Gordon, aged 22, of Auckland, facing similar charges, is set down in a civil court for November 30.