Woman released for being ‘model prisoner’

Press, 19 March 1984, Page 4

Woman released for being ‘model prisoner’

NZPA staff correspondent Hong Kong

Andrea Resetar was granted a king’s pardon and released from a Thai jail after serving only four years and four months of her 33-year sentence for

drug trafficking because she had been a “model prisoner,” a New Zealand official said from Bangkok on Friday. The official said that Miss Resetar had been formally deported from Thailand on Thursday. She had been treated very well by the Bangkok authorities before her departure, he said.

New Zealand officials learnt a week ago that the private petition to King Bhumidol Adulyadej, which they had helped Miss Resetar lodge late last year, had been successful.

Sources in Bangkok were unable to say whether the fact that charges had been dropped against her former co-defendant, Mathew Cosio, in 1980, resulting in later allegations of corruption against Thai officials, had influenced the appeal. But the New Zealand official emphasised that Miss Resetar had been a very good prisoner and that this had helped her bid for royal clemency.

The official said the correct description of Miss Resetar’s early release was that she had been amnestied, although the Thais generally used the word only when a number of prisoners were freed on some special occasion.

The king’s pardon did not mean she was considered not guilty and as she had been formally deported Miss Resetar would probably find it difficult ever to re-enter Thailand, said the official.

Miss Resetar was arrested in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai in November, 1979, with another New Zealander, holding dual American citizenship, Mathew Cosio. The Thai police alleged Mr Cosio and Miss Resetar were in possession of 262.3 g of high-grade heroin when apprehended in their hotel. Miss Resetar was sentenced in March, 1981, and transferred in April to the Bangkok women’s correctional centre, but the charges against Mr Cosio were dropped in September,

1980, on the ground of his ill-health.

In June, 1981, Thailand’s Interior Minister, Prathuang Kiratibutr, who was also director-general of the prosecutions department, resigned after members of Parliament accused him of misusing his authority and of corruption in the case of Mr Cosio.

The case against Prathuang was adjourned after he appeared in court on October 12 last year. Officials were unable to say when the hearing would resume.

A Thai law enacted last April allows convicted persons to seek retrials if they are able to prove that prosecution evidence which helped convict them was false or fabricated. However, it was believed that Miss Resetar’s lawyers preferred to await the outcome of the appeal for clemency before seeking a retrial. Miss Resetar had appeals against her sentence dismissed in July, 1981, and May, 1982, and first applied for royal clemency in late 1982. It was believed that the Sirivate petition was reodged late last year. New Zealand officials indicated to NZPA in Bangkok last month that a successful outcome to the petition was believed likely but that further publicity at that time could jeopardise the appeal.