Australia: Details revealed of teacher's arrest

ADELAIDE teacher Graham Payne faces death by firing squad if Indonesian police prove he has been involved in the manufacture and sale of amphetamines.
Payne, 20, a former student at Prince Alfred College and Pembroke, is facing two drug charges of possessing methamphetamine and possessing heroin.

The Advertiser has been told Payne was arrested in a Medan street on Saturday night after Indonesian police saw him with a known drug dealer.

Police then searched his home in the affluent and upmarket Tasbi housing complex.

Inside the home they found five syringes, one with "traces of heroin", 0.1g of methamphetamine and about 2000 ephedrine tablets.

It is believed tests carried out on Payne on the orders of police showed high quantities of heroin in his system.

Police said Payne, who was wearing a long-sleeved shirt when arrested, had marks from injections on his arms.

"He is very cheerful and in very good spirits – almost cocky," one police officer told The Advertiser. An assortment of more than 200 other tablets found in Payne's home are also being tested by police.

Ephedrine, a precursor in the manufacture of amphetamines, is not illegal in Indonesia.

Possession of heroin and amphetamines carries a minimum sentence of one day in jail and a maximum of 10 years.

"It depends on whether the judge sees it as a small amount of drugs . . . but with 2000 ephedrine tablets as well he's obviously a druggie," the police source said.

Payne will be held in police custody until he is formally charged and appears in court, a process which can take months in Sumatra.

Payne had been on the main Indonesian island for six weeks and police have told The Advertiser they are now investigating how he spent that time and who he associated with. Payne was supposed to begin work as a teacher in a Medan English language school this week. His father, Robert Payne, flew from Adelaide to Medan on Sunday.

Mr Payne saw his son in a police cell yesterday for the first time since the arrest.

Payne's mother, Kaaren, an Adelaide company director, is believed to be on her way to Sumatra to join her former husband by their son's side.

Payne is the youngest of three boys. His brother, Geoffrey, died in April this year.

A spokeswoman for Pembroke School said Payne was a student "for only a short time".

He is the third South Australian to be arrested in Indonesia in six months. John Julian Pyle, 42, was arrested in May in Ubud, Bali, and charged with possessing 1.8 grams of hashish. Pyle was sentenced to five months jail in August.

Adelaide-born international model Michelle Leslie, 24, was arrested in Bali on Saturday night after she was found with two ecstasy tablets in her bag during a police raid on a dance party in Kuta.

Commenting on the Leslie and Payne cases, Prime Minister John Howard yesterday said any Australian who carries drugs in Asia could not expect the Government to bail them out.

"It's beyond belief that any Australian could be so stupid as to carry drugs into any country in Asia," Mr Howard said. "The laws in these countries are black and white, they're severe, they're ferociously precise, that's been the case for decades.

"We have told Australians – young Australians – again and again, don't take drugs out of this country, don't take them into Asian countries because you can't expect any mercy."

Premier Mike Rann said anyone who took drugs to Bali was "really stupid".

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/amphetablog.html
Pubdate: Wed, 24 Aug 2005
Source: Advertiser, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2005 Advertiser Newspapers Ltd
Contact: advedit@adv.newsltd.com.au
Website: http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1
Author: Edith Bevin