Sainsbury seeks legal aid to fund fight
CASSIE Sainsbury’s legal team is asking Australian taxpayers to help pay for her defence on drug smuggling charges.
The Bogota lawyer for the 22- year- old South Australian said he and Ms Sainsbury filled out paperwork to apply for the financial assistance last Wednesday.
“I have no idea how much they are looking for. It is to cover the lawyer’s fees in Australia,” Orlando Herran said in Bogota.
When asked if the funding would also cover his fees, Mr Herran said: “Possibly.”
Ms Sainsbury is currently in El Buen Pastor prison in Bogota, weighing up whether to take her lawyers’ advice to plead guilty to trying to smuggle 5.8kg out of Colombia to Australia.
She was arrested on April 11 at El Dorado international airport after local police received a tip- off from the US Drug Enforcement Agency.
Ms Sainsbury says she is innocent and has told her family and lawyers she was tricked into carrying the drugs, thinking they were 18 plastic- wrapped packages of headphones.
The Federal Government offers financial support to Australians in trouble overseas through prison loans and, in some cases, the Serious Overseas Criminal Matters Scheme.
The scheme is available to those arrested overseas if they face more than 20 years or the death penalty.
Ms Sainsbury has been told she faces between eight and 25 years in prison. If she pleads guilty, Mr Herran said she could receive a four- year term.