Drugs conviction overturned
First trial of duped meth mule had fundamental flaws, appeal argued
An Auckland man duped into smuggling drugs and facing nearly 24 years in a Hong Kong prison had his conviction overturned because of problems with time pressure and Tongan translation at his trial.
Alipate Moala, 51, was in Hong Kong International Airport to catch a flight to Auckland in September, 2015, when 1kg of methamphetamine was found hidden inside his luggage.
The former champion boxer and gospel singer says he thought he was carrying a chemical cleaning agent for which, on safe delivery to New Zealand, his church would receive a cash donation.
Tonga-born Moala had been recruited by email. The “cleaning agent” deception is a scam commonly used by West African crime syndicates.
Ten others arrested in Hong Kong in similar circumstances around the same time were acquitted at trial.
But Moala was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to 23 years and 9 months in prison.
After a successful appeal by his lawyers Dr Gerard McCoy QC and Dr Nisha Mohammed, Moala will get a new trial.
His legal team argued the translation at the original trial was “fundamentally flawed”.
A rugby player without any previous experience in translation was the only person who could be found in Hong Kong to interpet at the trial.
The delay in finding a translator meant the trial, estimated to last 5 days, to 13.
An impatient jury said the majority would not sit after a particular day. So the judge sat for longer hours and in delivering his summary of the case, spoke at up to 197 words per minute.
For Moala’s hearing in the Hong Kong Court of Appeal, a professor in linguistics submitted a report on the judge’s summing up.
He observed professional interpreters for the United Nations can operate at 120 words per minute, but only for 12 minutes at a time.
The Tongan interpreter at trial, who had no experience, translated the judge’s summing up for more than 4 hours.
Sefita Hao’uli, a Tongan radio broadcaster, also gave expert evidence at the appeal.
His opinion was the trial interpreter spoke Tongan with no more stretched than 50 per cent fluency and no more than 40 per cent accuracy in translation.
Under questioning from McCoy, the interpreter conceded he did not know how to say in the Tongan language words such as “suspicion”, “DNA” and “inference”.
McCoy also submitted the judge spoke slowly in his review of the prosecution case but at “galloping speed” in summarising the defence case.
This created a “subliminal impression” the defence case was not worth considering, said McCoy.
The Hong Kong Court of Appeal quashed the conviction and sentence of Moala. He was remanded in custody ahead of the retrial, although a bail application will be made.
The grooming of naive individuals as unwitting drug mules is a hallmark of West African crime syndicates, and others have been caught in New Zealand.
Shortly after Moala was arrested in Hong Kong, retired American couple Archie and Karenkay Ross were caught with 7.2kg of methamphetamine at Auckland International Airport in October 2015.
The couple believed they were carrying experimental malaria medication.
In sentencing them to four years, two months in prison, Justice Christian Whata accepted they had been “groomed over several years to be exploited as drug mules” and were deeply remorseful.
In May 2015, Auckland man Trevor Miranda was found not guilty of importing methamphetamine after falling prey to a similar scam.
He refused to take a cleaning chemical back to New Zealand for fear of taking a dangerous substance on a plane.
Instead, Miranda was told the chemicals would be shipped to his Auckland home and has was given a laptop to “track” the progress of the parcel.
He was carrying methamphetamine. 1.5kg of