Kiwi crims ‘should serve time at home’
New Zealand should be working to allow international prisoner transfers to bring Kiwi criminals home and out of harsh jails in countries with inhumane or immature criminal justice systems, a leading human rights lawyer says.
Transnational human rights lawyer Craig Tuck represents Whanganui man Antony de Malmanche who in 2015 was sentenced to 15 years in jail for drug trafficking in Indonesia.
As of October 2017, de Malmanche is one of at least 163 known Kiwi prisoners in overseas jails, figures released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) under the Official Information Act show.
New Zealand remains the only country in the OECD that has not signed an international treaty for the transfer of prisoners – neither the Government nor its officials can intervene in the justice system or courts of foreign countries, or resolve immigration violation decisions.
Tuck visited de Malmanche in Bali’s notorious Kerobokan prison in October.
He is trying to figure out a way to bring his client home to serve out his sentence.
The lawyer is calling for a standardised protocol in dealing with international prisoner transfers.
He sees no reason why Kiwis should not be brought back home to serve their sentences, near their families ‘‘in humane conditions fitting of a modern democracy’’.
Just months after de Malmanche arrived in Kerobokan two inmates were killed as gang violence erupted.
Former inmates have described the prison as overcrowded, understaffed, drug-filled, lawless, corrupt and brutally violent.
Kerobokan was built in 1979 to hold
300 inmates. The prison now houses 1500 male and female prisoners from around the world, some of whom are on death row.
Conditions inside Kerobokan prison – which housed murderers, rapists and paedophiles – were harsh.
Tuck described de Malmanche’s cell as a ‘‘broom cupboard’’ that could reach
40 degrees Celsius at night.
But at least he had a cell – many prisoners slept rough in prison grounds with nothing but chilly bins for water and sanitation and portable stoves to cook food.
Tuck said de Malmanche was low-key and had been keeping busy as a kind of jail pharmacist.
He had taken it upon himself to deliver prisoners – many of whom had mental health issues – their daily medications in his morning ‘‘drug run’’.
But it seems there is scant political will to tackle the issue.
Last year then-Justice Minister Amy Adams said New Zealand had not, and would not, sign up to an agreement because of the financial implications.
Current Justice Minister Andrew Little said a review of policy around the issue was not a priority, but not because of the cost.
At some point it might be useful to explore the issue but unless a prisoner was being held in inhumane conditions that violated international conventions the government had no jurisdiction to meddle in another country’s criminal justice system, Little said.
‘‘If you offend in another country you must be held to account in that country and I think New Zealanders travelling abroad have to comply with the local laws and if they want to take those laws on they do so at their own peril.’’
The ministry does not have a complete list of prisoners detained overseas – it only holds the information when it is notified and for consular assistance, which is not requested by every prisoner.