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InvisibleBridgeburner
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Registered: 09/16/06
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Japanese heroin smuggler 'was not guilty'
    #7999391 - 02/09/08 08:36 AM (15 years, 11 months ago)

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A JAPANESE woman who spent more than 10 years in a Victorian jail for heroin smuggling was almost certainly innocent, fresh evidence suggests.

A team of Australian and Japanese legal experts have uncovered new evidence, including witness statements confirming her alibi, and say her trial was fundamentally flawed.

But Chika Honda's hopes that the findings could lead to a pardon have been dashed, following a dispute between the Australian academics and Japanese lawyers who have been working on the case.

Ms Honda, now 52, has maintained her innocence since she was arrested at Melbourne Airport in June 1992.

Almost 13 kilograms of heroin were found in her bags and those of three of her Japanese companions. The four served 101/2 years in prison before being deported to Japan in 2002.

A fifth member of the group, the alleged ringleader, was sentenced to a maximum of 20 years and has since been released and deported.

Evidence clearing Ms Honda was compiled over years by a team of Japanese lawyers, supported by two academics at Bond University in Queensland, Professor Paul Wilson, a criminologist, and Professor Eric Colvin, of the law faculty.

Their findings were to form the basis of a petition for a pardon to Governor-General Michael Jeffery.

"The proposal to be put to the Governor-General was that there was fresh evidence that exculpated Chika Honda and also that the way that the trial proceeded meant that she did not receive a fair trial," Professor Colvin told The Sunday Age.

Professor Wilson said the petition included new evidence confirming the central claim Ms Honda made in her defence - that her suitcase was stolen during a stopover in Kuala Lumpur on the way to Melbourne, and that she was given a replacement by an associate of the ringleader.

"There are witnesses . . . who've confirmed that the suitcases were switched and we've got statements to that effect and we've interviewed them," Professor Wilson said.

He said the Malaysian partner of the Japanese ringleader has also given statements that Ms Honda was "not involved herself at all, although he's indicated others were".


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OfflineNexius
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Registered: 06/24/07
Posts: 3,960
Loc: Earth Flag
Last seen: 12 years, 11 months
Re: Japanese heroin smuggler 'was not guilty' [Re: Bridgeburner]
    #8000474 - 02/09/08 02:44 PM (15 years, 11 months ago)

Poor woman


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Light travels faster than sound, which is why some people appear bright, until you hear them speak


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Offlinewille

Registered: 09/05/07
Posts: 118
Last seen: 9 years, 4 months
Re: Japanese heroin smuggler 'was not guilty' [Re: Nexius]
    #8000865 - 02/09/08 04:21 PM (15 years, 11 months ago)

I don't understand why they didn't let her go right when they found out there was evidence to prove she was innocent. Damn bureaucracy ruining a womans life.


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