New Zealander Antony de Malmanche waits in a holding cell before his trial in Denpasar court on May 7, 2015. PHOTO: Sonny Tumbelaka/AFP
New Zealand man Antony de Malmanche will not be appealing his verdict on his drug trafficking case, reports say.
The Kiwi’s defense attorneys had previously said they would appeal the 15-year sentence handed down on June 30, 2015, but now News Corp Australia is reporting that Bali’s district court says it did not receive notice of appeal by the deadline which declares the sentence final.
“With this, the sentence for the convict de Malmanche … has been declared final,” said spokesman Hasoloan Sianturi, as quoted by News Corp.
“So far, we haven’t accepted an appeal request from the convict nor his lawyer either.”
From the prosecution’s side, spokesman Ashari Kurniawan says they are not pushing for a heavier sentence since the 15 years in jail is more than two-thirds of what they were seeking.
“There’s no obligation for us to ask for appeal,” he said.
Anyways, an appeal could have landed de Malmanche the maximum penalty of death, so he might be better off after all sticking with the 15 years.
Throughout the trial, de Malmanche’s defense maintained his innocence, arguing that he had no knowledge of the 1.7 kilograms that was found in his backpack when he landed in Bali in December 2014 on a flight from Hong Kong.
He claims a woman called “Jessy” whom he had fallen for online duped him, when he thought he would be meeting her.
His attorneys repeatedly brought up the man’s mental health history and low IQ to argue he had been a “trafficked person.”
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