Sacatides victim of drug ring, court told

Michael Sacatides (center)

An Australian man allegedly caught entering Bali with a large amount of the party drug ice concealed in his luggage has employed a defence similar to that used by convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby.

Michael Sacatides, 43, a kickboxing instructor who has been living in Thailand, was arrested at Bali's international airport on October 1 when customs officers found 1.7 kilograms of methamphetamine in a compartment in his suitcase.

Sacatides, who could face the death penalty if convicted, has denied that the drugs, worth an estimated $A390,000, belong to him.

The Sydney man's lawyer, Erwin Siregar, on Wednesday asked for the charges against Sacatides to be dropped, telling the court that he was the unwitting victim of a drug ring.

A similar defence was used by Corby, who is now serving 20 years for smuggling more than 4kg of marijuana into Bali in 2004. She was also represented by Siregar, who is being funded by Australian Legal Aid.

"The defendant's position is more ... victim of a drug syndicate, not as the real perpetrator, as been accused by the prosecutor," Siregar said on Wednesday.

Sacatides told investigators at the time of his arrest that he had borrowed the suitcase from an Indian associate, Akaleshi Tripathi, whom he knew from Bangkok where he had been living.

"The prosecutor's indictment has gone blurry and premature as the prosecutor was not careful enough in describing the events and mistakenly placed the defendant as someone who's suspected as perpetrator without further explanation on Akaleshi Tripathi's, alias Peter's, whereabouts or involvement," Siregar said.

He said authorities had been provided with an address for Tripathi in Bangkok but had failed to investigate the matter further.

Sacatides watched on intently during the proceedings before making a personal plea via a translator, asking for the court to dismiss the charges.

Three other Australians - Scott Rush, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran - are on death row in Bali's Kerobokan Prison over a 2005 attempt to smuggle more than 8kg of heroin from Bali to Australia.

Another six members of the so-called Bali Nine are serving sentences of between 20 years and life in prison over the plot.

The trial of Sacatides resumes on January 11.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, January 5, 2011