Court hears of Bali Nine threats

Published: 9:31PM Tuesday November 29, 2005 Source: AAP

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The alleged ringleader of the Bali Nine threatened to kill his drug couriers on the spot if they refused to carry heroin to Australia, an Indonesian court heard on Tuesday.
  
Accused drug mule Scott Rush came close to tears as he recounted how Andrew Chan, 21, of Sydney, had threatened to shoot him, his friend Michael Czugaj and other drug mules as well as their families.
  
His dramatic testimony at Czugaj's trial at the Denpasar District Court was the first time that a Bali Nine member had testified against another defendant.
  
Another accused, Tach Duc Thanh Nguyen, took the stand but refused to answer questions despite warnings from the judges that his silence could lead to a tough penalty in a case in which all are facing possible death sentences.
  
Rush told the court that he and Czugaj, both of Brisbane, had been too terrified to find a way out of the failed heroin scheme.
  
He said alleged kingpin Chan had threatened to kill not only the couriers, but also their unsuspecting families in Australia.
  
"He threatened us and our families, he said he knew everything about us," Rush said, sitting nervously with his hands clenched in front of judges.
  
"He even said he was carrying a gun.
  
"He said he could kill us right now."
  
Rush, sitting alongside a nodding Czugaj and a court interpreter, said the pair came to Bali thinking they were on a paid holiday.
  
They had ben unaware that they would be required to carry heroin, although he admitted they had been suspicious.
  
But every time he asked his alleged gang handler Nguyen why they had been asked on an all-expenses paid trip, he had been told not to worry, he said.
  
"Basically we got the response that he didn't have anyone to come to Bali with him," he told the court.
  
Rush looked confused when one of the trial's three judges repeatedly asked him how he could have been been so naive.
  
Later Nguyen refused to testify, repeatedly rebuffing questions from judges and prosecutors and refusing to accept his earlier signed statement to police, which had to be read out as evidence.
  
"If you are found guilty it can be used as a reason for a judge to make the sentence heavier," chief judge Putu Widnya warned, getting only a shrug of the shoulders in reply.
  
Rush, 20, told the court he had no idea that the packages strapped to his body by Chan while he stood in a hotel room with his eyes closed contained heroin.
  
"I only found out after it was tested in POLDA (police headquarters)," he said.
  
Asked by judges why he had not tried to flee or turn himself into police at Bali airport after he and Czugaj, 19, were ordered to leave for Australia, Rush said Chan had warned he would be only 15 minutes behind.
  
"Andrew Chan said he would be watching us, he had people who would be watching us," he said.
  
"He told us he could kill us then and there. He said don't try anything."
  
"We were both scared at the time, scared and confused."
  
In a second court, Chan's alleged co-enforcer Myuran Sukumaran listened as hotel employees told of the gang's movements.
  
Prosecutor Suhadi said Nguyen's written statement would be compared to evidence given by other members of the Nine.
  
"It will be revealed that he is lying," he said afterwards.
  
Asked to verify Rush's version of events, Czugaj said "it's all true".
  
The trials for both Rush and Sukumaran were adjourned until December 6.

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