Accused drug mule Cassie Sainsbury could serve possible jail sentence in Australia
A JUDGE presiding over Cassie Sainsbury’s cocaine case has revealed his thoughts on her situation and poured cold water on her bid to serve a sentence in Australia if found guilty.
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A COLOMBIAN judge presiding over Cassie Sainsbury’s cocaine case has revealed his thoughts about her situation as she languishes in jail.
Judge John Jairo Zambraro told Nine News she was “too young to be caught up in something like this”.
“What caught my eye was her age. She was 22, too young to be caught up in something like this,” he said.
Nine News obtained an audio recording of Sainsbury’s appearance in court.
On the tape she can be heard saying: “My name is Cassandra Leigh Sainsbury. I am an Australian. I was staying at Hotel Inter Bogota.
“I do not accept the charges filed by the prosecutor.”
The news comes as Australian diplomats are trying to convince Colombian authorities to let accused drug mule Cassie Sainsbury serve her almost certain jail sentence at home.
The 22-year-old Adelaide woman is being advised to accept the charges against her in order to reduce her sentence after she was caught with about 6kg cocaine in her suitcase at Bogota’s El Dorado airport last month.
Her Bogota lawyer Orlando Herran told News Corp that Australian diplomats are working on a deal that would see her move from El Buen Pastor women’s jail to one in Australia, but only after a conviction was recorded.
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However, Judge Zambraro says that is unlikely.
“The system is clear. Do the crime in Colombia, do the time in Colombia,” he told 9 News through an interpreter.
The revelation comes as new light was shed on how Sainsbury spent her nine days in Bogota, with the manager of the hotel where she stayed saying she stood out because she arrived without a reservation and only paid for her accommodation two days at a time.
“She was a very quiet person. And she is very young. She’s like a girl. Very young,” said Ingrid Hernandez.
“It claimed my attention that she was so young and on her own. If you visit a country like Colombia, you should spend a night drinking in a bar, or going to a restaurant and eat delicious food.
“She was alone most of the time in her room. I remember once she went and brought McDonalds back to eat.”
Ms Hernandez said Sainsbury’s only visitor was a well-dressed Colombian man, understood to be the mysterious Angelo, who is accused of tricking Sainsbury into packing the drugs into her suitcase in the mistaken belief that the packages contained headphones.
“He was a young guy but older than her. He looked normal. Normal height, normal build. He could have been in his late 20s, 30s. He had short brown gelled hair,” she said.
Sainsbury has told her lawyers and family she doesn’t know the surname of Angelo, a local she met after arriving in Bogota on April 3 at the tail end of six month world trip.
Mr Herran said Cassie returning home was the best-case scenario Australian diplomats and her legal team were working towards.
“It’s a deal between the Australian consulate and Colombia. It’s a diplomatic process,” Mr Herran said.
“The consulate here in Colombia has been very aware of the case of Cassandra, they have been visiting her, once a week.”
“In Colombia this has happened a few times.
“There have been times where other countries have sent Colombians back here to carry out their sentences. Other times, Colombia has sent people back to other countries.”
Mr Herran said it was expected the negotiations would be protracted, given there is no formal prisoner exchange program between the two countries, and said he considered they had a 50-50 chance of success.
Australia previously attempted unsuccessfully to arrange a prisoner exchange treaty with Indonesia in the cases of accused drug smugglers Schapelle Corby, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran
“Normally, it works very well when there is an international agreement between the two countries, that pertains to these situations. However, the vast majority of countries don’t have this kind of deal. Australia doesn’t have this kind of deal,” he said.
It could be months before Sainsbury’s matter is heard.
Any kind of exchange would be contingent upon a conviction in Colombia.
A spokesperson for Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said: “As set out in Consular Services Charter, the Australian Government cannot intervene in another country’s court proceedings or legal matters.”
— Additional reporting Joe Parkin Daniels
Originally published as Accused drug mule Cassie Sainsbury could serve possible jail sentence in Australia
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