Unusual cases of Australians getting arrested overseas

AUSTRALIANS are keen travellers, but we’re not always on our best behaviour when abroad — and that includes falling foul of the law.

Australian writer Harry Nicolaides (C), 41, sits inside a court cell at a crime court in Bangkok on January 19, 2009. The Australian writer was sentenced to three years in jail by the Thai court after he pleaded guilty to insulting Thailand's revered royal family in a novel, a judge said. AFP PHOTO / PORNCHAI KITTIWONGSAKUL Pic. Afp Pic. Afp

AUSTRALIANS are keen travellers, but we’re not always on our best behaviour when abroad — and that includes falling foul of the law.

Despite warnings from the federal government that travellers have to obey the laws of countries they’re visiting — and that an Australian passport is not a get-out-of-jail-free card — the number of Australian tourists getting in trouble overseas is actually on the rise.

In the past year there were 1256 Aussie tourists arrested and 371 held in overseas jails, and those numbers have increased year by year since 2010, according to figures from the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The United States, mainland China and Thailand — our busiest consular spot — is where we are more likely to get arrested, mostly for drug offences, visa issues, assault and theft.

And while we’re all aware of cases such as Schapelle Corby and the Bali Nine, it’s not always the obvious crimes Australians have been nabbed for.

Some of them are downright unusual.

Annice Smoel after arriving home from Thailand in 2009.

STEALING A BAR MAT

Mother-of-four Annice Smoel was in Thailand to celebrate her mother’s 60th birthday in 2009 when she was arrested by undercover police for stealing a bar mat from a bar in Phuket.

After 18 days of facing a possible prison sentence, the matter was resolved when Mrs Smoel, from Melbourne, pleaded guilty to the charges in a Thai court and was deported.

It was later reported her criminal charge would jeapordise a family holiday she’d later planned to take to Disneyland in the US.

She later described being locked up in a Thai jail as the worst experience of her life.

“Being locked up in that cell for two days on a concrete slab ... and worrying ... so many times it went through my head this is just like Schapelle Corby, even though drugs weren’t involved, they’re just going to lock me up and throw away the key and not care,” she said.

Harry Nicolaides arrives in court in Bangkok, Thailand in 2009. Picture: AP

OFFENDING THAI ROYALS

Melbourne writer Harry Nicolaides’ 2005 book Verisimilitude was intended as a commentary on contemporary life in Thailand, but Thai officials didn’t think it was quite so innocent.

Mr Nicolaides was arrested in Thailand in August 2008, accused of slandering King Bhumibol Adulyadej — who is regarded as a demigod — as well as the crown price and the entire royal family with a passage in the book in which he discusses the personal life of a fictional prince.

The Thai monarchy is protected by strict lese majeste laws that outlaw criticism of the king, queen, crown prince and regent.

Mr Nicolaides was sentenced to six years in jail, but that was reduced to three years after he issued an apology.

But six months after his arrest, Mr Nicolaides was granted a royal pardon and allowed to return to Melbourne.

“It is simply one of the most bizarre cases I’ve ever come across,” human rights activist Arnold Zable told The Age after Mr Nicolaides was released.

The Peru Six are still awaiting their fate.

APPEARED IN GRIEVING SIBLINGS’ DREAMS

Six young Australian backpackers are still in legal limbo four years after they were named as suspects in the alleged murder of a hotel doorman in Peru.

The so-called “Peru Six” — brothers Hugh and Tom Hanlon, Jessica Vo, Sam Smith, Harrison Geier and Andrew Pilat — were on holiday in Lima in January 2012 when Lino Rodriguez Vilchez fell 15 storeys to his death.

The man’s death was initially ruled as suicide, but in a bizarre twist, Mr Rodriguez’s brother and sister claimed he had appeared to them in dreams, and insisted the case be treated as murder.

The Australians were then accused of pushing Mr Rodriguez over a dispute that arose from a noise complaint.

The Peru Six, who have been able to give evidence from home, deny this and maintain their innocence.

They are still waiting for their case to either be dismissed by the Peruvian government or go to trial.

Sex between people of the same sex was illegal in Fiji until 2010.

SODOMY

Human rights groups were outraged in 2005 when an Australian man who had sex with a man while on holiday in Fiji was sentenced to two years in jail under the island nation’s anti-homosexuality laws.

Victorian Thomas McCosker, then 55, travelled to Fiji after being made redundant from his university job and had consensual sex with a man he met there.

Mr McCosker was arrested and faced court on anti-sodomy charges with no legal representation. He was found guilty and sentenced to two years in jail, a conviction that was condemned by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty.

But after a four-month legal battle, the conviction was overturned by the Fiji High Court, which found it to be unconstitutional. Mr McCosker was then allowed to return home.

Sexual activity between people of the same sex is no longer illegal in Fiji.

John Short was detained for 15 days in a North Korean jail.

LEAVING A BIBLE IN A TEMPLE

Christian missionary John Short, an Australian based in Hong Kong, was arrested in 2014 for leaving “bible tracts” in a Buddhist temple in North Korea’s capital city Pyongyang.

North Korea’s socialist regime has aggressively cracked down on religious expression — especially Christian proselytism, and Mr Short was arrested.

The 75-year-old faced a potential jail term but was released after just 15 days in detention after he allegedly confessed and apologised to the North Korean government.

“I realise that my actions are an indelible hostile act against the independent right and laws of the (North),’’ a confession attributed to him read.

“I request forgiveness ... and am willing to bow down on my knees,’’ it said.

Mr Short later said he had been “interrogated daily” during his detention.