Ryan Williams was already jailed for 5 years. But a bizarre legal loophole could see him face the death penalty.
An Australian man sentenced to a shock 5 years in a Bali jail for cooking up his own cocaine and who decided not to appeal and risk the death penalty has now been told the death penalty is back on the table.
Bizarrely it comes as Sydney man Ryan Scott Williams finds himself with an unlikely ally wielding a double-edged sword.
His accusers, whose actions in appealing for a lighter sentence for him have again opened the door to the very thing he hoped to avoid by not appealing himself - the death penalty or a higher sentence.
This is because, on appeals, it is open to the High Court to increase sentences, not just decrease them.
Prosecutors have decided to lodge an appeal against the 5-year sentence handed down to Williams on the basis, they argue, that the law used against him was not appropriate to his crime.
The 45-year-old was convicted in Denpasar District Court earlier this month of producing 38.72 grams of cocaine and jailed for 5 years.
Ryan Scott Williams has apologised to a Bali court after being arrested earlier this year for allegedly cooking up his own cocaine.
He had faced court on the more severe charge of producing a narcotic, which carries the death penalty as its maximum, and the alternative charge of using the drugs for himself, which carries a four-year maximum and the possibility of rehabilitation rather than jail.
During the trial prosecutors recommended that Williams only be convicted of the lesser offence, personal use, and sentenced to just 15 months in jail.
Prosecutor’s sentence demands are not binding on judges, who can deliver whatever sentence they deem is appropriate but are usually a good guide to the eventual sentence - except in Williams’ case.
Ryan Scott Williams, 45, was arrested in Bali in March this year.
The acting spokesperson at the Bali Prosecutor’s office, Ketut Sudiarta, confirmed the appeal to 7NEWS.com.au.
“We confirm that related to the drug case of the defendant Ryan Scott Williams, the prosecutor has decided to appeal the Judge’s verdict.
"Prosecutors can appeal for many reasons, including because the prosecutor disagrees with the article (law) used by the Judge,” Mr Ketut said today.
“We feel convinced the defendant (Williams) has violated Article 127 of drugs laws (for personal use)."
The court had found him guilty of Article 113 of drug laws, for producing cocaine.
“We have lodged the appeal because we are yet to accept the verdict,” Mr Ketut said, adding that prosecutors believed the more serious charge had not been proven in court.
“It’s not about the length of the sentence. It’s about the article used to charge the defendant.”
Williams and his legal team were shocked when the 5 year sentence was handed down, describing it as illogical but later decided not to appeal because the risk of the death penalty from a higher court was too great.
But the very thing they hoped to avoid, by accepting five years, is now very much back on the table with the latest news that prosecutors will appeal.
Prosecutors seeking death penalty
The rationale for the appeal is that the prosecution is bound to stand by its own case and sentence demand and therefore needs to take it to appeal in the same way they are bound to appeal if a sentence is much lower than what they demanded.
The prosecution appeal now opens up a whole new nightmare for Williams, a father of three, who faces an anxious wait in Bali’s Kerobokan jail for his appeal to be heard.
It’s a situation other Australians and foreigners have become mired in with disastrous results. In 2006 four members of the Bali Nine heroin gang - Scott Rush, Matthew Norman, Si Yi Chen and Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen - who had all initially been sentenced to life in jail, had their sentences increased to death on appeal to the Supreme Court, Indonesia’s highest court.
They eventually all won a reprieve and got life sentences after winning judicial reviews of their cases.
And Sierra Leone national, Emanual Otchejirika, also then jailed in Bali on drugs charges, appealed his life sentence, only to be handed a death sentence.
He remains on death row. Indonesia runs a harsh anti-drugs regime and it was for this reason that Williams had decided not to risk all with an appeal.
'5 years is lenient'
His lawyer, Edward Pangkahila, said at the time of his sentence that an appeal was too risky.
“If we appeal the risk is way too much. So, it is better for him to serve the sentence ... especially because the charge carries a maximum death sentence.
"5 years is actually lenient.
"If we appeal the result is uncertain, it could be heavier. Our State has declared an emergency on drugs.”
Source: 7news.com.au, Staff, August 23, 2019
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde