Barlow and Chambers execution

The Barlow and Chambers executions were the hangings on 7 July 1986 by Malaysia of two foreign nationals, Kevin John Barlow (Australian and British) and Brian Geoffrey Shergold Chambers (Australian) of Perth, Western Australia, for transporting of heroin.

The two men became the first Westerners to be executed under Malaysia's new tougher laws for drug offences. Under Section 39B(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, "Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death..." Barlow was born in the United Kingdom in Stoke-on-Trent and held dual British and Australian nationalities. Barlow's family made appeals to UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to make a protest about the impending execution, but she declined to do so. Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Bill Hayden's appeal for clemency to the Malaysian government was rejected. The executions caused public outcry and strained political relations between Australia and Malaysia at the time.

Background

Between early 1981 and the end of 1983 Chambers had made at least twelve trips abroad to transport heroin to Australia. In 1980 Chambers imported heroin to Australia using body packing techniques, placing the drugs in his anus. The rest of the load was swallowed. He used the same technique in 1981 when, on transit in Singapore, customs officers detected two vials of personal-use heroin in his jacket pocket. He was released after bribing officers.

Chambers and his then girlfriend, Susan Cheryl Jacobsen, decided to move to Melbourne to escape Perth's organised crime scene. Driving intoxicated near Penong, South Australia, Chambers crashed the vehicle. He was not seriously injured; Jacobsen, however, received severe injuries and spent several days in a coma before dying of her injuries on 20 May 1983.

Planning

The drug run was organised by Perth criminal John Asciak. Chambers was enlisted for the job due to his experience in the task.

Asciak soon learned Barlow had little money and few prospects for regular work. At the time Barlow was on compensation after injuring himself at work. He was depressed. He had also been threatened with the repossession of his car.

Though Barlow and Chambers later testified they were tourists travelling alone who met by chance in Singapore and then opted to travel together, their meeting in Singapore in October 1983 was planned by Asciak. Chambers had previously had a meeting with Barlow in Perth to approve him for the job. To help conceal their activities, Barlow had flown to Singapore directly from Perth, while Chambers had flown there via Sydney. After the Singapore meeting they disobeyed orders by travelling together and sharing the same hotel rooms; they had been directed to stay apart.

Barlow was a novice on his first drug run; he was convinced by organisers that as Chambers was an experienced drug courier the plan would proceed smoothly.

The proposed drug run had been openly discussed by John Asciak and Kevin Barlow in the household of Debbie Colyer-Long prior to the event. Colyer-Long's brother-in-law Trevor Lawson learned of it and had informed the National Crime Authority of the scheme.

Initial plans were that Barlow and Chambers conceal the drugs by inserting some packages into their anuses and swallowing the rest. Barlow refused to do either, the former for reasons of distaste, the latter due to health concerns with that method. Chambers relented and placed the several packages of drugs, which were within plastic carry bags and wrapped in newspaper, into a newly purchased maroon suitcase. Barlow had become very nervous after the collection of the drugs.

Arrest

Barlow and Chambers were observed alighting from the same taxi at Bayan Lepas International Airport on 9 November 1983. Barlow carried the maroon suitcase and entered the airport. He bypassed the luggage scanning area and approached the check-in desk. Chambers, carrying Barlow's bags, paid the taxi, entered the airport and passed through the luggage scanning area, and joined Barlow at the check-in desk. They were detained by police, as Barlow was seen to be very nervous.

Taken to an interview room they were asked to open the suitcases. Chambers opened the bags he was carrying. Barlow said he was unable to open the case he had carried and that it was Chambers's case. Chambers unlocked the case's combination locks and the drugs were found; however, he claimed he had not known the contents of the smaller carry bags the drugs were in.

When police handcuffed them, they were reportedly "shivering terribly".

Barlow attempted to excuse his actions by claiming that he had been forced to take the trip and his girlfriend threatened to leave him if he refused.

Trial

Their trial started on 17 July 1985 at the High Court of Penang. The trial opened with both men claiming the drugs found in the maroon suitcase belonged to the other. Chambers was represented at the trial by Rasiah Rajasingham and Barlow by Karpal Singh.

Chambers remained handcuffed through the trial. Barlow was not cuffed but used crutches due to a groin injury. The arresting officer testified that he saw Barlow holding the maroon suitcase and shivering while waiting to board the plane. The court heard that Chambers had acknowledged ownership of the suitcase two days after the arrest. Chambers testified in court that he didn't know about the drugs in the case, and that Barlow had also used the case. Chambers also testified that Barlow had attempted to bribe a policeman at the airport when the drugs were discovered.

On 1 August 1985 Barlow and Chambers attended their sentencing hearing to learn they had received the death sentence by hanging.

Appeal

They sought an appeal against the original sentence on the grounds that the original trial judge had drawn unwarranted inferences from circumstantial evidence and had erred on several points. Other arguments of the appeal revolved around the credibility of the arresting officer's testimony, and questions of whether Barlow and Chambers acted with a "common purpose" in trafficking in the drugs.

On 15 December 1985 they were transferred to Kuala Lumpur for their appeal to the Malaysian Supreme Court. There they were imprisoned in Pudu Prison. Barlow continued to profess his innocence. Pudu Prison had been built in 1895 to hold about 700. By 1986 it held around 6,000 prisoners, almost 50 of whom were drug dealers sentenced to death. Singh attempted to have Galbally charged with contempt. The day after the row, Galbally was asked for, and submitted, an apology to the court for his words in court.

Political statements

Malaysia had introduced the death penalty for drug trafficking in 1983 as a reaction to a burgeoning drug trade in the region. By mid 1986 Malaysia had hanged about 35 people in ten years, mostly Chinese Malaysians convicted of drug trafficking. Lawyers and government officials reportedly agreed that the country risked a political and ethnic outcry if it made exceptions based on the ethnicity of its defendants. As Australian public support for Barlow and Chambers was minimal, Malaysia risked little diplomatic damage from carrying out the execution. Relations between the two nations were reportedly affected for a decade afterwards. In response to the argument that no one has the right to take another's life, then-Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad replied, "You should tell that to the drug traffickers."

At a press conference that was held after the hangings Mahathir criticised the use of the word "barbaric" and said it should not have been used to refer to Malaysia because "we have never had any lynchings and things like that which only barbarians like to do." He also said that hanging as a method of executing criminals originated in the West.

The then UMNO Youth Leader Anwar Ibrahim also said use of the term "barbaric" was regrettable. He said "It is a generative word that passes judgement on our society—something we cannot accept and did not expect from such a friendly country." He argued that the consequences of drug trafficking were well known in Malaysia, and the need for strong deterrents to eliminate the activity was accepted internationally.

The conference of State Legislative Assembly speakers in Shah Alam also rejected Hawke's comment. They said it gave the impression Australia belittled Malaysian law and "considers the capital punishment meted out to the two as uncivilised and unsuitable for this day and age." The speakers at the conference unanimously passed an emergency resolution expressing their "grave view" of the statement. The conference felt that such comments should not have come from a national leader who upheld the law and that the statement had touched on the sovereignty of Malaysia's laws and the legal system.

Aftermath

thumb|Warning painted on the walls of [[Pudu Prison, 1999]]

After their sentencing an investigative trip by Detective Sergeant Carl Mengler of the National Crime Authority of Australia had included interviews with various Australians imprisoned in South East Asia for drug trafficking. Chambers had refused to meet him but Barlow gave information about the planning of the trip; however, he knew only sketchy details of the organisers. This meeting took place in January 1986. The information Barlow gave to Mengler during this interview was later corroborated by Debbie Colyer-Long.

In June 1988 in Perth, Western Australia, John Asciak was found guilty of conspiring with Barlow and Chambers to import 179 grams of heroin. He had been implicated by Barlow when he was interviewed in prison by the National Crime Authority of Australia in 1986. The court heard Asciak recruited Barlow, who he knew had financial problems, and offered him $6,000 to conduct the drug run. Barlow was later introduced to Chambers in Perth. Asciak, who denied the charges, was found guilty and sentenced to ten years in prison.

Dramatisations

A four-hour television mini-series was released in 1988 entitled Barlow and Chambers: A Long Way From Home (Dadah is Death). It stars Hugo Weaving as Geoffrey Chambers and John Polson as Kevin Barlow.
A BBC drama, produced by Richard Langridge and directed by Jane Howell, was made on a script by Michael Wall which followed the story closely and was transmitted on BBC2 in 1991 entitled Amongst Barbarians.
A 2004 Canadian movie, Manners Of Dying, follows the short story of that name by Yann Martel (Man Booker Prize winner) published in 1993, directed by Jeremy Peter Allen, refers to the executions through the name of its main character, Kevin Barlow.

Bibliography

West Australian newspaper: -Transferred to death row, Penang jail (August 1985) and await news of their appeal for clemency (Nov. 1985 - June 1986. 6 Nov. 1985, p. 33; 15 Nov. 1985, p. 33; 18 Nov. 1985, p. 43; 25 Nov. 1985, p. 14; 14 Jan. 1986, p. 11; 11 Feb. 1986, p. 24; 5 June 1986, p. 20; 19 June 1986, p. 1.
West Australian newspaper: The sentences of capital punishment (21 December 1985). Editorial on the death penalty and heroin trading (Dec. 1985), summaries of events (June 1986), their hanging in Kuala Lumpur (7 July 1986) and their involvement in organised drug smuggling (July 1986).
West Australian newspaper: 23 June 1986, pp. 1–9 - summary of case. (They are hanged 7 July 1986). 21 Dec. 1985, p. 8; 23 June 1986, p. 1–9; 8 July 1986, p. 1–2; 9 July 1986, p. 10; 7 May 1987, p. 1

References

External links

Australia and the Death Penalty