SYDNEY - A New Zealander charged after Australia's biggest cocaine seizure has been committed for trial.
Hamish Edmond Thompson, aged 47, is due to appear in the Sydney District Court on Friday week. He is charged with bringing a commercial quantity of a banned narcotic into Australia.
A committal hearing over whether Thompson, fellow New Zealander "Sir" Thomas Graham Fry, 48, and five others should stand trial over the drug bust began in Sydney Central Local Court this week.
That hearing is expected to continue until next week as defence lawyers for each of the accused take turns cross-examining the main prosecution witness, Victorian prison escaper Russell Douglas Bateman.
Bateman, who has admitted being involved in other cocaine imports and who faced a jail term of up to 40 years, pleaded guilty to his role in the cocaine shipment after offering to help the prosecution.
He was sentenced last month to 13 years in prison, with a non-parole period of 8 1/2 years.
Thompson's lawyer, Piet Baird, applied for an early decision on Thompson's committal. Mr Baird said outside the court that the application was made because Thompson's name was not expected to come up in evidence still to be presented to the hearing.
Thompson, Fry and another accused all face the same charge. The three were on a yacht, the Ngaire Wha, that sailed from New Zealand to Australia in late January.
The yacht was intercepted by police and customs officials off the New South Wales central coast on February 1.
Police said 500kg of cocaine, worth up to $A270 million (about $350 million) was found on board.
- NZPA
NZ man to be tried over big drug haul
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