SINGAPORE COURT POSTPONES AUSTRALIAN TV JOURNALIST'S DRUG TRIAL

SINGAPORE, Aug 11 (Bernama) -- The drug trial involving an Australian
television reporter from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), which was fixed for Monday, has been shifted to Aug 19.

This is the third time in three weeks that the hearing has been
postponed.

Hamidul Haq, counsel for the 41-year-old journalist, Lloyd Peter Gerard, when contacted by the press said the date was shifted not at the request of the defence and he did not know the reason.

Many local and foreign journalists who were present at the Subordinate
Court
today were caught unawares.

The case was first to be heard on July 23 but was postponed to Aug 1 after
the prosecution filed additional charges, and on the following week it was
postponed to today after the defence sought more documents on the case from the
prosecution.

Gerard, a New Delhi-based reporter, faces five drug charges under the
Misuse of Drugs Act (MDA).

Under the Act, a person can be jailed between three and 20 years and given
five to 15 strokes of the cane if found guilty.

The journalist was charged with selling 0.15gm of methamphetamine, a
controlled drug, to a Singaporean for $100 at a hotel here on July 9, possessing
0.41gm of the same drug at Mount Elizabeth Hospital on July 16, two counts
of possessing utensils that carried traces of ketamine and methamphetamine
at the same hospital on July 16, and consuming methamphetamine without
authorisation in Singapore on July 16.

Gerard, who was caught by Singapore's Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) on
July
16, is currently on $60,000 bail.
-- BERNAMA