Former Australian diplomat William Brown, accused of sexually assaulting two young boys in Bali, may get away with a light sentence when his trial concludes today on the resort island, child protection activists fear.
Community Against Sexual Abuse head Lul Ketut Suryani, who last week led a march to the court to protest against rumoured corruption, said the only previous foreign paedophile convicted in Bali received a light sentence.
Italian Mario Mannara was sentenced to 10 months in jail in 2001 for abusing children in northern Bali. He has since been deported.
Defence lawyers deny rumours of attempts to bribe the judges in the case and say they fear Brown, 52, could be hit with an exemplary long jail sentence.
'My client is worried and upset because the judges are under pressure from the international media and public to deliver a heavy sentence,' chief lawyer Ketut Suwiga Arya Dauh said yesterday.
'But my client knows and he swears that he did not hurt the children. He did those things because the children liked it, also.'