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MEETING RUSTY

The guards sent them away, saying that there were no Australian prisoners in San Pedro, but they began to get suspicious about why Rusty was going in and out of the prison all the time.

On the morning of the first hearing in my new trial, I told Rusty not to come in because I was sick. I waited at the gate with the other prisoners to be transported to court. The guards called our names, handcuffed us in pairs and put us in the transport van. My name was called immediately before that of Jorge Velasco. He had avoided me ever since the new charges had been laid and he panicked when he saw that the guards were about to handcuff us together.

'No. No!' he said, stepping away from the guard. He must have thought I would try to strangle him on the way.

'It's OK. Tranquilo,' I reassured him. 'No hay problema.' I still hated the Velascos. They had tried to set me up and I knew they were responsible for having Abregon transferred to Chonchocoro. But there was no point in fighting. It wouldn't bring Abregon back and now that we were being tried together for the same offence, it was better for us to be on reasonable terms.

'Vamos,' ordered the lieutenant impatiently. Reluctantly, Jorge allowed himself to be handcuffed to me. We didn't speak the whole way to the court. Nor did he say anything to his father. I should have known by the awkward way he sat next to me that something else had happened to make him fear me more.

My lawyer visited me in the court holding cell just before the trial started. His name was Manuelo and he was a public defence lawyer. It was only because I was a foreigner that I was fortunate enough to get any assistance. I told him that I would pay him a bit myself, in order to make him try harder on my behalf. Sometimes lawyers didn't try their hardest in drug cases because if they won against a powerful fiscal, they might ruin their careers.

To start the trial, the fiscal stood up and made his opening address. For the sake of efficiency, the prosecution was to be done by joint trial, although we each had our own legal representative. The prosecution case against me was very weak, and until halfway through the hearing I felt confident that I would be let off. When the charges were read, I was asked to stand and Manuelo stated my plea: inocente. My defence

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