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

transporting Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, a ...

141.9 g of

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and brown ...

. The two men became the first

Westerners The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania.

to be executed unde
Malaysia's new tougher laws for drug offences
Under Section 39B(2) of the

Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 The Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 ( ms, Akta Dadah Berbahaya 1952), is a Malaysian law which was enacted to make further and better provision for the regulation of the importation, exportation, manufacture, sale, and use of opium and certain other dang ...

, "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 Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement in Staffordshire and is surrou ...

and held dual British and Australian nationalities. Barlow's family made appeals to Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Margaret Thatcher to make a protest about the impending execution, and Australian

Minister for Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between cou ...

Bill Hayden William George Hayden (born 23 January 1933) is an Australian politician who served as the 21st governor-general of Australia from 1989 to 1996. He was Leader of the Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1977 to 1983, and served as ...

made an appeal for clemency to the Malaysian government, which 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 A mule or courier is someone who personally smuggles contraband across a border (as opposed to sending by mail, etc.) for a smuggling organization. The organizers employ mules to reduce the risk of getting caught themselves. Methods of smugglin ...

techniques, placing the drugs in his

anus The anus (Latin, 'ring' or 'circle') is an opening at the opposite end of an animal's digestive tract from the mouth. Its function is to control the expulsion of feces, the residual semi-solid waste that remains after food digestion, which, de ...

. 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 __NOTOC__ Penong ( ) is a town and locality on the Nullarbor Plain, in the far west of the state of South Australia located about north-west of the state capital of Adelaide. With no settlements between it and Border Village on the border with ...

, 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 spent much time at the residence of his girlfriend Debbie Colyer-Long and got to know her boarder, Kevin Barlow. 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, consuming a lot of alcohol and marijuana after Susan's death. 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. Barlow was initially confident the drug run would be successful. 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 The National Crime Authority (NCA) was an Australian law enforcement agency established in 1984 and wound up on 31 December 2002. History The NCA was set up in 1984 in the wake of the Costigan Commission, which investigated tax evasion and org ...

of the scheme.

Drug trafficking

Having met in Singapore, Barlow and Chambers travelled by train to

Penang Penang ( ms, Pulau Pinang, is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, by the Malacca Strait. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay ...

in Malaysia. The package of drugs had been buried on a beach in Penang. Chambers was given directions to the site and dug up the package. Barlow was present but had not known the location of the heroin. 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 Penang International Airport is an airport in northern Malaysia. The airport is located near Bayan Lepas at the southeastern tip of Penang Island, south of the city centre.

Imprisonment on remand

They were imprisoned in Penang Prison for all of 1984 and most of 1985. The prison was overcrowded. Built in 1849 to house up to 350 prisoners, in 1984 it housed 2000 people including women and babies. Barlow and Chambers were locked in a two by three-metre cell together with up to three other prisoners for 22 hours a day, with an exercise period being allowed only if all cellmates had behaved that day. Chambers was well liked in prison; however, Barlow had trouble adjusting, and was described as being a "lunatic" and "cracking up". 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 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 Dato' Seri Utama Karpal Singh s/o Ram Singh Deo ( pa, ਕਰਪਾਲ ਸਿੰਘ, Karpāl Siṅgh; 28 June 1940 – 17 April 2014) was an Indian Malaysian politician and lawyer. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of B ...

. 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 23 July the judge rejected Singh's attempt to have Rajasingham disqualified on grounds that he had received confidential information from Barlow in the nine months before the trial when he acted for both of the accused. The trial concluded 24 July and both men were found guilty. The trial judge deferred pronouncing sentence for a week to enable lawyers of the two men to prepare submissions to him which might be used in an appeal to the Supreme Court of Malaysia, and to hear submissions on behalf of Barlow that he should be allowed to return to Australia immediately for an operation on his leg. The prosecutors surmised that as they had arrived, stayed, and were leaving together, they had a common purpose of trafficking drugs. On 1 August 1985 Barlow and Chambers attended their sentencing hearing to learn they had received the death sentence by hanging. Police and legal sources confirmed that Chambers at least was the victim of an informer. Prior to his arrest three or four Penang drug dealers had been detained and interrogated about Chambers' movements. The informers' evidence was kept secret at the trial. The drug habits of Barlow and Chambers were likewise not mentioned at the trial as it would have prejudiced their cases, and exposed the heroin trade inside Malaysian prisons.

Appeal

They sought an appeal against the original sentence on the grounds that the original trial judge had drawn unwarranted inferences from

circumstantial evidence Circumstantial evidence is evidence that relies on an inference to connect it to a conclusion of fact—such as a fingerprint at the scene of a crime. By contrast, direct evidence supports the truth of an assertion directly—i.e., without need f ...

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 The Federal Court of Malaysia ( ms, Mahkamah Persekutuan Malaysia) is the highest court and the final appellate court in Malaysia. It is housed in the Palace of Justice in Putrajaya. The court was established during Malaya's independence in 1 ...

. There they were imprisoned in

Pudu Prison The Pudu Prison ( ms, Penjara Pudu, ), also known as Pudu Jail, was a prison in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Built in phases by the British colonial government between 1891 and 1895, it stood on Jalan Shaw (now Jalan Hang Tuah). The construction began ...

. Barlow continued to profess his innocence.

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. The appeal started on 16 December 1985. Chambers was represented at the appeal by

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

barrister Ron Cannon. Barlow's lawyer

was assisted by Melbourne barrister

Frank Galbally Francis Eugene Joseph "Frank" Galbally (13 October 192212 October 2005) was an Australian criminal defence lawyer. Early life and education Galbally was born in 1922, the eighth of nine children of William Galbally and Eileen Cummins, who bot ...

at the appeal. Galbally was accompanied by Allen Bartholomew who was the Victorian Chief Prison Psychiatrist. On 16 December a row broke out between Singh and Galbally in the court room and was witnessed by press and court staff. The argument occurred after the judges had adjourned for the day and left the court, and lasted for about five minutes. Galbally had urged Singh to file an additional ground for appeal for their client. Singh had said there was "little point" doing this, as no fresh evidence was involved. Galbally believed Barlow's shivering could be attributed to a spinal injury; however, Singh reasoned that this was already adequately covered by medical evidence at the trial and in the existing appeal. At the appeal Singh had argued that Barlow's shivering could be attributed to his existing medical condition, or a foreigner's "unease" at being confronted by police. After the argument Singh finally left the room, warning Galbally over his shoulder not to criticise Malaysia's British-based legal system or suggest Australia's was superior. Singh attempted to have Galbally charged with contempt. The day after the row Galbally was asked for, and gave, an apology to the court for his words in court. The appeal court on 18 December 1985 upheld the trial judge's decision to invoke the death penalty because the amount of the drug carried was in excess of the 15 gram cut-off point used to distinguish users from traffickers. On death row, Chambers had taken up biblical studies with a Western Catholic Missionary. He broke down and wept in her arms in the dock when three appeals judges upheld the conviction. Galbally was not in court for the final decision of the appeal; Australian officials reported that he had left Malaysia on the night of 17 December after apologising to the Supreme Court over the row over contempt. After the result was publicised Galbally suggested that Barlow would have been found not guilty had the medical evidence he wanted introduced been admitted by the court. The evidence he wanted heard at the appeal was that Barlow had a nervous shake; the prosecution had used Barlow's shake at the time of his arrest as grounds for his guilt. After the rejection of the appeal, Australia's Foreign Minister Bill Hayden contacted the Governor of Penang asking that the sentence be commuted to imprisonment on humanitarian grounds. Hayden stated that "I have always been and remain firmly opposed to capital punishment, and accordingly I will be pressing the presentation of this appeal for clemency with a great sense of urgency." Through the ordeal of Barlow and Chambers, their mothers, Sue Chambers and Barbara Barlow, publicly supported the defence of innocence. However, in a joint letter to the King of Malaysia Sultan Iskandar pleading for their lives, they acknowledged their sons' guilt, saying they "regretted their wrongdoing."

Execution

Barlow and Chambers were hanged in

on 7 July 1986. The executioner was Rajendran Kuppasamy, who retired later that year. Kevin Barlow's mother Barbara Barlow reportedly prepared a suicide potion for her son to enable him to evade death by hanging. She prepared the mixture of 75 sleeping tablets dissolved in gin, whisky and brandy in her hotel room and smuggled it into the prison in a small plastic bottle concealed in her handbag. However, fearing her son would use it before all avenues of appeal had been exhausted she made the last-minute decision to keep the secret solution to herself.

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.

Australian Prime Minister The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister heads the executive branch of the federal government of Australia and is also accountable to federal parliament under the princi ...

Bob Hawke Robert James Lee Hawke (9 December 1929 – 16 May 2019) was an Australian politician and union organiser who served as the 23rd prime minister of Australia from 1983 to 1991, holding office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (AL ...

made a passionate plea for a stay of execution on behalf of the two men. Hawke later described the hanging as "barbaric", a remark which chilled Australian relations with Malaysia. 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 Mahathir bin Mohamad ( ms, محاضير بن محمد, label= Jawi, script=arab, italic=unset; ; born 10 July 1925) is a Malaysian politician, author, and physician who served as the 4th and 7th Prime Minister of Malaysia. He held the offic ...

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

lynching Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...

s 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 The United Malays National Organisation ( Malay: ; Jawi: ; abbreviated UMNO () or less commonly PEKEMBAR), is a nationalist right-wing political party in Malaysia. As the oldest continuous national political party within Malaysia (since its ...

Youth Leader

Anwar Ibrahim Anwar bin Ibrahim ( ms, انور بن ابراهيم, label= Jawi, script=arab, italic=unset, IPA: ; born 10 August 1947) is a Malaysian politician who has served as the 10th Prime Minister of Malaysia since November 2022. He served as the 1 ...

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 Shah Alam () is a city and the state capital of Selangor, Malaysia and situated within the Petaling District and a small portion of the neighbouring Klang District. Shah Alam replaced Kuala Lumpur as the capital city of the state of Selangor in ...

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

After their sentencing an investigative trip by Detective Sergeant Carl Mengler of the

National Crime Authority of Australia The National Crime Authority (NCA) was an Australian law enforcement agency established in 1984 and wound up on 31 December 2002. History The NCA was set up in 1984 in the wake of the Costigan Commission, which investigated tax evasion and org ...

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. Australian Federal Police denied that they had tipped off Malaysian Police about the claims made by Trevor Lawson. 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 John Polson (born 6 September 1965) is an Australian actor, director and founder of Tropfest. As an actor, Polson's best known role is probably starring opposite Russell Crowe and Jack Thompson in '' The Sum of Us'' (1994). In February 2001, ...

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 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream a ...

in 1991 entitled ''

Amongst Barbarians ''Amongst Barbarians'' is a 1989 play by British playwright Michael Wall, first performed at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester prior to a transfer to the Hampstead Theatre in London. It was filmed as a made-for-TV movie in 1990, which was s ...

''. * A 2004

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source o ...

movie, ''

Manners Of Dying ''Manners of Dying'' is a 2004 Canadian drama film based on the short story of the same name (1993) by Yann Martel, winner of the Man Booker Prize for his book, ''The Life of Pi''. Plot Kevin Barlow (Roy Dupuis) will die on schedule and accordi ...

'', follows the short story of that name by

Yann Martel Yann Martel, (born 25 June 1963) is a Canadian author who wrote the Man Booker Prize–winning novel ''Life of Pi'', an international bestseller published in more than 50 territories. It has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide and spen ...

(

Man Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...

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
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barlow and Chambers execution 1986 deaths 1986 in Australia 1986 in Malaysia 1986 in international relations 20th-century executions Australia–Malaysia relations Criminal duos Australian drug traffickers Executed Australian people Australian people executed abroad People executed by Malaysia by hanging People executed for drug offences People from Perth, Western Australia British people executed abroad Drug July 1986 events in Asia