World | Australia
Australian court adds another year to Swedish woman's sentence
Australian judges on Thursday added a year to the prison term of a Swedish woman convicted of soliciting a hit man to kill witnesses in her ex-boyfriend's drug trial.
- AP
- Published: 10:33 July 24, 2008
Sydney: Australian judges on Thursday added a year to the prison term of a Swedish woman convicted of soliciting a hit man to kill witnesses in her ex-boyfriend's drug trial.
In the verdict, the panel of three appeals court judges called her original sentence of a minimum of two years "manifestly inadequate."
Charlotte Lindstrom, 23, pleaded guilty last December to attempting to murder two witnesses after being arrested by an undercover policeman posing as a gun for hire.
In March, a judge in a lower court gave the former waitress a lighter sentence, citing her early guilty plea and cooperation with police in giving information about other defendants.
But the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal on Thursday sided with a prosecution appeal and increased her sentence to a minimum of three years.
“She was fully aware that the consequences of her actions, if the criminal enterprise succeeded, would be the killing of the two intended victims,'' presiding Justice James Allsop said in the ruling.
Lindstrom was not present in court for the decision. The earliest date on which Lindstrom will be eligible for release on parole is now May 2010.
Steven Spaliviero, her former boyfriend, was dealing luxury cars in Sydney until he was arrested on drug charges in 2006.
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