Barnaby Joyce has called for Amber Heard to be jailed if she is convicted of perjury after he famously threatened to euthanize her dogs.
Barnaby Joyce has summoned Amber Heard to serve jail time if she is convicted of perjury in connection with the long-running dog smuggling saga in which he threatened to euthanize her dogs Pistol and Boo.
Ms Heard is the subject of an ongoing investigation following her 2015 decision to smuggle two dogs into Australia in violation of quarantine and biosecurity laws.
At the time of the dog’s illegal arrival in Australia, Mr Joyce suggested taking the small dogs home, either to the United States or at risk of being euthanized†
The threat made international headlines before Heard and Johnny Depp appeared in a bizarre ‘hostage style’ video apologize to Australia†
She was later charged with two charges of illegally importing the animals, but the case was dropped after pleading guilty in April 2016 to forging travel documents.
But that appearance in court has now led to an investigation into charges of perjury over whether she provided misleading evidence about the conditions under which the dogs were brought to Australia.
“Those dogs, when they came in, there were a lot of documents that were signed saying there were no animals. And now it looks like Mrs. Heard hasn’t told the truth,” Joyce told Sunrise.
†[The U.S.] wants Julian Assange… She can come to Australia and possibly spend some time with Her Majesty.”
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The Aquarius actress could face up to 14 years in prison in Australia if convicted of perjury.
The latest twist in the saga unfolded after a former Johnny Depp employee testified during his British libel suit against The sun newspaper of 2020.
Kevin Murphy told London court that Amber Heard had told him to lie after she flew the pets to Australia without explaining them.
“I also explained to Ms Heard several times that it was illegal to bring the dogs to Australia without completing the mandatory procedure and that this could lead to very severe penalties, including euthanizing the dogs,” he said.
He alleged that Ms Heard provided a ‘false statement’ to the Australian court stating that she was unaware of the requirements.
“When I said I was extremely uncomfortable with this, Ms. Heard said to me, ‘Well, I want your help with this… I wouldn’t want you to have a problem with your job,'” he said.
“It became very clear that Ms Heard was threatening my job stability unless I cooperated in providing a statement supporting her false account for the Australian proceeding.
“This made me feel extreme pressure to cooperate, despite the fact that I knew it would be untruthful.”
Joyce said it “annoys me a bit when they say they won’t extradite them”.
“They compromised our biosecurity. They broke the law,” he said.
He also revealed that he had been monitoring recent defamation lawsuits, in which Heard was ordered to pay Depp millions of dollars.
“It was a compulsory tour of train wrecks. Every night you thought, “These are two crazy cats and of course they don’t mind having a drink at night and tearing the house to pieces by mocking each other,” he said.
While Ms Heard is unlikely to be extradited, the investigation means she could face barriers to ever visit Australia again unless the case is resolved.
The actress has previously revealed that she named one of her dogs Barnaby Joyce.
‘Send it here and we’ll lug it around, see if we can knock down some old hogs… I’ll take care of it, my namesake Barnaby, he’ll be safe with me,’ said Mr Joyce.
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