A spokesperson for Australia’s Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment claims they are “investigating allegations of perjury by Ms. Heard during court proceedings for the 2015 illegal importation of (her) two dogs into Australia,” according to sources from E! News.
The investigation is in connection to a 2015 incident in which she attempted to bring her and her then-husband, Johnny Depp’s Yorkshire terriers, Pistol and Boo, into the country illegally. The spokesperson continued, adding, “the department is seeking to obtain witness statements and once obtained, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions will consider whether the evidence is sufficient to warrant pursuance of the matter.”
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Part of Johnny Depp’s libel suit against a British tabloid which claimed the actor lied under oath after she was charged with illegal importation. She’s facing a maximum 10-year sentence for the charge. Heard pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of falsifying documents to sneak the dogs into the country. Her lawyer told the courts that her excuse was that she was jetlagged and worrying about a hand injury supposedly caused by Depp, so she allowed her assistants to handle the work. The lawyer told a judge that the actress made a “tired, terrible mistake.” She was given a $1,000 good behavior bond.
Heard’s lawyer criticized the Australian Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment’s new investigation, saying, “The Court of Depp’s choice – the London High Court of Justice – found that Depp committed at least 12 acts of domestic violence against Amber Heard, causing her at times to fear for her life,” the lawyer said in a statement to E! News Saturday, Oct. 30. “It is truly inconceivable, and we are confident it is not true, that either the Australian Government, or the FBI, would embrace a policy of further pursuing and victimizing a person who has already been adjudicated to be the victim of domestic violence. This is especially true where the exact same claims being reported in the press now were made, unsuccessfully, in the UK High Court.”
Depp’s former estate manager, Kevin Murphy, testified in the case, saying that she didn’t know about the country’s importation regulations. “She wanted me to say essentially that it was my fault in one way or another that the paperwork wasn’t completed, so that I could take the blame for her,” Murphy said.