Teen on trial for murder in Bali 'petrified'

A pregnant US teenager on trial in Indonesia for the murder of her mother, whose battered body was found stuffed in a suitcase, said she is "petrified" about her future and insists on her innocence.

In her first in-depth comments since being arrested for her mother's brutal murder, Heather Mack said she is sharing a cell with 10 other women in a notorious prison on the resort island of Bali.

"I loved my mom with all my heart and miss her every day," the 19-year-old told the Chicago Tribune. Mack and her boyfriend are from Chicago.

Mack, who could face death by firing squad if found guilty of premeditated murder, said she was afraid "more for my daughter than for me". The baby is due in April.

The body of Mack's mother, Sheila von Wiese Mack, was found rammed into a suitcase in the trunk of a taxi outside an exclusive Bali resort in August.

The daughter and the boyfriend, who had been staying with her at the hotel, were arrested after fleeing to another part of the island.

Mack and her boyfriend, 21-year-old Tommy Schaefer, are facing separate trials in Bali that resumed this week. Both face a possible death sentence.

Prosecutors alleged that Schaefer, who is black, "blindly hit" Von Wiese Mack with a bowl in a fit of rage after she directed a racial slur at him during an argument.

The indictment said Mack hid in the bathroom during the attack before the couple stuffed the victim's body into a suitcase.

Mack maintains she is innocent of all charges and is confident her lawyer will prove that in the Denpasar court.

She is engaged in a dispute with a number of US-based lawyers overseeing her trust fund, accusing them of blocking payments to her Indonesian lawyer and "denying me a fair chance of defending myself".

AFP - AP - Xinhua