Six young Australians could face extradition to Peru if they fail to return to the country to face questions over the death of a hotel doorman.
A judge in Peru wants the Australians to face court later this month, but they are appealing that ruling in the hope they can give evidence over a video link.
The doorman's death in January last year was initially deemed a suicide, but Peruvian police now allege he was murdered and say the Australians are responsible.
Greg Dyett reports.
As Facebook pages go, it has plenty of supporters.
Almost 34-thousand people have chosen to "like" the page Completely Wrongly Accused -- Six Young Australians Fighting for Justice.
The page features photographs of Sam Smith, Harrison Geier, Andrew Pilat, rothers Hugh and Tom Hanlon and Jessica Vo enjoying some of South America's best sites.
There are the Galapagos Islands, Iguazu Falls in Argentina, the Carnival in Rio.
But the broad smiles in their holiday pictures compare starkly with the grim expressions captured in the other photographs on the Facebook page.
Those are taken from some of their recent media appearances in Australia, where they are being asked about their predicament.
The six Australians, now dubbed the Peru 6, say they are completely innocent and have no case to answer, as Jessica Vo told Channel 9.
"There's obviously no evidence, because we haven't done anything wrong. They've conducted their own investigation, and there actually isn't any evidence to support any of their claims. We're trying to get as much support as we can, because we really do need to get our message out that we are innocent."
The story dates back to January last year, when they checked into a hotel in the beachside suburb of Miraflores, in Peru's capital Lima.
They say they asked the doorman for directions to a nearby store and, when they returned about 15 minutes later, learned someone had fallen to his death.
The dead man was the doorman who gave them the directions, 45-year-old Lino Rodriguez.
Police initially ruled his death a suicide, but, after pressure from his brother, Wimber Rodriguez, they reopened the case and concluded Lino Rodriguez had been murdered.
The police case is Lino Rodriquez allegedly responded to a noise complaint, went to the Australians' Room 1501, had a confrontation with them and was thrown off the hotel balcony.
His brother Wimber has told SBS's Spanish program the evidence points to his brother being thrown, not falling of his own accord.
(Spanish, then translated:) "The forensic investigator from the police has demonstrated that Lino didn't have a free fall. He was pushed by a strange force. It's like when you just let a pen fall in a vacuum, that's a free fall with no initial speed, but when you push that pen, there's a force that's called initial speed. And Lino has had a 2.19 metres per second of initial speed." (Spanish ...)
Wimber Rodriguez says the discovery of a footprint in Room 1501 is further evidence implicating the six Australians.
(Spanish, then translated:) "It's been proven that the shoe, my brother's shoe, corresponds with the footprint found in the apartment 1501 that was habituated by the six Australians." (Spanish ...)
But a forensic expert in Peru says the case being mounted against the Australians is complete nonsense and he is convinced Lino Rodriguez committed suicide.
Jose Pablo Baraybar is executive director of the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team and agreed to investigate the case after being contacted by the parents of the Peru 6.
He says the footprint evidence is weak.
"You can see a partial shoe print on the ledge of the window that somewhat matches the shoe print of Lino Rodriguez. But it's a partial shoe print, it's not a complete shoe print. This is issue Number 1. The question would be, 'Is the shoe print on the ledge the same shoe print as the shoe from Rodriquez?' You cannot say yes, because it is not true. Because it's a partial shoe print and they look alike and they could be the same type of shoe -- type of shoe, not the same shoe. It's not a fingerprint."
Mr Baraybar says he has found additional evidence the police missed which points to suicide, not murder.
To support the idea the Australians threw Lino Rodriguez from the balcony, police say they found a set of friction marks on the side of the building where the body hit the hotel tower.
But Mr Baraybar says he has found three sets of friction marks, starting near a set of service stairs on the 15th floor.
He says this evidence supports his contention that Lino Rodriquez made his way to the service stairs and jumped to his death.
"Lino Rodriguez would have clung to the window hole of Floor 15, or between 15 and 16, from the service stairs, and then let himself go. That is why he remained so close to the wall of the tower of apartments, that he's been literally falling parallel to and bouncing against, on and off, the wall, and that is why his shoes were leaving these friction marks. The problem is that the police only saw the friction marks between Floors 9 and 7."
The six Australians have been asked to appear in Peru for a three-day hearing, beginning on August the 21st.
They are hoping they can successfully appeal against the request and provide their evidence over video link.
But if those attempts fail and they do not go back to Peru, the country is threatening to start extradition proceedings.
