Network Against Prohibition (NAP) - NT Chapter

Free Schapelle Corby

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org

Pubdate: 24th February 2005
Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Email: letters@smh.com.au
Website: http://www.smh.com.au
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/441
Copyright: The Sydney Morning Herald 2005

Legal team flies to defend Corby

An Australian legal team flew to Bali on Thursday to help defend accused Gold Coast drug trafficker Schapelle Corby.

Funded by Gold Coast mobile phone entrepreneur Ron Bakir, the plan is to guarantee Corby's Indonesian lawyers get all the Australian assistance they need to prove the origin of drugs found in Corby's possession.

Corby, who proclaims her innocence, is accused of smuggling 4.1 kilograms of cannabis leaf and heads into Bali's Denpasar Airport in her boogie board bag last October.

She faces the death penalty if convicted.

Criminal lawyer Robin Tampoe, who accompanied Mr Bakir, said there were serious anomalies in statements
made about Corby's travel movements before she arrived in Bali.

"Some of the key evidence relates to what happened prior to her arriving in Indonesia," he told the Gold Coast Bulletin newspaper before he left for Bali.

"At the moment, because of a ridiculous lack of co-operation from the Australian government, we haven't had those questions answered.

"My role will be to ensure that everything is tied up at the Australian end."

Mr Bakir said Corby had the right to a fair trial and he was just glad to have the means to assist.

"Let me make it clear that I am totally against drugs," he said.

"But this is a 27-year-old woman who says she is innocent. The bottom line is she deserves every help to produce the evidence to counter the charges."



Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: 25th February 2005
Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Email: letters@smh.com.au
Website: http://www.smh.com.au
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/441
Copyright: The Sydney Morning Herald 2005

Corby needs more help: Democrats

The federal government should be doing more to ensure Gold Coast woman Schapelle Corby gets a fair trial in Bali, the Australian Democrats said.

Corby is accused of smuggling more than 4kg of cannabis onto the island last October - an offence which carries the death penalty.

Democrats justice spokesman Brian Greig said the federal government should be doing more for Corby instead of picking and choosing which Australian citizens, who find themselves in trouble overseas, it decides to help.

Senator Greig said while it was good news Gold Coast entrepreneur Ron Bakir had sponsored a legal team to help Corby, it was a sad indictment on the government such aid had to come from the private sector.

"Here is a young Australian who is facing the death penalty if she is convicted of these charges," Senator Greig said.

"The government should be taking every step possible to ensure that she receives a fair trial and if the worst occurs, that she is not executed.

"Instead, it has been left to a well-meaning private individual to send legal help to do what the government should be doing."

Senator Greig said in cases where the death penalty was at stake, there was an even more urgent need for the government to provide assistance.

Lawyers for Corby, who proclaims her innocence, have argued there were serious anomalies in statements about her travel movements before arriving in Bali, which the Australian government could help clear up.



Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: 3rd March 2005
Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Email: letters@smh.com.au
Website: http://www.smh.com.au
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/441
Copyright: The Sydney Morning Herald 2005

Corby could die in jail, says friend

Accused drug smuggler Schapelle Corby was being railroaded through court without a fair trial while the Australian government did nothing to stop it, a Gold Coast businessman said.

Ron Bakir, who heads mobile phone empire Crazy Ron's, said Corby was an innocent woman who would die in a Bali jail if the current miscarriage of justice was allowed to continue.

Corby denies allegations she smuggled 4.1 kg of cannabis leaf and heads into Bali's Denpasar Airport in her boogie board bag last October.

Mr Bakir, who arrived back on Thursday from visiting Corby in a Bali jail, had flown to the Indonesian island with criminal lawyer Robin Tampoe on a mercy mission to protect the 27-year-old's rights.

"There's a girl on death row here, she might be killed - I don't think they (the government) understand the importance of it," Mr Bakir said.

He said he believed Corby was innocent and he urged the Australian public to reserve their judgment until they heard all the facts.

"You need to see the facts, you need to hear the evidence, because once you do you will never believe this girl is guilty," said Mr Bakir, who is helping to fund Corby's defence.

He said although Corby's case hinged on determining the origin of the cannabis found in her boogie board bag, the Australian government had failed to order a DNA test on the drugs.

A spokesman for foreign minister Alexander Downer today denied the accusations, saying the Australian Federal Police had offered assistance to the Indonesian police with testing but the offer had been declined.

The spokesman said the matter was before the Indonesian court and needed to be dealt with by the defence under the legal processes in Indonesia.

"We are providing intense consular assistance in this case as we do to all manner of Australians who get in trouble overseas," he said.

Mr Bakir said Corby was holding up well and was trying to remain positive.

The trial has been adjourned until March 17.



Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: 3rd March 2005
Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Author: Philip Cornford
Email: letters@smh.com.au
Website: http://www.smh.com.au
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/441
Copyright: The Sydney Morning Herald 2005

Accused drug smuggler grasps for day in court

For Schapelle Corby anything is better than being in her cell, writes Philip Cornford.

She calls it the cage, and it is. Schapelle Corby's brief glimpses of freedom are through prison bars and they are traumatic. Yet they are precious.

In the sweltering heat of the cage, she strips off her sweat-soaked shirt, beneath which she wears a sleeveless halter, also wet with perspiration, baring her shoulders and arms. To cool her neck, she pulls her damp hair into a bun.

Behind her, the eyes of 22 men glimmer in the shadow of the overcrowded cell, staring. Among them are violent criminals, on trial, as she is. Corby, 27, is the only woman, they are fascinated, and worse. They cannot look away.

She does her best to ignore them and they give her space. To avoid the media people who press against the bars, calling questions, she moves to a corner where she is out of sight. But they poke cameras through the bars. Bright flashes tear into the darkness. She is photographed, anyway.

The cage is the holding cell at Denpasar District Court, where Corby is on trial, accused of smuggling 4.1 kilograms of marijuana, an offence that carries the death penalty.

It is cooler than Krobokan prison, a vermin-infested hellhole. And the van that brought her on the 20-minute ride to court, crowded with the men. There is no room for segregation. Handcuffed hands clutch the bars of the tiny windows, a prisoner trying to catch a breeze.

Corby emerges last, handcuffed to a woman warder. Once it was to another woman prisoner, who was terrified by what followed, and when she found sanctuary in the cell, sat weeping into a ragged and filthy towel, her humiliation complete.

Corby has learnt to be stoic. She has remarkably blue eyes, which she keeps downcast. During the 25-metre walk to the holding cell the media press against her, blocking her path, cameras and microphones thrust into her face, questions shouted: a wild, uncontrolled melee.

Once Corby stumbles and the woman warder almost goes down with her. It is only the media press that stops them falling. Her sister, Mercedes, 30, who takes her food every day, is aghast: "It's disgusting. Disgusting. Disgusting."

A few minutes later, it starts all over again, when Corby is taken to the court. This has to be seen to be believed. Photographers crowd behind the three judges, poking lenses past their ears to get front-on snaps of Corby facing the court.

Each time witnesses approach the bench to examine evidence, reporters and their interpreters crowd them, poking tape recorders into their faces. Cameras flash at will. It is more like a railway station than a court.

Then Corby has to brave the melee again, on her way back to the cells. But there follows a time of rare quiet while she waits until the other prisoners are finished in court.

She can talk to her family, her lawyers. It is spacious and clean compared with the cell she shares with eight women at grim Krobokan. They are never released for exercise. They see only walls and bars.

To snatch a few moments of privacy, Corby goes to church three times a week. There, "if I need to cry, then I can without any interruptions", she told Woman's Day.

Corby has run the gauntlet five times. After two weeks of confinement in Krobokan, she cannot wait to run it again when her lawyers open her defence today.

It will be an ordeal; it will be traumatic and humiliating. But she can look out through the bars and  see the sky, and to everyone, the sky symbolises freedom.



Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: 4th March 2005
Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Website: http://www.abc.net.au
Email: comments@your.abc.net.au
Copyright: 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Corby could be forced to take stand

A Gold Coast student facing drug trafficking charges could have to take the stand herself in two weeks time, after a Bali court refused to recognise several defence witnesses.

Schapelle Corby's defence team had planned to call a variety of witnesses from Australia - from baggage handlers at Sydney Airport to a body language expert and a psychologist.

However the court is refusing to issue a summons for the witnesses.

The 27-year-old student faces a possible death penalty if found guilty of trafficking more than four kilograms of marijuana into Bali in her bodyboard bag.



Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: 4th March 2005
Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Email: letters@smh.com.au
Website: http://www.smh.com.au
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/441
Copyright: The Sydney Morning Herald 2005

Friends say no drugs in Corby's bag before flight

Schapelle Corby's boogie board bag contained no marijuana when she left Australia for Bali last October, her travelling partners told a Balinese court yesterday.

Alyth McComb, a Gold Coast bartender who has known Corby for four years, told Denpasar District Court that Corby had packed her boogie board bag in front of her three travelling partners and her mother on the morning of her flight to Bali.

McComb said she handed a pair of flippers to Corby as she packed in a room with another friend, Katrina Richards and Corby's younger brother James Kisina - who was also joining the holiday to Bali.

Corby peeled open the boogie board bag and placed the flippers on top of the board inside. It was clear to all that there was nothing else inside the bag, McComb said.

Corby, 27, faces the death penalty. She was charged with drug smuggling after Indonesian customs officers allegedly found 4.1kg of cannabis leaf and heads inside her boogie board bag when she arrived at Bali airport.

The Gold Coast beauty student claims someone must have planted the pillow case-sized stash in her luggage somewhere between Brisbane and Sydney airports.

Her lawyers today launched their defence case with testimony from her three travelling partners and an expert witness.

Before the hearing began, around 15 protesters from an anti-narcotics organisation called GRANAT turned up with placards and demanded Corby be sentenced to death if convicted of drug trafficking.

Verging on tears, McComb testified that Corby had never dealt in or used drugs.

"If anything she's against drugs," McComb said.

She said there was no chance for anyone to slip anything in Corby's bag before they checked in at Brisbane airport, the last time they saw their luggage before Bali.

"She (Corby) was with me the whole time on the plane and we didn't see the bags on the plane and we didn't
see them in Sydney," where they were in transit for two to three hours, she said.

In separate testimony, Kisina and Richards supported McComb's version of events.

Kisina, who along with Corby was taken to a small room at the airport for questioning, also rejected claims by customs officers that Corby ever admitted owning the marijuana.

"Customs officers asked her: 'What is it?' And, Schapelle said: 'I don't know," he told the three-judge panel.

He also supported claims by Corby that she voluntarily opened the bag and never tried to stop customs officers from doing so.

Earlier, a lawyer who had helped draft Indonesia's tough drug laws was asked in court if someone could be convicted of importing an illegal substance if they did not know it was in their luggage.

"If there was no intention (to import) and if she was used by others, then she should be freed," University of Indonesia Professor Loebby Lukman said.

However, he later said Corby's case could be considered importing.



Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Fri, 4th March 2005
Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Copyright: 2005 The Sydney Morning Herald
Contact: letters@smh.com.au
Website: http://www.smh.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/441
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

Downer to intervene in Corby drug case

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer will personally intervene in the case of Gold Coast woman Schapelle Corby, who could face the death penalty over drugs charges in Indonesia.

Corby, 27, denies charges she smuggled 4.1 kg of cannabis into Bali's Denpasar Airport in her unlocked boogie board bag in October last year.

Last month anti-drug protesters stormed her Bali court hearing, demanding her execution for the alleged crime.

Corby's lawyers have complained the federal government has not done enough to help their client.

Lawyer Vasu Rasiah said Corby was under a lot of strain.

"Some days she's good, some days she's bad, and some days she's worse," the ABC website reported him as saying.

"She can't understand why she's being held there and she's mystified why her country can't do anything.

"They might as well put the girl against the wall and shoot (her) themselves."

Mr Downer insists the authorities were willing to help in any way they could.

"Other than providing consular assistance ... the best we can do is if her defence comes up with more ideas for information, if we can assist to obtain that information, we would always try to do that," he said.

Mr Downer intends to meet Corby's lawyers very soon.

"We are concerned about this case and we are following it very closely," he told ABC radio in Sydney.

"I'm meeting with her lawyers ... I think it's next week or the week after, to talk through some more."

Prime Minister John Howard also indicated a personal interest in case.

"I have taken a personal interest in the sense that I have been concerned on the face of it, about some aspects of it," he told Sydney radio 2GB.

But he stressed the Australian government could not interfere with the judicial process in Indonesia.

"I choose my words very carefully because I have to respect the legal system of another country," Mr Howard said.

Opposition Leader Kim Beazley, too, had concerns about the case.

However, he placed his faith in Indonesian justice.

"I hope that the judicial system will keep her well," he said.

Corby's lawyers are keen for baggage handlers from Brisbane or Sydney airports to testify about the state of her luggage before it arrived in Indonesia, as well as an absence of appropriate security.

Mr Downer cast doubt on whether they could provide any reasonable evidence.

"I think Qantas concluded that several bags had been put on the scales at once rather than just one bag," he said.

"So it was impossible to make any judgments about the weight of any particular bag."

Indonesian authorities previously turned down an offer from Australian police to test the cannabis found in Corby's luggage, saying they were capable of conducting  the tests themselves.



Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Fri, 4th March 2005
Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Copyright: 2005 The Sydney Morning Herald
Contact: letters@smh.com.au
Website: http://www.smh.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/441
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

Corby's 'trauma is immense', says PM

Prime Minister John Howard today said he was concerned about some aspects of the case of accused drug smuggler Schapelle Corby in the Indonesian courts.

Corby denies allegations she smuggled 4.1 kg of cannabis leaf and heads into Bali's Denpasar Airport in her boogie board bag last October.

Mr Howard said he did not know the truth of the matter.

He had been advised that the case was being conducted in accordance with Indonesian court and legal procedures and was following the case, he said.

"I've taken a personal interest in the sense that I have been concerned on the face of it about some aspects of it," Mr Howard told radio 2GB.

"I choose my words very carefully because I have to respect the legal system of another country."

However, Mr Howard said he sympathised with Corby irrespective of whether she was guilty or otherwise, which was as yet unknown.

"The strain and physical distress, mental trauma is immense," he said.

The government was aware of its obligations and would do everything it could to advocate her interest.



Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Fri, 04 Mar 2005
Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Australia Web)
Copyright: 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Contact: comments@your.abc.net.au
Website: http://www.abc.net.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/34

Rudd goes in to bat for alleged drug smuggler

The Federal Opposition's foreign affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd, says he has tried to help the legal team of a Gold Coast woman accused of drug trafficking in Bali.

Lawyers for Schapelle Corby say she believes the Government is not doing enough to help her.

Corby, 27, has pleaded not guilty to importing four kilograms of marijuana.

Mr Rudd says after speaking to Corby's lawyers late last year, he wrote to the Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister asking them to help ensure Corby received a fair trial.

"I particularly requested the Howard Government to assist Ms Corby's legal team on evidentiary matters which may be important to them," he said.

"But I emphasise that we from this distance are in no position whatsoever to judge the innocence or guilt of this particular person."

Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer says the Federal Government is doing what it can to help Corby.

Mr Downer says Indonesian police rejected the Government's request for federal police to test the drugs to determine their source.

He says a request by Corby's lawyers for information about the weight of her bag when she boarded the plane to Bali also proved of no use.

"Let me make this point perfectly clear, we're happy to help in any way we reasonably can but of course we can't interfere with the court processes in Bali," Mr Downer said.

Legal aid

Next week, Mr Downer will discuss the case with Gold Coast businessman Ron Bakir, who is funding extra legal help for Corby.

Mr Bakir says the Government does not understand the seriousness of the case.

"That's why this girl is still sitting in a Bali cell," he said.

"Nobody understands the importance of this case, I hope that they now do and they do something about it."

Earlier today, both Prime Minister John Howard and Opposition Leader Kim Beazley said they were concerned by some aspects of Corby's trial.

Mr Howard said Australia will do everything it can to help her.



Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Sat, 5th March 2005
Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Author: Philip Cornford
Copyright: 2005 The Sydney Morning Herald
Contact: letters@smh.com.au
Website: http://www.smh.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/441
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

Weighing the evidence

It started as a tropical holiday with family and friends, but if the worst scenario unfolds it will end in front of a firing squad. Philip Cornford uncovers many more questions than answers.

Brisbane Airport October 8, 2004

There is this moment in Schapelle Corby's life, before it plunged into chaos, when the world seemed wonderful, life was an exciting adventure, and what was to come was just not conceivable, beyond the imagining of any traveller. It was caught in a
photograph, and it was the last time that a camera was to be kind to Corby.

The photograph was taken by her mother, Ros, after Corby, 27, and her three companions had been cleared to board QF501, the first of two flights which took her from a crisp Brisbane mid-spring dawn of Friday, October 8, to the sultry humidity of Bali. Instead of the luxury of an air-conditioned hotel, Corby was taken to a squalid prison, where her life is in the balance.

The picture shows four happy travellers: Katrina Richards, 17, a pre-school kindergarten teacher who works part-time at the Corby family fish and chip shop on the Gold Coast; Corby; Ally McComb, 25, a friend of four years and former flatmate; and Corby's brother, James, 16, at the time a year 11 student.

They are carefree, relieved. Getting to the airport on time was a rush. Now they are on their way to Bali, and the photograph records their elation.

"We were all so excited," McComb recalled. "We'd worked hard and saved all year. I stopped going out. It was my first trip to Bali."

For Richards, it was the first time she would be away from home. "I'd never flown before," she said. James had been to Bali once before, when he was nine, for the wedding of his sister, Mercedes, to a Balinese man.

Corby had visited Bali many times. She had married a Japanese man and worked in Japan in the hospitality industry for four years. The visits to Bali were stopovers on the way to and from Japan to see Mercedes, her elder sister. The last trip was in July 2000 when Corby came back to Australia after the break-up of her marriage.

She worked in the hospitality industry on the Gold Coast. In 2003 she did a part-time TAFE course in beauty therapy, finishing two of four modules. She skipped TAFE last year, working at the fish and chip shop and helping to care for her father, Michael, 55, a retired coalminer who has cancer.

Unknown to the travellers, other cameras watched their movements. These were the closed circuit television security cameras that monitor the Qantas check-in counters. At 5.33am they observed Corby and her companions when they presented their luggage: three suitcases and a boogie board in its carrying bag.

The boogie board belonged to Corby. She had packed it at her mother's Brisbane home, where the travellers slept the night. When they were about to leave, Ally McComb remembered the flippers she had borrowed from Corby. She gave them to Corby as the bags were loaded into her mother's car in the garage for the journey to the airport.

Corby unzipped the boogie board bag and put the flippers inside. McComb, Richards and James Corby testified in Denpasar Local Court on Thursday, the first day of the defence case, that the garage was brightly lit and they clearly saw that the yellow boogie board was the only object in the bag before the flippers were put in.

Twelve hours later, when the bag was opened at Ngurah Rai Airport in Denpasar, it was found to contain the boogie board, flippers - and 4.1 kilograms of top-quality hydroponic marijuana in two plastic bags, one inside the other, the size of a pillow case, placed in front of the boogie board next to the opening flap. It was the local customs officers' biggest marijuana intercept. Within 24 hours, the local media had dubbed Corby the "Ganja Queen". "They think she's beautiful," an interpreter said. "They're fascinated."

Shocked, at times tearful, Corby said she had never seen the marijuana before. She insisted it must have been inserted in her luggage during transit. So any video images showing the boogie board bag's size and shape while it was in Corby's care were important. Her defence lawyers asked for them. But the closed circuit TV at the Brisbane Qantas check-in was experiencing problems and any images recorded that morning were wiped 25 days later.

The weights of the bags were not individually recorded but together they totalled 65 kilograms. The four bags were recorded in Corby's name, the four tags clipped onto her boarding pass cover. The weight of these bags when they were checked in and their weight on arrival in Bali was crucial evidence to test Corby's claim. In Bali, customs and police ignored it.

Sydney Airport Later that morning

At 6am, the travellers flew to Sydney, arriving 90 minutes later. Their bags were taken by baggage handlers to Bay 5 at the Qantas domestic terminal, where they were loaded onto a trolley for transfer to the international terminal. When there was a full load for Australian Airlines flight AO7829 to Bali they were hauled two kilometres to Pier B at the international airport, where handlers scanned them to check they had been cleared for their scheduled flight. The three suitcases went through the security X-ray and onto a conveyor which delivered them to the loading bay in Pier C designated for AO7829.

The boogie board, however, was too big for the conveyor. It was put on a trolley, hauled to Pier C and then, at 8.18am, put into a baggage canister, DQF60342QF, which contained two of the other bags. Its loading sequence was 70, making it one of the last items put into the canister, placing it near the front. It would be one of the first bags taken out when the canister was unloaded in Bali.

The canister was closed by a canvas flap but not locked. It was held at Pier C for 97 minutes until half an hour before the Bali flight's departure.

All the baggage transfers in Brisbane, at Bay 5 in Sydney and at Piers B and C at the international terminal were monitored by closed-circuit cameras. There are no other security measures - all are big, open areas accessible to anyone with an "airside" security pass.

Not one of the security camera tapes recorded in these areas on the morning of October 8 was checked for images of the boogie board or for any unauthorised approach to the boogie board. The images recorded by the Qantas security cameras were wiped after a month, those on the cameras at Piers B and C, controlled by the Sydney Airports Corporation, after 72 hours. Thus Corby's lawyers were denied evidence which might have proved her innocence.

There are no inspections of bags or vehicles to check what staff with Aviation Security Identification Cards carry in and out of the airport.

Federal police say "it is a recognised criminal activity" for drug dealers to use innocent travellers as unsuspecting "mules". They have arrested baggage handlers at Sydney Airport for the offence. Drugs are inserted in luggage at one airport and a photograph of the target bag and its tag are emailed to the destination airport, where baggage handlers recover the drugs before the passenger collects the bag.

Corby's defence illuminates a terrifying reality which can have calamitous consequences. She faces death by a firing squad if convicted.

Ngurah Rai Airport, Denpasar The holiday begins

After a seven-hour flight, they landed in Bali about 2.30pm local time, stepping out of an air-conditioned cocoon into what seemed like a steam bath.

Spirits were high. Now all the travellers had to do was collect their bags and take a taxi to their hotel, where they had pre-paid rooms and Mercedes would be waiting.

After their bags were unloaded from the canister they passed through an X-ray machine before moving onto the baggage carousel.

By the time Corby's party got through security and immigration, their bags were on the carousel. But not the boogie board. It had been set apart on the floor. Corby was struggling with her bag, so McComb told James to help his sister with the boogie board. Together, they took it to the customs counters where they would exit.

There they were stopped by a customs officer, Igusti Ngurah Nyoman Winata.

There are conflicting accounts of what happened next. Corby says she saw that people ahead had their bags on the counter and were opening them. So she put the boogie board on the counter and began to open it.

February 2005 Denpasar District Court

Winata was the first witness called by the prosecution when Corby's trial opened last month in the Denpasar District Court, the equivalent of an Australian Supreme Court. Winata testified that when he told Corby to open the bag, she instead opened a front pocket, saying "Nothing in there." He again ordered her to open the main flap. "The suspect [appeared] to panic. When I opened the bag a little, she stopped me and said, 'No.' I asked why. She answered, 'I have some ...' She looked confused."

Winata said he opened the bag and saw the flippers, the plastic bags with the marijuana and the boogie board. "I asked the suspect what was in the plastic bags. She said it was marijuana. I asked her, 'How do you know?' She said, 'I smelled it when you opened the bag."' A second customs officer supported his testimony.

Asked for her response in court, Corby got to her feet and angrily declared: "He's lying." In a strong voice, she said: "I opened the bag at the customs counter. He did not ask me. I opened it myself. I saw a plastic bag inside. It had been half opened." Corby made a gesture of recoiling. "Oh! The smell!" She repeated the denial several times.

Winata testified that Schapelle and James Corby were taken to an interview room, where the contents of the boogie bag were removed in front of Corby, who identified each item, including the drug bag, as belonging to her. Corby denied this several times.'Never, ever. Never.'

James testified on Thursday that the customs officer had ordered him to carry the boogie board to the interview room while Corby remained outside. Corby had not been present when the customs officer ordered James to remove the drug bag, which he did. Corby said the bag was on the floor when she was taken into the room. She recoiled in shock.

When McComb was allowed to join them about half an hour later, she saw it on the floor. "Oh, my God," she said, appalled.

The marijuana was in a brand-named Space Bag, which has a nozzle through which air is extracted, compacting the load. Photographs taken by customs officers at the airport clearly show that this bag was inserted upside down into another Space Bag. Other photographs show customs officers handling the marijuana through the bottom of the internal bag.

Yet for some reason, the customs officers - when questioned by the defence - denied opening the boogie board bag after the X-ray machine detected the drugs, and denied inspecting the drugs and then zipping the bag shut again.

But Corby said the bag had been unzipped and zipped shut. She indicated how the two zips now met in the middle, whereas she always zipped it shut from right bottom to left bottom with a single zip.

Questioned by Corby's lawyers, Winata denied that customs officers had slit open the internal drug bag before Corby collected the boogie board. Her lawyers, who inspected the bag, said it had been partly cut open by a blunt instrument, perhaps a key.

When the bags were presented in court, four months after Corby's arrest, the internal bag was instantly noticeable because the bottom was sealed with black tape.

Asked to show the position of the drugs bag when he found it, Winata placed it upright in the outside bag, with the taped end down - reversing the positions shown by the customs photographs. Questioned by defence lawyers, he insisted he had not made a mistake.

Winata might not have been aware of the photographs. But the prosecutor, Ida Bagus Nyoman Wiswantanu, was. They are contained in the brief of evidence submitted by police. He did not question Winata's answers.

Holes in the argument

From the outset, the customs officers neglected four basic investigative procedures.

They handled the outside drug bag with unprotected hands, taking no precautions against contaminating the only item of evidence. They handled the bottom of the internal bag when they took out the marijuana.

First McComb and then Mercedes, when she got to the airport interview room, protested, demanding the bags be fingerprinted. They got the same reply. "Too late. Too many people have touched them." Mercedes said she replied: "Well, stop it right now." They laughed at her.

But Corby's lawyer, Lily Sri Rahaya Lubis, and her assistant, Vasu Rasiah, insist that most of the bag that actually contained the drugs was still clean because it had not been removed from the external bag. Only the bottom of the internal bag had been handled.

The fingerprint evidence is basic and important. If Corby's prints are on either bag, she is condemned. But if they are not, it is strong evidence for the defence, although not conclusive. Corby told the lawyers to press hard. "They won't find my fingerprints," she said.

In late December, almost three months after Corby's arrest and after repeated requests to have the evidence fingerprinted, the lawyers confronted the director of the Bali narcotics bureau, Senior Commissioner Bambang Sugiarto, who was in charge of the investigation.

Sugiarto had the bags brought to his office in Lubis's presence. "He confirmed the inside bag had not been removed. He said he would have it fingerprinted," Lubis said. But still it was not done.

She says the bag remained uncontaminated when it went to the prosecutor with other evidence on January 6.

But that changed on February 3, when Corby made her second court appearance. In front of the three judges, the internal drug bag was taken out of the external bag and handled freely by a number of court officials, including customs officer Winata, prosecutor Wiswantanu and assistant judge I Gusti Lanang Dauh.

At the close of court that day, the frustrated defence lawyers made a formal application to have the bags fingerprinted. Chief Judge Linton Sirait said he would consider it. "There's still plenty of time," he said. Two court sittings later, the lawyers are still waiting for his decision. Even now, they insist, it is not too late.

A second basic procedure was overlooked at the airport. Two hours after Corby was detained, customs were aware that there were four baggage tags in her name. The bags were only a few metres away, with Katrina Richards, who was anxiously guarding them.

The moment Corby claimed that the marijuana had been put into boogie board bag during transit, the weight of the bags became crucial evidence. If the bags weighed 4.1 kilograms - the weight of the marijuana - more in Bali than they did in Brisbane when they were checked in, then she was telling the truth. If the weights were the same, she was lying.

No attempt was made to search or weigh the bags, even though Corby demanded it. Later, when Corby had lawyers, it was too late. The bags had left the airport. The prosecution made no mention of this or of the failure to take fingerprints.

The third overlooked procedure is even more basic. The customs area at Ngurah Rai Airport is monitored by closed circuit cameras, which observed Corby's actions. They could corroborate or contradict her account. But the prosecutor said they were not checked. The defence has asked to see the tapes. The prosecutor said he would check to see if they were available.

There was a fourth failure. The X-ray machine that detected the marijuana is not equipped to take photographs. So no image was available to show the location of the marijuana in the boogie board bag before it got to customs.

The prosecution closed its case on February 17. It relies entirely on indisputable evidence that the marijuana was found in Corby's boogie board bag and on the contested testimony of two customs officers and two police officers about her actions and responses.

Winata's English-language proficiency was not established and will be challenged. Corby insists her responses were misunderstood. She says his English was not good and they had difficulty understanding each other. McComb, who also spoke to Winata that day, says the same.

Thursday, March 3

The defence begins Corby's lawyers have a number of points to make in the defence case, which opened on Thursday.

Why, if Corby was smuggling the drugs into Bali, did she not take the basic precaution of putting a lock on her boogie board bag?

Why did she not take another obvious precaution and put the drugs behind the boogie board, which would have concealed them from anyone opening the bag? Instead, they were in front of the boogie board, visible the moment the bag was opened.

Why did she not try to conceal the contents of the plastic bags by giving them a protective wrapping? Instead, the marijuana is easily visible through clear plastic.

Why would anyone risk a death sentence smuggling marijuana from Australia to Bali, where it will sell for much less than they could get in Australia? This is not only the biggest marijuana importation into Bali intercepted by customs. It is the only one.

Where is the police evidence that Corby or any of her family had connections with drug traffickers? Bali police say they investigated her "network" in Bali - meaning Mercedes and her husband - but found nothing incriminating.

The Australian Federal Police confirm Corby has no criminal record. Queensland police have no intelligence to connect her to drugs. The wholesale price for good quality hydroponic marijuana in Brisbane is $4000 for half a kilogram. Where did a woman who works in a fish and chip shop get the money to buy 4.1kilograms?

The defence will argue that the marijuana was put in the boogie board bag in Brisbane by a corrupt employee with "airside" access, most likely for pick-up in Sydney, where the street price is $65,000, by another corrupt worker with access. But the pick-up was somehow missed - tight security, watchful baggage handlers, bad timing - and the marijuana travelled on to Bali. Or it is possible, the defence will argue, that the drugs were placed in the wrong bag on the wrong flight.

They will argue that the positioning of the marijuana in front of the boogie board indicates it was inserted in haste during transit.

They will argue that whoever planted the drugs was responsible for changing the zipper arrangement, zipping the bag from both sides, meeting in the middle. And that when customs opened and shut the boogie board bag, they carefully repeated this procedure to conceal their intrusion.

The problem is the defence can establish a lot of doubt but no absolute proof. From the outset, prosecutor Wiswantanu insisted that the only way he would accept that Corby was innocent was proof - visual or by weight - that the marijuana was not in the boogie board bag when she checked it in at Brisbane Airport. Or visual evidence of someone putting the drugs in the boogie board bag.

Any chance of getting that evidence has gone. The security camera tapes which might have helped - the prosecution as well as the defence - have been wiped. The luggage was not weighed in Bali.

Qantas says the tapes were wiped on November 2, two weeks before they received a letter from the lawyers officially requesting copies. After the letter, dated November 16, Qantas got forensic experts to see if any images could be recovered but this was not successful.

But Corby's lawyers say their first request for the tapes was made on October 14, six days after Corby's arrest, and was repeated a number of times.

The lawyers say that in the last week of October, the Qantas security official told them the tapes were going to be destroyed within a week. On October 28, they sent the security official an email, noting this, and requesting copies of the tapes before they were wiped. This did not happen.

Prosecutor Wiswantanu is demanding the death penalty. He has successfully prosecuted six foreigners for importing drugs. One of them got the death penalty. Corby is fighting for her life.



Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Sat, 5th March 2005
Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Author: Steve Burrell
Copyright: 2005 The Sydney Morning Herald
Contact: letters@smh.com.au
Website: http://www.smh.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/441
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

Howard fears for justice in Corby drug case

The Prime Minister, John Howard, says he is concerned about the way the case against accused drug smuggler Schapelle Corby is being handled in the Indonesian courts.

The Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, is also set to meet Corby's lawyers in the next two weeks to discuss the case but has ruled out directly intervening in the court processes in Bali.

Corby, 27, denies charges that she smuggled 4.1 kilograms of cannabis into Bali's Denpasar airport in her boogie-board bag last October.

The charges, being heard by the Denpasar District Court, carry the death penalty.

"The advice I have had so far is that it is being conducted in accordance with Indonesian legal and court procedures," Mr Howard told radio 2GB.

"I've taken a personal interest in the sense that I have been concerned on the face of it about some aspects of it.

"The Government is aware of its obligations and we'll continue to follow the case to the extent that we can, consistent with the right of Indonesia to run its justice system, we will do everything we can to advocate her interests."

There has been widespread criticism of the conditions under which Corby is being held in Bali's Krobokan prison and of the conduct of the case itself.

Mr Howard said he felt sympathy for the Gold Coast beauty student. "I sympathise with the person and with anybody, irrespective of guilt or otherwise ... There's the strain and physical distress; [the] mental trauma is immense," he said.

With the Government facing criticism from Corby's lawyers for not doing enough to help their client, Mr Downer said it was providing as much consular and other assistance as it could.

"We are happy to help in any way that we reasonably can but, of course, we can't interfere with the court processes in Bali," he told ABC radio in Sydney.

Mr Downer said Corby's lawyers had already asked him to have the Australian Federal Police test the cannabis allegedly carried by her into Bali to establish its origins.

However, the Indonesian police have refused to hand over any of the cannabis to be tested, saying they can do it themselves.

Mr Downer said it was legitimate to question why Corby would take the marijuana - which was worth an estimated $40,000 on the street in Australia - to Bali, where the drug was much cheaper to buy.

The Opposition foreign affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd, said he had also been approached for help by Corby's lawyers and had written to Mr Downer and the Deputy Prime Minister, John Anderson, seeking their aid.

One of Corby's lawyers, Vasu Rasiah, yesterday said it was vital that airport staff from Sydney or Brisbane give evidence.

"The baggage handlers' union [said] that Sydney Airport has no security. We want them to come and testify here," he said.

Corby's travelling partners told the court this week that her boogie-board bag contained no marijuana when she left Australia for Bali last October.

Corby claims someone must have planted the pillow case-sized bag of marijuana in her luggage somewhere between the Brisbane and Sydney airports.

Her lawyers opened her defence on Thursday but the case will not resume until March 17.



Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Wed, 09 March 2005
Source: Northern Territory News (Australia)
Author: Doc Holiday
Copyright: 2005 Northern Territory News
Contact: ntnmail@ntn.newsltd.com.au
Website: http://ntnews.news.com.au/

Support for Corby a must

PLEASE correct me if I am wrong, on a point of law, Indonesian style.

If a person plots and gives his blessing to bombing a nightclub where more than 200 people are killed, as Muslim Cleric Abu Bakar Bashir did, the sentence is 2½ years imprisonment.

Yet if you are falsely accused and convicted of trying to smuggle 4.1kg of cannabis into the country the penalty is death.

In my opinion, this is ludicrous. After doing a little research I have determined that 4.1kg of cannabis in Indonesia is worth a little over $1000. If you were to sell it in Australia it would be worth more than $250,000.

Prime Minister John Howard stated on Sydney radio he is concerned about “some aspects” of the Schapelle Corby case.

Corby should get all the Australian legal help possible, guilty or innocent, as she is a Australian citizen, and should have received that assistance right from the start.

A fair trial with truthful evidence is all we are asking.

Doc Holiday
Millner



Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Wed, 16 March 2005
Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Australia Web)
Copyright: 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Contact: comments@your.abc.net.au
Website: http://www.abc.net.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/34
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

AFP accused of not assisting Corby lawyers

An Indonesian court has given lawyers an extra week to gather information for the defence of a Gold Coast woman accused of drug trafficking in Bali.

Businessman Ron Bakir, who is funding extra legal support for Corby, says the Australian Federal Police has not responded to his team's repeated requests.

Schapelle Corby's hearing was due to resume tomorrow but it has been adjourned.

She has been accused of taking more than four kilograms of marijuana into Bali and has denied any wrongdoing.

Mr Bakir says his team is still waiting for vital information from the Australian Federal Police and Qantas.

"We have asked that the Australian Federal Police come forward and give evidence or give us some sort of discussions, they have given us absolutely nothing," he said.

"I don't think they understand the importance of this case - that the girl's life is at stake and her life is in their hands.

"Names of baggage handlers who took Ms Corby's bag, security processes in the terminals of Brisbane and Sydney and a number of other things that Qantas has said they are going to do and will do this morning."



Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Wed, 16 Mar 2005
Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Australia Web)
Copyright: 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Contact: comments@your.abc.net.au
Website: http://www.abc.net.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/34
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Schapelle+Corby (Schapelle Corby)
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Drugs planted, says Corby lawyer

The Indonesian lawyer for a Gold Coast woman being held in Bali on drug charges says he has evidence the drugs were planted.

Schapelle Corby, 27, is accused of trying to smuggle more than four kilograms of marijuana into Bali in her boogie board bag.

She denies the claims.

Her lawyer, Vasu Rosiah, says a man has made a statement linking the drugs to a known drug trafficker.

"He has put the name, he has put the associate's name, exact names," Mr Rosiah told ABC radio network Triple J.

"His statement says normally they put this stuff in Brisbane airport.

"It was supposed to be picked up at Sydney airport but because they put it in the wrong bag it went all the way to Bali."



Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Wed, 16 Mar 2005
Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Copyright: 2005 The Sydney Morning Herald
Contact: letters@smh.com.au
Website: http://www.smh.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/441
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

Corby victim of smugglers ring: lawyers

Accused drug smuggler Schapelle Corby was unknowingly used as a "mule" by organised interstate drug smugglers, her legal team said on Wednesday.

The 27-year-old Gold Coast beauty therapy student faces the death penalty if found guilty of the crime in a Bali court.

Gold Coast businessman Ron Bakir, who heads mobile phone empire Crazy Ron's and has come to the aid of Corby, said a man had come forward signing an affidavit naming three baggage handlers responsible for planting the drugs.

"The drugs were put into her bag without her knowledge, were supposed to be pulled out in Sydney and they were missed," Mr Bakir said.

Instead, the 4.1kg of cannabis travelled on to Bali, where it was discovered in Corby's boogie board bag at Bali's Denpasar Airport last October.

Ms Corby's lawyers on Wednesday night gave the ABC's 7.30 Report a summary of the evidence in the statement.

"A man whom we are not in a position to name has come forward and offered information by way of a sworn statement to the effect that he is aware of persons involved in domestic drug trafficking between Brisbane and Sydney," it said.

"Moreover, he is aware that these same persons, whom he has named, were responsible for planting 4.1kg of marijuana into Schapelle Corby's boogie board bag unbeknownst to her.

"The figurehead of this domestic drug trafficking ring is currently incarcerated for drug matters."

Mr Bakir said the unnamed man had offered the information to Corby's legal team with the message: "If I don't do this my conscience will haunt me."

He had also promised to testify in court on Corby's behalf.

Corby's Australian lawyer, Robin Tampoe, said the student was just one of a number of victims targeted by the gang.

Mr Bakir said the affidavit had been sent to the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer on Wednesday.

Mr Bakir and criminal lawyer Robin Tampoe flew to Bali last month to meet Corby after complaining the federal government had not done enough to help her.

Speaking on behalf of Corby's legal team, Mr Bakir said the source and associates had been trying to make contact with the AFP over the past two or three months, to no avail, and had telephone recordings to prove their attempts.

A spokesman for Mr Downer's office said the affidavit was forwarded to the AFP because it dealt with crime within Australia.

Corby was not yet aware of Wednesday's developments, although one of her family members had been informed, he said.

Her lawyers were expected to seek an adjournment in her case if the trial resumes, as scheduled, on Thursday.

They hope to lodge the statement after the adjournment, which could be sometime later next week.

Mr Bakir and Corby's Indonesian lawyer, who arrived in Australia on Wednesday ahead of the developments, will return to Bali next Tuesday.



Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Wed, 16 Mar 2005
Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Copyright: 2005 The Sydney Morning Herald
Contact: letters@smh.com.au
Website: http://www.smh.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/441
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

New evidence to clear Corby of charges

Lawyers acting on behalf of accused drug smuggler Schapelle Corby said they had evidence to clear her of the charges.

The Gold Coast beauty therapy student is fighting allegations she smuggled 4.1kg of cannabis into Bali's Denpasar Airport in her boogie board bag last October.

Corby, 27, faces the death penalty if found guilty of the charges.

Gold Coast businessman Ron Bakir, who heads mobile phone empire Crazy Ron's and has come to the aid of Corby, said he had sent a sworn statement from an unnamed source which clears her of all charges.

The statement was sent to the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer on Wednesday, he said.

Mr Bakir and criminal lawyer Robin Tampoe flew to Bali last month to meet Corby after complaining the federal government had not done enough to help the young Australian woman.

Speaking on behalf of Corby's legal team, Mr Bakir said he had obtained a statement that cleared her of all charges.

"We have got a statement from a gentleman who has told us that Schapelle is not involved in this transaction whatsoever, and that Schapelle is a victim of Australian drug trafficking, and that Schapelle Corby doesn't know anything about this," Mr Bakir said.

"He has told us who the people responsible for this are, where they are, how they came into this, where the drugs were going to, how the drugs had got into her bag, they have named all these people."

Mr Bakir said over the past two or three months, the source and associates had been trying to make contact with the AFP, to no avail, and had telephone recordings to prove their attempts.

"The federal police have done nothing about it for the last three months," he said.

Mr Bakir said he had still not received any response from the AFP, despite sending the statement to them early on Wednesday.

Mr Downer's office had, however, been in constant contact over the matter.

"The problem is I don't think the AFP think this is an important matter because they have done nothing about it," Mr Bakir said.

"This girl has got five days before she goes to trial and will be executed (if found guilty).

"This information is crucial to her case."

Mr Bakir declined to provide further details of the statement, including the number of people alleged to have been involved in the planting of the drugs, but said they had all been named in the statement.

Mr Bakir said Corby was not yet aware of Wednesday's developments, although one of her family members had been informed.

The statement will be lodged in the Bali court on March 24, when Corby's case is due to be heard again after an adjournment was requested from Thursday's scheduled hearing.

Mr Bakir and Corby's Indonesian lawyer - who arrived in Australia on Wednesday ahead of the developments - will return to Bali next Tuesday.



Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Thur, 17 Mar 2005
Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Australia
Web)
Copyright: 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Contact: comments@your.abc.net.au
Website: http://www.abc.net.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/34

AFP questions man over Corby drug plant claims

Australia Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty says officers are interviewing a prisoner who claims to know who put drugs in a Gold Coast woman's luggage.

Schapelle Corby, 27, is on trial in Bali after customs officials allegedly found more than four kilograms of marijuana in her boogie board bag and faces the death penalty if convicted.

Her Australian lawyers have a sworn statement from a man saying Ms Corby knew nothing about the drugs and the marijuana was part of a smuggling operation between Brisbane and Sydney airports.

The Federal Police say information from a prisoner, who claims to know who put marijuana in Corby's luggage, is based on hearsay and may not relate to her legal case in Bali.

Mr Keelty says the statement could relate to any case.

"It does mention Corby but only in the sense that the prisoner made the conclusion that it was connected to the Corby and overheard other prisoners talking about the Corby case," he said.

"So it's at best hearsay evidence."

Commissioner Keelty says he is not sure why her lawyer has released the information.

"Schapelle Corby's defence team need to provide her with the best opportunity to defend her case in the jurisdiction of Indonesia," he said.

"I think to parade any evidence in Australia beforehand doesn't serve her any justice, but can have the opposite impact, it can prejudice her case."

Meanwhile, Qantas says it has cooperated extensively with Corby's legal representatives and authorities in both Australia and Indonesia since it was first made aware of her arrest and will continue to assist.

A spokeswoman for Qantas says the airline has for many years conducted rigorous background checks in connection with relevant departments as part of its recruitment process.

She says the new allegations raised are a matter for the police and it is not appropriate for the airline to comment further.

A spokeswoman for Sydney Airport says, in relation to the alleged new evidence, that to its knowledge all the correct procedures were followed.

She says baggage handlers are controlled by the carriers.



Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Thur, 17 Mar 2005
Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Australia
Web)
Copyright: 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Contact: comments@your.abc.net.au
Website: http://www.abc.net.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/34

Corby's trial adjourned amid new evidence claims

A court in Bali has adjourned the hearing of drugs charges against Gold Coast woman Schappelle Corby for a week, after her lawyers applied for extra time to present witnesses to the court.

Defence lawyers have confirmed they are hoping to call a new witness to give evidence that he planted more than four kilograms of marijuana in Corby's bag.

Lawyers told the court they would seek to admit a statement by a prisoner in Australia who, it is claimed, overhead an admission by another man that the drugs in Corby's bags were placed there as part of a trafficking operation within Australia.

The defence says it hopes to summons to the Denpasar court the man who allegedly placed the drugs in the bag.

Failing that, it hopes to provide the court with a statement from that person.

During the adjournment judges will consider whether members of Corby's family, who have been present at the trial, can give evidence.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd says after a request from Corby's legal team he has questioned the Indonesian ambassador about whether a legal way can be found for the potential new witness to appear.

"Our simple concern and the concern raised with us by the relevant legal team for Schappelle Corby has been simply to look at practical ways, legal ways by which such a witness could be able to provide evidence before the relevant Indonesian court," he said.

Positive thinking

Lely Lubis, who is a defence lawyer for Corby, says Corby is happy, but does not want to get her hopes up in case things do not work out.

"I told her to just keep positive thinking, be strong, because next week we're going to have witnesses," she said.

"If the time is still available, the judges will interview her at the same time."

The judges have indicated the trial will conclude in mid to late May.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Thur, 17 Mar 2005
Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Australia
Web)
Copyright: 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Contact: comments@your.abc.net.au
Website: http://www.abc.net.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/34

Union seeks probe of Corby airport drug claim

The union representing airport baggage handlers is calling for an urgent investigation into claims an airport worker may have put marijuana into a boogie board bag owned by Gold Coast woman Schapelle Corby.

The defence team for Ms Corby, who is on trial in Bali on drugs charges, says a witness has come forward saying he knows who put the drugs in the woman's bag.

It is claimed the drugs were planted as part of a smuggling operation between Brisbane and Sydney airports.

In a signed statement that has now been sent to the Australian Federal Police, Corby's lawyers say the witness names names and offers corroborating accounts.

Hughie Williams from the Transport Workers Union says police should investigate the matter.

"If there's any truth in the evidence, well that's a matter for the police and a matter for the courts to deal with," he said.

"At the present time someone has made a very serious allegation on workers at the Brisbane airport and probably Sydney airports, members of the Transport Workers Union, and we want this matter cleared up as quickly as possible."

Federal police say they are studying the statement.

In a statement to the ABC, Corby's lawyers said: "A man, whom we are not in a position to name, has come forward and offered information by way of a sworn statement to the effect that he is aware of persons involved in domestic drug trafficking between Brisbane and Sydney.

"Moreover [he] is aware that these same persons, whom he has named, were responsible for planting 4.1 kilograms - approximately 10 pounds - of marijuana in Schapelle Corby's boogie board bag unbeknownst to her.

"The figurehead of this particular domestic drug trafficking ring is currently incarcerated for drug matters."



Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Thur, 17 Mar 2005
Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Australia Web)
Reporter: Tanya Nolan
Copyright: 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Contact: comments@your.abc.net.au
Website: http://www.abc.net.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/34

AM - Schapelle Corby defence team produces crucial new evidence

[This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2005/s1325571.htm]

AM - Thursday, 17 March , 2005 08:16:00
Reporter: Tanya Nolan

TONY EASTLEY: The defence team for the Gold Coast woman accused of trying to smuggle drugs into Indonesia, say they have strong new evidence to prove Schapelle Corby was the victim of an Australian drug trafficking ring.

In an 11th hour bid to convince Indonesian judges of her innocence, her lawyers have obtained a sworn affidavit from a man naming three Australian baggage handlers, whom he claims are responsible for planting four kilograms of marijuana in Ms Corby's luggage.

Tanya Nolan reports.

TANYA NOLAN: With the trial of 27-year-old Gold Coast woman Schapelle Corby in its final stages, her defence team says it has crucial new evidence to prove her innocence. Ms Corby is accused of trying to bring 4.1 kilograms of marijuana into Bali in October last year, but has always maintained the drugs were not hers.

Gold Coast businessman, Ron Bakir, who's been funding Ms Corby's defence, says he and his lawyer Robin Tampoe have obtained a sworn affidavit from a man, which proves Ms Corby's innocence.

Robin Tampoe.

ROBIN TAMPOE: Essentially, the statement has identified the person responsible for, well, a person responsible for drug trafficking, and this person has been responsible for the drugs being put into Schapelle's boogie board bag.

As we… as the statement reads, the bags were to be couriered from Brisbane to Sydney, and then to be removed from her bag in Sydney. She's effectively an unsuspecting "mule".

TANYA NOLAN: The source swears that the drugs were put into her bag without her knowledge and were supposed to be taken out in Sydney, but were missed.

Mr Tampoe says the affidavit names names, and the source is reliable.

ROBIN TAMPOE: There was no real reason for him to come forward. What is interesting about this fellow is that for some weeks now he'd been trying to get this information through to the Australian Federal Police, he had tried to do that, he couldn't get through to anyone who was prepared to listen to him or take him seriously.

So, the first thing he's done is go to the authorities with this information that he saw as very crucial, that this young lady's life's on the line, and that's why he has come forward.

TANYA NOLAN: The Australian Federal Police rejects that claim, and says it cannot find any record of this information being brought forward by any person.

But a spokeswoman has confirmed that the AFP was sent the affidavit late yesterday by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and says it will examine the information it may contain about general drug activity in Australia.

Ms Corby's defence team is preparing to seek an adjournment in her trial if it resumes today as scheduled.

TONY EASTLEY: Tanya Nolan reporting.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Fri, 18 Mar 2005
Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Australia
Web)
Copyright: 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Contact: comments@your.abc.net.au
Website: http://www.abc.net.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/34

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

TV PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT

LOCATION:
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2005/s1326147.htm

Broadcast: 18/03/2005

AFP casts doubt over new evidence in Corby case

Reporter: Kirsten Murray

TONY JONES: Now to the case of Schapelle Corby, the Gold Coast woman who has been held in a Bali prison on drugs charges and the new evidence she hopes will set her free. Even before that evidence has been heard in court, there has been doubt cast on it. The Australian Federal Police today questioned the claims that Australian airport staff used Schapelle Corby's bags to smuggle drugs interstate and they say her lawyers should have saved their revelation for the trial.

Kirstin Murray reports.

KIRSTEN MURRAY: Schapelle Corby's legal team hopes a sworn affidavit from an Australian prisoner will be her 'get out of jail' card.

LELY LUBIS, DEFENCE LAWYER: If it is true, yeah, we come home.

SCHAPELLE CORBY: Yeah, of course I'm happy.

KIRSTEN MURRAY: Her Australian-based lawyers say they have a statement which proves she's innocent and when the case resumes in Bali next week, they'll argue corrupt airport baggage handlers are responsible for the four kilograms of marijuana found in her bag.

VASU RASIAH, GOLD COAST LAWYER: We have got some information and it conclusively says Schapelle is not involved. She's an innocent person who went into the airport and somebody planted.

KIRSTEN MURRAY: But legal representatives in Bali told the court they know who did it and want to summons a man currently serving a sentence in Australia to the Denpasar court. They say the information comes from a letter drafted by another prison inmate, who names several people who were allegedly trying to smuggle drugs from Brisbane to Sydney. But Federal Police are questioning the motives of the author and say the information is hearsay.

MICK KEELTY, FEDERAL POLICE COMMISSIONER: It does mention Corby, but only in the sense that the prisoner made the conclusion that is was connected to the Corby case and overheard other prisoners talking about the Corby case.

KIRSTEN MURRAY: But officers are taking allegations of an interstate drug smuggling network seriously, questioning the prisoner this afternoon. The union representing Qantas baggage handlers says while it's feasible, it should first be proven.

HUGHIE WILLIAMS, TRANSPORT WORKERS UNION STATE SECRETARY: I think it is very serious allegations and
we certainly don't like all our members coming under that sort of spotlight.

KIRSTEN MURRAY: The Federal Police Commissioner says the defence team has done Ms Corby no favours.