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 veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 6,480
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 Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4310627 - 06/18/05 10:57 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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Bizarre wish list hinders Corby
June 19, 2005 - news.com.au
SCHAPELLE Corby's chances of winning her appeal have slumped after the Federal Government has been unable to meet a list of bizarre demands by her new defence team, headed by the bejewelled Indonesian lawyer, Hotman Paris Hutapea.
At the same time, the two Australian QCs offered by the Government to help Ms Corby without charge have been sidelined by her Indonesian advisers, leaving Mr Hutapea to front her defence along with a paid Jakarta starlet.
Justice Minister Chris Ellison has responded to a series of letters from Ms Corby's Indonesian lawyers beginning with one to Prime Minister John Howard on June 8 from her team at the original trial.
Senator Ellison has informed Ms Corby's new legal team it is not possible to meet what is being described by Australian officials as an unreasonable wish list.
Incredibly, that list included a demand for the Australian Government to immediately produce "the owner of the (4.1kg) of marijuana" found in Ms Corby's boogie board bag at Denpasar Airport, along with "the person who put the marijuana" in the former Gold Coast beauty student's luggage.
These requests, characterised by Australian officials as totally unrealistic, were contained in a letter sent to the Australian Government on June 10.
This was followed on June 16 by another letter from Mr Hutapea in similar terms.
Ms Corby's Indonesian lawyers also demand that:
* The Government produce two Victorian jail inmates allegedly overheard by another inmate as saying the drugs were planted on Ms Corby. (The third inmate, John Patrick Ford, had already testified at Ms Corby's first trial. The Judges rejected his evidence as hearsay.)
* The Government produce the officer in charge of luggage check in at Brisbane airport and the officer in charge of CCTV cameras at Brisbane and Sydney airports, the Customs Chief from Brisbane Airport and the chiefs of baggage handling at Sydney and Brisbane airports.
Senator Ellison responded but most of the demands had been made by Ms Corby's original legal team prior to her initial hearing.
"They were just repeating demands that they already knew could not be met," one senior Government source told The Sunday Telegraph.
Senator Ellison informed Ms Corby's new Indonesia lawyers the Victorian jail inmates could not be sent to Bali without a formal request from the Indonesian Government under an international "mutual assistance" agreement.
Despite Mr Hutapea's reputation in Jakarta as a top flight lawyer, the Australian Government is concerned he apparently does not understand this basic fact of law.
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 Vulture
Pursuer ofWisdom
Registered: 06/18/02
Posts: 3,483
Loc: SC
Last seen: 1 month, 13 days
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4313782 - 06/19/05 01:18 PM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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wow this is crazy.
im glad to see that people didnt accept this and are trying to do something about it.
--------------------
Work like you dont need the money.
Love like you never been hurt.
Dance like nobody is watching.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 6,480
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4316731 - 06/20/05 11:07 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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Australia 'not doing enough' for Corby
June 20, 2005 - theage.com.au
The flamboyant Indonesian lawyer recruited to head Schapelle Corby's appeal against her 20-year jail sentence says the Australian government is not doing enough to help her.
Hotman Paris Hutapea today voiced frustration over a lack of progress in identifying new witnesses in Australia.
He said Canberra has so far only paid lip service to Corby's calls for help to prove that someone stashed 4.1kg of marijuana in her luggage after she checked in at Brisbane airport last October.
He said a letter received today from Justice Minister Chris Ellison informed him that Australia could not help bring new witnesses to Indonesia without a formal letter of request from the Indonesian government.
But such a request may not be forthcoming any time soon, he warned.
"The Indonesian government may say why should I bother, you (Australians) attacked my embassy," Hutapea said.
He said Australian government could try to persuade the witnesses to give evidence voluntarily, thereby negating any requirement for official approvals.
"We need the Australian government first to give us the complete names and addresses of all witnesses," he said.
"The second thing that we have asked is for the government to at least try to approach them to see if they will voluntarily be witnesses here, or in Australia by video-link.
"Of course, the last choice is the letter (from Indonesia) they requested, but that will take time and without a political approach from Australia our government probably won't issue it."
Hutapea said he had attached Ellison's letter to a letter he was sending today to Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as well as Indonesian Justice Minister Hamid Awaluddin and the court.
He said the chances of Corby's trial being reopened on the orders of a higher court would be very low if witnesses in Australia were not identified soon.
"I'm disappointed because your government is not showing any initiative to do something to help in a meaningful way," he said.
"The (Bali) High Court could decide any time now to reject our appeal," said Hutapea, a high-profile Jakarta-based lawyer who has worked and studied in Australia.
The defence appeal calls for an additional hearing to hear testimony from new witnesses including Qantas check-in personnel, customs officers, baggage handlers and closed circuit TV staff on duty in Brisbane, Sydney and Bali the day Corby flew to the resort island.
The defence is also seeking testimony from two Victorian inmates identified during the trial only as Terry and Paul, who allegedly joked about how the marijuana in got into Corby's bodyboard bag.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 6,480
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4319672 - 06/21/05 03:55 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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Bakir asks Corby for money, mother says
June 21, 2005 - theage.com.au
Gold Coast businessman Ron Bakir has told convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby she owes him $500,000, her family says.
Mr Bakir denies the claim, saying if he is not repaid any money for his role in Corby's defence, "so be it".
Mr Bakir has been regarded as Corby's "White Knight", but the convicted drug smuggler's mother Rosleigh Rose has now questioned the motives and labelled him a "Black Knight".
Ms Rose said the family was unaware the Australian government had paid for the Indonesian lawyers at her daughter's Bali trial, because Mr Bakir took credit for bankrolling the case.
"Schapelle goes (to Ron), `All that money?'," Ms Rose told Wednesday's edition of the The Bulletin magazine.
"He goes, `Don't worry. You'll have plenty of time to pay me back when you get out'.
"We didn't even ask him to come on board. He just offered. And now she owes him money?"
Corby was sentenced to 20 years in a Bali prison last month after being found guilty by a Denpasar court of trying to smuggle 4.1kg of cannabis into Indonesia last October.
Both the defence and prosecution have lodged appeals, with the prosecution saying the sentence was too light.
Ms Rose said she feared Mr Bakir had tried to trademark the Schapelle name, after registering the company name Schapelle Corby Pty Ltd without informing Corby or her family.
"It's makes me cranky ... people are trying to make money out of Schapelle in that hellhole," Ms Rose said.
"He (Bakir) might have good intentions but he's thinking dollar signs".
Mr Bakir, who has repeatedly said Australian government inaction prompted him to financially assist Corby's defence team, denied he asked Corby to pay him $500,000.
"No, that wasn't said," Mr Bakir told the magazine.
"There was a discussion that took place between myself and the family.
"I said if I can recoup any money, then thanks. If I can't, so be it."
He said he would soon disclose the figure of his financial contribution to Corby's defence.
Mr Bakir also denied any trademarking attempt and said Corby was the only beneficiary of Schapelle Corby Pty Ltd.
Ms Rose said she was also furious Mr Bakir posted Corby's personal bank account details on www.schapellecorby .com, a website he set up before the family even knew who he was, so people could make direct donations.
Ms Rose said she had approached a lawyer to protect her daughter from numerous parties seemingly out to rob Corby of a "potential goldmine".
The Bulletin alleges company DAG International has lodged an application to trademark the words "Schapelle Corby" in relation to rights to produce and sell books and movies, without approaching her family.
Allan Hawley-Jacobs, who runs a small Gold Coast business, is attempting to trademark the name "Schapelle" in association with a raft of products from antiperspirant to nautical equipment, The Bulletin says.
Mark Trowell, one of the two Perth QCs appointed by the federal government to Corby's defence, told The Bulletin Corby had been forced to sign documents giving away 50 per cent of any earnings she might make from films and book rights, and payments from film and television studios.
However, Corby's sister Mercedes said nothing had been signed.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 6,480
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4324051 - 06/22/05 08:56 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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Govt won't seek legal costs from Corby
June 22, 2005 - theage.com.au
Convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby won't have to repay the government for covering her legal costs but she may not be allowed to profit from her story.
Corby's family says Gold Coast businessman Ron Bakir, who maintains he bankrolled much of her defence, has told her she owes him $500,000.
The allegation emerged in an article in The Bulletin magazine, in which Corby's mother Rosleigh Rose questioned the motives of the mobile phone entrepreneur.
"He goes (to Corby), 'Don't worry. You'll have plenty of time to pay me back when you get out'," Ms Rose told the magazine.
"We didn't even ask him to come on board. He just offered. And now she owes him money?"
Mr Bakir denies the claim, saying he will cope if he is not repaid any money for his role in Corby's defence.
After Corby's conviction last month, the government revealed it had helped pay some of her legal costs and would consider any request for further financial assistance.
Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says there will be no requirement for Corby to pay back what she's received in legal aid.
"There's never been a requirement in relation to legal aid generally that people who are eligible at the time when the grant is made, pay it back if their circumstances change," he said.
But Mr Ruddock suggested that Corby may not be permitted to benefit financially from her story, as she could be subject to proceeds of crimes law.
Under federal proceeds of crime laws, criminals are not able to benefit from selling their story, with the money being split between the commonwealth and the states.
In this way roundabout way she may end up repaying the government.
"If convictions remain afoot and stories are sold, ... the proceeds of crime legislation might apply," Mr Ruddock said.
The latest twist in the Corby case came as her Indonesian lawyer urged the government to convince airport baggage handlers to give evidence in her appeal against her 20-year sentence.
Hotman Paris Hutapea told the Seven Network he accepted the government could not force people to give evidence to the Bali court, but urged it to persuade corrupt baggage handlers to help his client.
Mr Hutapea called on the government to do more to help Corby so that the Bali High Court in Denpasar would grant her defence an additional hearing.
Justice Minister Chris Ellison said the government only received the lawyer's request on Tuesday and would do whatever it could.
"Certainly we'll provide whatever information we can within the bounds of the law," he said.
"But there have been some requests made which are really beyond our remit, requests such as finding the person who put the marijuana in the bag is really a request of government that we really can't meet."
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 6,480
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4327292 - 06/23/05 12:54 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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Corby team 'sought to bribe judges'
June 23, 2005 - theage.com.au
Schapelle Corby's lawyers tried to get the Australian Government to give them $500,000 to bribe the Indonesian judges overseeing her appeal, two Perth lawyers claimed yesterday.
Mark Trowell, one of two QCs asked by the Government to help her case, said the request was made earlier this month at a meeting he attended in Bali.
Corby's Indonesian lawyers also requested in a written document that $500,000 be forwarded to them from the Australian Government for "lobbying".
Mr Trowell said Corby was unaware of the request, which was rejected immediately.
Mr Trowell and fellow Perth lawyer Phillip Laskaris were initially sounded out about a bribe over dinner in Bali three weeks ago with the head of Corby's defence team, Vasu Rasiah, and her lawyer, Lily Lubis.
Mr Trowell confirmed yesterday that an approach had been made, saying that at first he thought it was a joke. "I kept pushing, pushing them to tell me what they saw as the best grounds of appeal," he said.
"Vasu said: 'Forget the merits of the appeal, all you have to do is put in the appeal and if you have got money to bribe the judges, you win the appeal.'
"I told him the Australian Government would never provide money to bribe judges.
"He said: 'There are no lawyers in Indonesia, only negotiators'."
Mr Laskaris backed up Mr Trowell's account.
It is understood that a letter to the Australian Government handed to Mr Trowell by Mr Rasiah a few days later included, among its requests, an amount of $500,000 for "lobbying".
"There was no doubt in my mind what it [the $500,000] was referring to because he had discussed it at dinner," Mr Trowell said. "It would be an understatement to say that I was shocked … I thought it was insulting to the Indonesian judiciary."
Mr Rasiah yesterday admitted that he had made a written request for $500,000 but said it was to mount a PR campaign to create support for Corby.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 6,480
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4331120 - 06/24/05 01:09 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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Lawyer fears Corby case in ruins
June 24, 2005 - smh.com.au
The Jakarta lawyer helping with Schapelle Corby's appeal has called for a Perth QC to be sacked for comments he believes will ruin Corby's chances.
Hotman Paris Hutapea said he warned Mark Trowell - who had recommended him as defence lawyer for Corby's appeal - against making any public comments alleging Corby's case co-ordinator, Vasu Rasiah, had suggested bribing appeal judges.
Mr Hutapea said Mr Trowell's remarks were a "disaster", with three judges from Bali's High Court now considering her appeal against a 20-year sentence for smuggling 4.1 kilograms of marijuana into Indonesia.
There was now a serious risk the court would increase the sentence for her offence which carries a maximum penalty of death.
"I told him not to say that. If it goes to the Indonesian papers the judges will increase the decision to show they are clear of corruption … everything is a disaster," he said.
"Sack him, that's all," Mr Hutapea recommended as the best way to proceed.
Amid mounting signs of Corby's team unravelling, he also suggested sacking Mr Rasiah.
Mr Trowell told a newspaper on Wednesday that Corby's case co-ordinator had requested him to ask his Australian government connections for $500,000 to bribe the appeal judges.
"Vasu said this: 'Forget the merits of the appeal, all you have to do is put in the appeal and if you have got money to bribe the judges, you win the appeal'," Mr Trowell told The West Australian.
He had no doubt Mr Rasiah intended the money be used for bribes, a claim Mr Rasiah strenuously denied yesterday. "I did not use the word bribe, I never said it."
His request for $500,000 was to run a "public relations campaign" to lobby and pay Indonesian journalists to write sympathetic articles about Corby's case, Mr Rasiah said. He had never suggested bribing the judges in the appeal.
Mr Trowell dismissed the outcry over his remarks, saying: "I'm more concerned that [Mr Rasiah's] shenanigans will damage Corby's case."
Mr Rasiah was "not a lawyer [and had] done nothing but cause trouble in this case … he's a Sri Lankan-born Australian citizen so he's not even an Indonesian."
"The only lawyer I respect over there is Erwin Siregar."
However, it seems that respect may not be mutual. "Such statements are surely damaging," said Mr Siregar, a member of the Corby legal team. "It makes what we have done useless."
At the Australian Government's suggestion, Mr Trowell and another Perth QC, Tom Percy, approached the Corby family last month, although their role in the case remains unclear.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 6,480
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4331369 - 06/24/05 04:35 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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Corby sacks Indonesian legal team
June 24, 2005 - theage.com.au
After increasingly bitter infighting this week among her family, legal advisers and supporters, Schapelle Corby has sacked her Indonesian lawyers.
And the businessman Ron Bakir, who had backed Corby financially, now says he is cutting all ties with her and her family.
Lily Lubis, the Bali lawyer who had represented the Queensland woman since her arrest on charges of smuggling 4.1 kilograms of marijuana in October, said Corby phoned her from jail and told her she had appointed new lawyers.
"She said, 'Thank you for what you have done. I have a new team,"' Ms Lubis said.
She said she asked Corby why she had decided to change lawyers, and she said, "Because it's already a mess now."
She said Corby had sacked her, the case co-ordinator Vasu Rasiah, Erwin Siregar, Haposan Sihombing and the Jakarta lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea, who joined the case only to work on the appeal after Corby was convicted of drug smuggling last month.
"I am happy. At least I don't have to resign now," Ms Lubis said. She said it had become impossible to work on the case after the arrival four weeks ago of two Perth lawyers whom the Federal Government had asked to help Corby.
Corby's Queensland lawyer Robin Tampoe had predicted the events of recent days when the QCs arrived on the scene after Corby's conviction, Ms Lubis said.
"He said the QCs will ruin this case and make us look bad," she said.
One of those lawyers, Mark Trowell, QC, this week accused Mr Rasiah of asking him to get $500,000 from the Australian Government to bribe judges in the Corby case, a claim Mr Rasiah denies.
Mr Hutapea, appointed to the case on Mr Trowell's recommendation, said the public comments by the Perth lawyer had destroyed Corby's appeal chances and poisoned the atmosphere in which the appeal would be decided.
He said Mr Trowell appeared to be determined to criticise the lawyers in the team to take the heat off the Australian Government, which has been consistently criticised by Corby's lawyers.
Indonesia's leading newspaper, Kompas, reported Mr Trowell's bribery allegations on its front page yesterday, prompting Mr Hutapea to accuse him of sabotaging the case.
Ms Lubis said she did not know who was in the new legal team and had not asked Corby.
The furore over the bribes follow accusations made by Corby's mother, Rosleigh Rose, this week that Corby's financial backer, Mr Bakir, had told Corby she owed him $500,000.
Mr Bakir has denied this and challenged Ms Rose to state the dates when she claims the two of them met Corby in prison and discussed the matter. He said he had never been inside the prison at the same time as Ms Rose. Mr Bakir now says he has severed all ties with Schapelle Corby and her family.
Mr Bakir, who says he stepped forward to help raise the profile of the Corby case in Australia, said he was no longer able to work with Corby or her family.
"I thought about it long and hard. I've done everything in my power not to try and give up on Schapelle Corby," he told Radio 2GB. "I don't want to, but it's sad for me to say that I can no longer be involved with the Corby family at all."
Edited by veggie (06/24/05 11:23 AM)
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 6,480
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4338252 - 06/26/05 01:16 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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Former Corby lawyer lashes out
June 27, 2005 - theage.com.au
Schapelle Corby's former Australian lawyer has accused her family of profiteering from her drug smuggling conviction.
Gold Coast-based lawyer Robin Tampoe quit Corby's camp yesterday after falling out with her mother Rosleigh Rose, and over allegations Corby's team had sought $500,000 to bribe Indonesian judges.
He says Ms Rose accused him of trying to profit by gaining a profile out of the case and the bribe allegation was the last straw.
The Sunday Telegraph today reported that Corby's sacked legal team wanted $800,000 from the Australian government for "lobbying" and to engage a high-profile lawyer for Corby.
Perth Barrister Mark Trowell, QC, reportedly believes $500,000 of that money was intended for bribes rather than lobbying.
Mr Tampoe's departure follows that of Gold Coast business man Ron Bakir.
Mr Bakir quit the Corby camp on Friday after Ms Rose called him a gold digger who stood to personally benefit from the case.
Mr Bakir had organised media deals for the family which had earned them substantial amounts of money, Mr Tampoe said.
"I know for a fact that Ron Bakir hasn't profited one cent from any of those monies," Mr Tampoe told the Nine Network today.
"The only people that I've seen who are profiting from Schapelle Corby being in jail is the Corby family."
Ms Rose has pocketed more than $100,000 from a media deal with the Nine Network, and her sister Mercedes Corby made $30,000 in one deal with New Idea magazine, Mr Tampoe said.
"The Indonesian lawyers have not received any money from the funds they've earned from interviews," Mr Tampoe said.
But he says $200,000 contributed by Mr Bakir has been spent by Corby's legal team.
Mr Tampoe alleged that after Corby was sentenced to 20 years in jail for importing 4.1kg of marijuana into Bali, Mercedes ran from the court and later gave an interview to New Idea for which she was paid $30,000.
Earlier, she had told Mr Tampoe she would not be able to cope if a harsh sentence was sought and asked him to see Schapelle, he said.
"I went to the holding cell amongst all the chaos to see Schapelle - I was holding her hand while she was crying," Mr Tampoe said.
"I find out down the track that she (Mercedes) ran out of there to do a live interview for $30,000 with New Idea.
"I'm holding her sister's hand while she is making $30,000 with New Idea and that, from my point of view, sickens me."
The Nine Network says Mercedes Corby told them she did do the New Idea interview that day.
But she is adamant she was very upset for her sister contrary to any impression Mr Tampoe might have gained.
Mercedes also jeopardised the defence by lying when asked if anyone in the family had a criminal conviction or connection with drugs, Mr Tampoe said.
He said Mercedes had denied any such history involving the family.
But just before the verdict in the Corby case was delivered, news broke that stepbrother Clinton Rose had a lengthy criminal history, Mr Tampoe said.
Mr Tampoe said Corby was being kept in the dark by her family about what was going on outside her Bali jail cell.
"I think she probably knows very little about how much has been earned by the family," Mr Tampoe said.
On Friday, Corby sacked the Indonesian legal team preparing her appeal against her conviction and 20-year sentence for drug smuggling.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 6,480
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4338901 - 06/26/05 10:31 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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Corby rehires most of her legal team
June 26, 2005 - smh.com.au
Two days after she sacked her entire Indonesian legal team, Schapelle Corby has rehired all but two of them.
In the latest twist to her trouble plagued appeal, Corby has reappointed Jakarta-based celebrity lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea, respected Bali-based criminal lawyer Erwin Siregar and junior counsel Hoposan Sihonding.
Corby also has terminated any future role in her appeal by Australian academic and entrepreneur Walter Tonetto who was only hired as a strategist on Friday - hours before Corby sacked her legal team.
The 27-year-old dismissed the Indonesian lawyers after allegations by Perth QC Mark Trowell that her main Bali lawyer Lily Sri Rahayu Lubis and case coordinator Vasu Rasiah planned to bribe the judges considering her conviction and 20-year jail term for drug smuggling.
Mercedes Corby confirmed the reappointments, saying her sister made the decision after realising she may have acted too hastily.
Lubis and Rasiah were the only members of the team not to be reappointed.
"She just thought she might have decided too hastily before," Mercedes said after earlier visiting Corby at Kerobokan prison.
"She was very torn and agonised about letting them go.
"Even though she's hoping this appeal will get her home, she thinks that if she has to go to the next appeal in Jakarta, Hotman's the best person for that."
Mercedes said she had called Tonetto to inform him of the change.
But Tonetto said he could not accept the news.
"I'm in charge of the team, he said.
"Mercedes is her sister, but I was appointed by Schapelle so I cannot accept this news at the moment.
"She (Schapelle) is acting in a state of great confusion and appears under pressure from Mr Hotman."
Hotman said he was glad to resume work on the case, but said it would be on the condition that Tonetto step down and that Mercedes attend a press conference in Jakarta to clear his name.
"Media reports in Jakarta say I'm the one behind the $500,000 bribery allegation," he said.
He said he understood how confused Corby must be at the chaotic implosion of her legal team.
"I know they were under stress and anybody would be confused. They are just a bit immature," he said.
News of the reappointments came as Corby's former Australian lawyer, Gold Coast-based Robin Tampoe, accused her family of profiteering from her drug smuggling conviction and concealing a family history of criminal convictions.
Tampoe quit Corby's camp, following soon after Gold Coast businessman Ron Bakir's departure.
Both men had fallen out with Corby's mother Rosleigh Rose, who accused them of trying to profit by gaining a profile out of the case.
Tampoe said he knew nothing about a bribery plot.
"In light of what has happened over the last couple of days, in relation to comments being made, I no longer want to be involved in this case," Mr Tampoe told the Nine Network.
"From where I'm sitting the only people who are profiting from Schapelle Corby being in jail is her family."
He said Corby's original lawyers have not received one cent for their work, while Ms Rose has pocketed more than $100,000 from a media deal with the Nine Network and Mercedes made $30,000 in one deal with New Idea Magazine.
Mr Tampoe said Corby was being kept in the dark by her family about what was going on outside her Bali jail cell.
"I think she probably knows very little about how much has been earned by the family," he said.
Mercedes denied Tampoe's claims but declined to comment further.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 6,480
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4345624 - 06/28/05 12:53 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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I'm no crazy Australian, Corby says
June 27, 2005 - theage.com.au
Schapelle Corby has admitted she may appear to be acting like a "crazy Australian" but blames the stress of imprisonment for the chaos surrounding her legal team which ended today with the rehiring of her Indonesian celebrity lawyer.
Just hours after Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer described the case as a "soap opera", Corby's sister Mercedes handed over a letter from Schapelle to pistol-packing counsel Hotman Paris Hutapea in Indonesia.
Writing from her jail cell, 27-year-old Corby indulged in some word play and asked Hutapea to continue her appeal against a 20-year sentence for drug trafficking.
"You, Mr Hutapea, are a Hotman and are very much needed to work your expertise, to do the best you possibly can to help me to be a free woman," she wrote.
The Gold Coast woman also reappointed two other lawyers Haposan Sihombing and Erwin Siregar - the only survivor of her original trial team.
"You must think I'm a crazy Australian, but no I'm not, just confused and disorientated," she said in a letter to Haposan.
"But I know what I want now and that's for you to help free me from this horrible cage I'm trying so hard to survive in."
Mercedes Corby, appearing bewildered and continually interrupted by Hutapea at a press conference in Jakarta, read a signed statement from the family to judges and the Indonesian government following allegations of attempted bribery, apologising for any offence.
Requests by Corby's former case coordinator Vasu Rasiah for $500,000 to Perth QC Mark Trowell - and which led to Rasiah's sacking along with Bali lawyer Lily Lubis - were unauthorised, she said.
Hutapea angrily rejected the foreign minister's "soap opera" jibe.
"Mr Alexander Downer, he is talking bullshit," he said. "He doesn't even call us."
Mercedes also said the government had offered little support.
"That's damaging, but where has the government been for help with the lawyers?" she asked.
"How do we know who to choose? ...we've been thrown in this.
"We had a list of lawyers and they told us this and that.
"I think now we have the good team (and) we've had no guidance."
In a fiery outburst, the diamond-wearing Hotman attacked criticism of his motivations for taking on the case by Australian academic and entrepreneur Walter Tonetto who was hired as a strategist on Friday and then dismissed at the weekend.
"I don't know who Walter is, whether he is from the jungle of Borneo, but I ask Mr Walter not to do it again," Hutapea said.
Tonetto said he hoped to work alongside Hutapea and vowed to keep working for Corby until he was formally sacked.
Pressed by Hutapea, Mercedes Corby confirmed Tonetto had been sacked.
"I say whatever you say," she told the high-flying lawyer.
The diamond-wearing Mr Hutapea attacked criticism of his motivations for taking on the case by Australian entrepreneur Walter Tonetto.
Patting a pistol holstered around his waist, he said: "I hate him."
Hutapea, who has admitted giving judges "thank you" payments in the past, said he was taking on the Corby appeal case free of charge for the challenge, warning the process could be longer than the Bali bomb trials and take years.
"I am not Mr Clean, but for this case, temporarily I am clean," he said.
Meanwhile, Gold Coast businessman Ron Bakir said today he had severed all ties to Corby's family despite spending "an enormous" amount of money on the defence, because he could not work with them any more.
Mr Bakir quit the Corby camp on Friday after her mother Rosleigh Rose called him a gold digger who stood to personally benefit from the case. Mr Bakir said he had not profited one cent from it.
Ms Rose, in an interview published last week, said Mr Bakir had asked Schapelle for $500,000.
"I've done everything in my power to try and help and I just don't think I can be of any help any more, I think it's a matter for the Australian government now," Mr Bakir told Southern Cross radio.
A LETTER with white powder sent from Australia to Indonesia's foreign ministry in Jakarta was harmless but was related to the Corby case, Indonesian police said yesterday.
The letter was delivered on Friday, apparently sent from Victoria and with Australian stamps. It was not addressed to anyone.
Foreign ministry spokesman Yuri Thamrin said the envelope was a disturbing development.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 6,480
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4346354 - 06/28/05 09:53 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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No pardon for drug smugglers: Indonesia
June 28, 2005 - seven.com.au
Indonesia's president vowed never to pardon drug smugglers, saying there was no point campaigning for the release of foreigners held in his country's jails.
The remarks apparently referred to Australian Schapelle Corby, sentenced last month to 20 years in jail for trying to smuggle 4.1kg of cannabis into Bali.
Her conviction and sentencing in a Bali court triggered protests in Australia, where many believe Corby, a 27-year-old former beauty school student, is innocent.
Supporters have been running a media campaign to get her freed.
"Both Indonesians and foreigners must serve out their sentences," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in a speech to police narcotics officers and social workers on Tuesday.
"I call on all parties to respect Indonesia's legal system. There is no use in campaigning to change public opinion to free an individual found guilty of drugs offences."
Corby's Indonesian layers recently said they planned a media campaign to convince the Indonesian public she was innocent ahead of her appeal.
After exhausting all appeals, prisoners can ask the president for a pardon.
However, Yudhoyono said: "I will not hand out pardons to drug convicts. Throughout the history of our country, the president has never granted a request for a pardon."
Both Corby and the Indonesian prosecutors have launched appeals: Corby against her conviction and sentence - which she says is too long, and prosecutors against the sentence - which they believe is too short.
The Australian government has also stepped in on Corby's behalf, recommending two Perth QCs to help with the case, and having talks with Jakarta on a prisoner transfer agreement that may allow Corby to serve her sentence at home.
A decision on her appeal is expected later this year.
Meanwhile, Corby, 27, has written a letter to Australian lawyer Robin Tampoe from her prison cell in Bali, begging him to continue to work on her defence.
The latest twist in the Corby saga followed days of conflict between Corby's mother Rosleigh Rose and Mr Tampoe and mobile phone entrepreneur Ron Bakir.
Mr Tampoe, whom Mr Bakir financed to be part of Corby's defence, last week withdrew from all involvement in the case.
The letter to Mr Tampoe follows Corby's reappointment of flamboyant Jakarta-based lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea and Bali criminal lawyers Erwin Siregar and Haposan Sihombing after sacking her entire Indonesian legal team last Friday.
In the letter, obtained by the Philip Clark Drive Program on 2GB, part of the Macquarie Radio Network, Corby said she "needs" Mr Tampoe but will "understand" if he does not accept her offer.
"I want to thank you for everything you have done for me, all the energy, all of the sleepless nights, all the time away from your family and all the enemies you have made along the way, I'm so thankful to you, also so sorry for all the emotional bashings you have endured," her letter said.
"It's not over yet, because the 20 years is not final ... we will not accept this.
"I need you; If you feel you can't do this any more, I understand. But please know that if you don't mind, please stay with the Corby defence."
Corby also said she was "doing fine".
Mr Tampoe could not be reached for comment, but has previously accused the Corby family of profiting from her ordeal.
At the weekend he said some aspects of their behaviour had "sickened" him.
The argument between Mr Tampoe and Mr Bakir on one side and Ms Rose on the other was exacerbated by Ms Rose's comments in The Bulletin magazine last week accusing Mr Bakir of demanding $500,000 from Corby for his involvement in the case.
Mr Bakir has denied the claim.
Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer labelled the situation a "soap opera", to which Mr Hutapea responded he was "talking bullshit".
Ms Rose has appealed to Australians to continue to support her daughter amid the chaos.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 6,480
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4350208 - 06/29/05 11:05 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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Corby's Mr Fixit says bribery out, for now
June 29, 2005 - smh.com.au
With allegations of bribery prompting Schapelle Corby to sack her legal team on Friday, her latest lawyer has admitted he is no stranger to the corruption in Indonesia's legal system.
"As a lawyer I am not clean, I have to confess that - but for this case I am temporarily clean," Hotman Paris Hutapea said yesterday. He would not deny that he had sent money to judges in the past, he said, but in Corby's case there would be no funny business with the judges. However, journalists are a different matter. Mr Hutapea's staff handed out the customary envelopes of "transport money" to local reporters.
With two other lawyers Corby sacked on Friday, Mr Hutapea was rehired on Sunday, and yesterday had Corby's sister, Mercedes, at his side as he sought to get Corby's appeal back on track. He said he had sent many letters to the Australian Government requesting its help in getting the names of customs officers and other airport employees he wanted to bring to Bali for a special hearing, and had received no help at all.
Mr Hutapea said Mark Trowell, a Perth barrister, had deliberately damaged Corby's appeal by publicly claiming Corby's case co-ordinator, Vasu Rasiah, had proposed paying a $500,000 bribe. Asked if he would still work with Mr Trowell, whom the Government had asked to help in the case, Mr Hutapea said: "He's out. He's in the past - there are hundreds of QCs in Australia."
When Mercedes Corby was asked if she agreed with her lawyer's view that Mr Trowell should be sacked for his comments, he dug his elbow into her sides and muttered "yes" into her ear. She tried to avoid answering directly, but a few elbows later she said: "I say yes. I say what you say."
When Mr Trowell's comments were published on the front page of Indonesia's main newspaper, Kompas, Corby was forced to sack her lawyers and Mr Rasiah, and Mr Hutapea has been in damage control ever since.
Mercedes Corby read a statement she said was from her family that included a line from Mr Trowell saying Mr Hutapea and the other rehired lawyers, Erwin Siregar and Haposan Sihombing, were "clean".
The statement apologised to the Indonesian Government and to people and "especially to the head and judges in Denpasar High Court" who will decide Corby's appeal in the next two months.
Mr Hutapea said "this case may take years" but vowed he would never ask for money for his services.
Mercedes Corby said she would remain in Bali as long as her sister was in jail. She refused to confirm her mother's claim to The Bulletin magazine last week that Corby's financial backer Ron Bakir had told Schapelle she owed him $500,000.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 6,480
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4368220 - 07/04/05 01:04 AM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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Indonesian judges reopen Corby trial
July 4, 2005 - ninemsn.com.au
A dramatic turn of events will see Schapelle Corby's trial reopened a month after she was sentenced to 20 years jail for smuggling more than four kilograms of marijuana into Bali last year.
Indonesia's High Court has ordered Bali's District Court to reopen the trial into the 27-year-old Gold Coast student, and allowed up to 12 new witnesses to appear.
Chief Judge Made Lingga said that while he thought the original hearing in Bali's District Court was sufficient, in any case the judges would agree to calls by Corby's defence team to reopen the hearings. No date has been set yet.
Australian customs officials, airport staff and Qantas baggage handlers will be called to testify, along with the two inmates Victorian prisoner John Ford allegedly overheard talking about the drug racket in jail.
Judges said they expected the defence team to present the witnesses themselves, and anticipated that would include a person in custody who would admit to owning the marijuana.
Corby's Indonesian lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea told Sydney radio the new witnesses must be produced for trial by the end of the month.
Mr Hutapea says he also wrote to the trial judges to apologise for comments by Perth QC Mark Trowell, who claimed he was asked for money to help bribe them for Corby's acquittal.
The same judges who presided over Corby's original guilty verdict are expected to sit for the retrial.
Corby has claimed to have been the victim of a drug-smuggling ring involving baggage handlers and denied all charges.
Corby's mother, Rosleigh Rose, told ABC Radio she was thrilled by the news.
"Mercedes just said 'mum, we're not sure 100 per cent but we're pretty sure the judges are open for it to be opened up again'," Ms Rose said.
"So I don't know how that works or whatever but it's just excellent news, really good."
Perth QC Mark Trowell, who was asked by the Australian Government to help in Corby's appeal, says he is delighted the Indonesian judges will hear new evidence.
Mr Trowell has been at the centre of a dispute between Corby's Australian and Indonesian legal teams. At one stage, he accused the Indonesian legal team of suggesting judges hearing the case could be bribed.
He says he has only just heard about the development in the Indonesian High Court but he has been in contact with some of Corby's legal team.
He says it is now up to others to determine what involvement he will have in the case.
"I don't know but I can just say I'm delighted and it's good to see that a lot of hard work has paid off for her," he said.
When asked if he had been involved in some of the work that might have led to the decision, he said it was for others to judge.
"I'm not going to try to claim credit for this decision - a lot of people have worked towards this and it's just a wonderful thing to see," he said.
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Capatalistc nomad
Positivelyscandalous
Registered: 06/17/03
Posts: 9,910
Loc: Pongyang, North Korea
Last seen: 17 hours, 9 minutes
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4368514 - 07/04/05 02:28 AM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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personally i think that she did it... it really looks that way imho... but i think that she might get off if this other dude takes the fall... i wonder what is in it for him....
--------------------
PEACE
 zippoz
Quote:
in times of widespread chaos and cofusion, it has ben the duty of more advanced human beings - artists, scientists, clowns, and philosophers - to create order. In such times as ours however, when there is too much order, too much m anagment, too much programming and controll, it becomes the duty of superior men and women and women to fling their favorite monkey wrenches into the machinery. To relieve the repression of the human spirit, they must sow doubt and disruption
[/quote]
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 6,480
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4370751 - 07/04/05 11:29 PM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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Immunity under consideration
July 5, 2005 - news.com.au
THE Federal Government has raised the possibility of granting immunity to anyone who admits putting drugs in Schapelle Corby's luggage.
The Bali High Court agreed yesterday to hear new evidence backing the former Queensland beauty student's claims she did not know anything about the 4.1kg of marijuana found in her luggage at Bali airport last October.
Corby's lawyers want at least a dozen witnesses to appear, including Australian prisoners and Qantas baggage handlers and check-in staff.
Australian Justice Minister Chris Ellison today described the reopening of the case as a "significant development".
Australia's mutual assistance scheme with Indonesia could provide an opportunity for immunity granted to anyone who came forward to admit they had placed the drugs in Corby's bag, he said.
"Under the mutual assistance legislation and the agreement we have in place, there are provisions for immunity but that would need to be negotiated," Senator Ellison said at the launch of the New South Wales Customs headquarters today.
Senator Ellison later rejected criticism by Corby's lawyer, Hotman Paris Hutapea, that the Government had not done enough to help his client.
The Government's willingness to fly Australian prisoner John Ford to Bali to give evidence was an example of the help it had already provided, he said.
Ford told the court he had overhead a jail conversation about Corby being used as an unwitting drug mule for a gang.
"I totally reject the notion that the Australian Government has been unwilling to help," Senator Ellison said.
"I mean John Ford was a case in point."
The Australian Federal Police was now searching for two Australian prisoners, mentioned by Ford during Corby's initial trial, who were wanted by Corby's lawyers to give evidence, Senator Ellison said.
"They are the two prisoners that were mentioned in John Ford's evidence and certainly they are the people we are ascertaining the whereabouts of," he said.
Senator Ellison said he had written to Qantas and Brisbane and Sydney airports passing on requests from Corby's lawyers in relation to the witnesses they were seeking to have come forward.
In May, Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon said he could not rule out a link between corrupt baggage handlers implicated in a cocaine-smuggling racket and claims by Corby that handlers had planted drugs in her luggage.
Senator Ellison said Qantas had provided the names of some of the baggage handlers to Corby's lawyers, and a meeting about the information had taken place in March.
Qantas had recently indicated it was willing to speak directly to Corby's lawyers again, he said.
The Brisbane Airport Corporation (BAC) doubts it can produce evidence to help in the appeal of convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby.
BAC corporate relations manager Jim Carden said the corporation would be as co-operative as possible.
"But we will probably find ourselves where we were a month ago – unable to speak on behalf or explain systems of airlines ... we are just a ground facility," he said.
Mr Carden said baggage handler responsibilities belonged to airlines.
He said the BAC could not deliver on the long-standing call for security video footage and a record of the weight of her bag at Brisbane Airport because the footage did not exist, and the onus was on Qantas to produce evidence on the weight of the bag.
"We've been at pains to do what we can ... but what we can do is very limited," Mr Carden said.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 6,480
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4371804 - 07/05/05 10:01 AM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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Key Corby witness 'knows nothing'
July 5, 2005 - news.com.au
The man named as a key witness in the retrial of Schapelle Corby says he has no information that can help free her.
Ronnie Vigenza, who was named as the owner of the 4.1kg of marijuana found in Corby's bodyboard bag, says he is wrongly accused.
"I was glad for her that she got a retrial," Mr Vigenza said in a television interview tonight.
"(But) I find that strange that there are baggage handlers and there's other people involved and I'm still No.1 suspect, it's strange.
"I've tried to prove my innocence ... as best I can." Mr Vigenza was asked, on Channel 9's A Current Affair program, if he could say anything to help Corby.
"No ... I have no information whatsoever," he replied. "People have asked me 'why have they accused you Ronnie?' and I don't know to this day."
Mr Vigenza said he had been feeling like a prisoner in his own home since he was named by inmate John Ford as the owner of the drugs, in evidence given by Ford during Corby's trial earlier this year.
He said he did not remember Ford from prison, but he felt threatened and had faced abuse in the street since his claims became public.
"I can't even walk down the street without people yelling out to me ... 'it's all your fault, if you had of told the truth everything would be alright'," Mr Vigenza said.
"A bloke yelled across the street 'You're a dog because, you know, you put an innocent girl in jail'."
Mr Vigenza did agree that he was a user of marijuana. "I smoke a little bit a marijuana and that's it ... certainly not 4.1 kg."
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sander
learning
Registered: 10/04/04
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