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 veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
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 Re: 27 year old faces death for marijuana [Re: veggie]
#4070046 - 04/18/05 06:27 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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9 more Australians face death on smuggling charges
Schapelle Corby's case unlikely to be affected
April 19, 2005
canberra.yourguide.com.au
Nine Australians arrested in a dramatic Bali heroin bust will face a firing squad if convicted of trying to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia and into Australia.
Australian consular officials said it was "by far" the largest number of drug- related detentions of Australians ever in Indonesia. Indonesian investigators said a total of 11.25kg of the drug was seized.
The nine eight men and one woman were nabbed by Indonesian authorities on Sunday night following an Australian Federal Police operation dating back to February.
Five were arrested at Bali airport while waiting for a flight to Sydney. Four were held at the departure lounge allegedly with bags of heroin strapped to their bodies, the head of the island's police anti-drugs squad, Colonel Bambang Sugiarto, said.
A fifth man the alleged 21-year-old Sydney drug ring boss nicknamed the "Godfather" was pulled off the Australian Airlines plane with no drugs and later protested his innocence when paraded before reporters.
"What ever happened to Schapelle Corby happened to me. They are convicting me of something I didn't do," the suspect told reporters.
Colonel Sugiarto said the case mirrored Corby's marijuana trafficking case, but was potentially more serious.
"It involves exporting or importing drugs. If found guilty, death penalty," he said.
The colonel said 10.9kg of heroin was seized at the airport and 350g was found at a hotel. No charges have yet been laid.
Colonel Sugiarto said the police surveillance operation which led to the arrests had centred on three hotels, the beachfront Hard Rock resort and Ahdi Dharma in Kuta as well as the Melasti Hotel in Tuban.
The four detained at the airport were allegedly found with plastic-wrapped packages of heroin weighing between 2.4kg and 3.3kg strapped to their legs and stomachs with brown masking tape.
The AFP said the four allegedly carrying the drugs included two men from Brisbane, both aged 19, a 29-year-old man from Sydney and a 27-year-old woman from Sydney.
Indonesian police said the woman had a drug package strapped under a dress.
Soon after, four other men were taken into custody at a Bali hotel a 27-year-old Brisbane man, and three men from Sydney aged 18, 20 and 24, the AFP said.
Australian Federal Police border and international network national manager Mike Phelan said investigations were also under way in Australia.
"We have executed a number of search warrants today in both Sydney and Brisbane and we will certainly be looking through that information of the search warrants to see how the picture unfolds."
In Canberra, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the arrests were made in Indonesia and not in Australia where there is no death penalty because that was where the alleged offences occurred.
Colonel Sugiarto said that before the search one man claimed to have had a broken leg, which accounted for a bulge in his clothing.
But after questioning all allegedly confessed they had been carrying the drugs for their "boss". Police then raided the Melasti Hotel and arrested another four people found with sandwich-sized blocks of heroin. Traces of the drug were also found in two suitcases, police said, displaying a fake designer bag filled with rubber gloves and packaging.
Colonel Sugiarto said the drugs had come from the notorious "Golden Triangle" area in northern Thailand and Burma, and was being couriered through Bali to Australia by the nine.
The gang had been acting "mysteriously and suspiciously" all week, staying in their hotel rooms and instructing hotel staff not to reveal their identities to anyone.
Schapelle Corby's case would not be affected by the arrest of nine young Australians accused of drug smuggling, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has said.
Mr Downer answered the question on people's lips when he said the arrests were unlikely to have a bearing on Corby's trial.
"I don't think one case should have any bearing on other cases," Mr Downer said.
"In that context, certainly in terms of the facts of the case, the facts of every case are obviously going to be different.
"There's no relationship between the alleged facts in this case and the alleged facts in the Schapelle Corby's case."
As the drama of the nine arrests unfolded yesterday, the 27-year-old Gold Coast beauty student was praying that "the strength of a nation" would help bring her home and she said the overwhelming public support had helped keep her strong.
The alleged drug smuggler thanked her fellow Australians from behind bars at the Denpasar Prosecutor's office.
Looking calm, but pale, Corby was yesterday taken to the prosecution office en route to a planned hospital medical examination which was later cancelled. That check-up is now expected to happen today.
Her heart was touched when one of her lawyers, Erwin Siregar, brought a cuddly toy koala which had been sent by an Australian woman called Elizabeth, who said she had experienced a similar situation to Miss Corby's.
"Oh My God," Miss Corby exclaimed.
"Well, Elizabeth ... thank you. I can't wait to give it a big hug," she said, touching the koala through the bars.
Miss Corby said the support from so many people she had never met had been "phenomenal".
The support was "everything" to her during her five months in jail and the darkest days of her trial.
"I mean, the strength of a nation, which hopefully should overcome anything, any problem," Miss Corby said.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
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Re: 27 year old faces death for marijuana [Re: veggie]
#4071921 - 04/19/05 08:14 AM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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Police reject Corby cover-up claims
April 19, 2005
theage.com.au
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) have hit back at claims they were involved in a cover-up over the Schapelle Corby drugs case.
An adviser to Corby's team, Vasu Rasiah, said at the weekend that Australian police had not been cooperative in the Gold Coast beauty student's Bali court case and were involved in a cover-up.
Mr Rasiah said revelations a former airport security officer tipped authorities off to a domestic drug-running operation at Sydney Airport, before he mysteriously died in 2002, proved the AFP knew more than they were admitting.
Former Australian Protective Services (APS) officer Gary Lee-Rogers was found dead in his Queanbeyan flat in October 2002 after alerting authorities to the racket in a letter.
His family and whistleblowers believe he was the victim of a revenge murder.
Corby's legal team has asked the AFP and Justice Minister Chris Ellison to confirm to Indonesia's attorney general that they were investigating an airport drug racket in Australia, possibly accounting for how 4.1kg of marijuana ended up in her luggage.
An AFP spokesman said in a statement the claims about a cover-up were not true.
The spokesman said the commonwealth ombudsman had investigated a number of allegations made by Mr Lee-Rogers and found them to lack substance.
The death of Mr Lee-Rogers was currently before the coroner and no detailed comment could be made, the spokesman said.
"Claims of poor cooperation are also demonstrably untrue," the spokesman said.
"At every stage where the AFP has been asked for help, and had the capacity to assist, we have done so."
The AFP offered its expertise in fingerprinting and other forensic investigation to the Indonesian police in December last year, but the head of Bali police had said the assistance was not needed, the spokesman said.
Australian police also investigated details raised in an affidavit, which recorded conversations between the Corby defence team and a Melbourne prisoner, but found no evidence to substantiate the claims, the AFP spokesman said.
"The AFP finds it curious that Ms Corby's defence team continues to raise issues in the Australian media rather than putting their case before the Indonesian court, which is the most appropriate forum for her defence," the statement said.
"The AFP will continue to respect the sovereignty of the Indonesian court."
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
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Re: 27 year old faces death for marijuana [Re: veggie]
#4071925 - 04/19/05 08:17 AM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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Five days later, Corby taken for check-up
April 20, 2005
smh.com.au
The accused drug smuggler Schapelle Corby was finally taken to hospital yesterday, five days after an Indonesian judge ordered that she be given a check-up following her collapse during her trial last week.
Corby's lawyer, Lily Lubis, said Corby had returned to prison in Denpasar after the medical examination.
She said she expected Corby would be well enough to face court tomorrow, when prosecutors will again try to deliver their sentence request.
"Today, physically she's OK, but mentally she's very down," Ms Lubis said at Denpasar police station, where she was planning to help her sister, who is also a lawyer, represent some of the nine Australians arrested on Monday for heroin smuggling offences.
On the last two occasions she has been in court Corby has been too ill for prosecutors to read out their statement detailing the sentence they believe judges should impose.
Corby could face the death penalty under the law used to prosecute her when she was caught with 4.1 kilograms of cannabis in her luggage at Denpasar airport last October.
When Corby collapsed last Thursday Judge Linton Sirait ordered that she have a full medical check-up.
Although this was expected to happen last week, Corby was only taken from jail on Monday.
Instead of going to hospital she was kept in prosecutors' cells for the day and then returned to jail.
A spokesman for Corby's legal team, Vasu Rasiah, said he could not understand the delay.
"What the hell is happening?" he said. "Are they waiting for another breakdown on Thursday?"
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
Loc:
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Re: 27 year old faces death for marijuana [Re: veggie]
#4075570 - 04/20/05 12:34 AM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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Corby lawyers reject help of top QCs
April 20, 2005
The Advertiser
SCHAPELLE Corby's legal team has snubbed the services of two of Australia's top criminal lawyers after they were recommended by the Australian Government.
The two top silks, Mark Trowell, QC, and Tom Percy, QC, now fear the headline-seeking antics of Corby's legal team could cost the 27-year-old beauty student her life.
The lawyers repeatedly approached Corby's legal team with offers of help, only to be shut out.
Mr Trowell called legal partners at Hoolihan's Lawyers in Surfers Paradise as part of a government-sponsored attempt to assist Corby, but his calls were not returned.
"I was very surprised there was no response," Mr Trowell said yesterday.
"We were offering ourselves at no cost, we were not trying to muscle-in because we had a thirst for publicity, but simply because she was an Australian national in a foreign country needing assistance."
Corby has been in Bali's Kerobokan Jail since October, when she was arrested at the holiday island's airport with 4.1kg of marijuana in her boogie board bag.
She will discover when her trial resumes on Thursday whether prosecutors want her to receive the death penalty if she is convicted.
Mr Trowell, a WA-based lawyer boasting excellent contacts within the Indonesian legal system, was approached by Attorney-General Philip Ruddock at a law conference in Queensland last month and asked if he would be willing to aid or guide the Corby team.
Mr Trowell and Mr Percy ? a high-profile WA criminal lawyer ? agreed to help, but only if the Attorney-General's office contacted Corby's lawyers first to make clear the two silks had the Government's backing.
Mr Trowell said Mr Ruddock wanted Corby to get the best help available, but was keen to ensure it did not appear the Australian Government was meddling with the Indonesian legal system.
Calls were made from the Attorney-General's office to the law firm just before Easter. They outlined Mr Trowell's credentials and recommending he be allowed to assist.
Mr Trowell said he left detailed messages with the law firm on two occasions. They outlined how he and Mr Percy could help but he received no response.
Corby's lawyers and financial backer Ron Bakir have repeatedly complained the Federal Government and Australian Federal Police have not done enough to help the Gold Coast beauty student.
But Mr Bakir's antics outside court have drawn fire from some observers, who worry his claims of bribery and corruption have placed Corby in peril.
Mr Bakir reportedly fled Bali this week, fearing he would be arrested for contempt of court.
Mr Trowell said drawing foreign media attention to a trial like Corby's usually had a negative effect.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
Loc:
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Re: 27 year old faces death for marijuana [Re: veggie]
#4076240 - 04/20/05 07:54 AM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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Corby fit to face court amid extra security
April 20, 2005
smh.com.au
Lawyers for Schapelle Corby say she will be well enough to face court tomorrow when Indonesian prosecutors are expected to demand a sentence of life imprisonment if she is found guilty of drug smuggling.
Extra security will be on hand for tomorrow's hearing to prevent a media crush and chaos in the courtroom when she collapsed last week.
Corby yesterday had a full medical examination at a Denpasar hospital.
Last week an Indonesian judge ordered that she be given a check-up after she collapsed.
Her lawyer, Lely Lubis, said Corby was feeling better than she had for several weeks, although the full medical report was still in the hands of the prosecutor.
"I saw her and she looked OK," she said.
"Physically she is OK, but there is still the psychology [test] which I didn't get yet."
Prosecutor Ida Bagus Wiswantanu is expected to demand a life sentence and a $A133,000 fine tomorrow, rather than the maximum death penalty for Corby.
But Corby's team is worried Mr Wiswantanu may toughen his request after Corby's main financial backer, Gold Coast businessman Rob Bakir, accused him of bribery.
Ms Lely said there "would be no justice" if the prosecutor demanded execution for the 27-year-old former beauty student given the strength of Corby's defence, even though several legal experts in Australia and Indonesia have accused her team of mounting a poor case.
She said judge Linton Sirait would order extra security after a media scrum almost swamped Corby last week, forcing police to carry her through the crush.
"The judge was pretty upset last time," Ms Lely said.
Ms Lely said Corby's defence team would have to wait another week before presenting the three judges and the prosecutor with a crucial letter which could help clear Corby of charges she carried 4.1 kilograms of marijuana into Bali airport last year in her luggage.
A former airport security officer in 2002 penned a note tipping authorities off to a drug-running operation at Sydney Airport before he mysteriously died.
Former Australian Protective Services officer Gary Lee-Rogers was found dead in his Queanbeyan flat in October 2002 after alerting authorities in the letter.
Corby has repeatedly claimed she was an unwitting drug "mule" or courier of such a gang and Ms Lely said the letter may help reinforce her claim to innocence.
"We will include that in our plea [next week], after which the prosecutor will have a chance again to make a conclusion," she said.
"He can always change his request later on."
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
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Re: 27 year old faces death for marijuana [Re: veggie]
#4079206 - 04/20/05 09:06 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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Schapelle Corby arrives in court
April 21, 2005
heraldsun.news.com.au
GOLD Coast woman Schapelle Corby has arrived at a Bali court looking weak and unsteady.
Ms Corby is to hear what sentence prosecutors think she should get if she is found guilty of drug smuggling.
The 27-year-old arrived at the Denpasar Court in a police bus.
She emerged from the vehicle in handcuffs.
She was flanked by 10 Indonesian police officers as she slowly made her way through a chaotic media scrum to a holding cell next to the court.
Ms Corby looked weak and at times held her hands together as if she was praying.
She kept her head down and did not reply to questions shouted at her by reporters.
On her two previous court appearances this month, proceedings had to be postponed after she complained of being sick.
Last week, she fainted in the crowded court and earlier this week underwent court-ordered medical tests.
On paper, at least, she could face death by firing squad if a three-judge eventually convicts her of trying to smuggling more than 4kg of marijuana into Bali last year.
But Indonesian prosecutors at today's hearing are widely expected to recommend life imprisonment and a big fine.
Ms Corby says she is not guilty.
Defence lawyer Lely Lubis said a doctor had given Ms Corby a tranquiliser to help her get through today's hearing. "I told her to keep her spirits up," the lawyer said, adding Ms Corby replied that she was "ready".
Ms Corby's family has repeatedly raised concerns about her mental condition because of the stress of the high-profile trial and life behind bars.
Lubis said she could understand how "anyone can go crazy here, anyone can get depression from this".
The three judges are not expected to hand down a verdict for several weeks.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
Loc:
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Re: 27 year old faces death for marijuana [Re: veggie]
#4079837 - 04/20/05 11:58 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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Corby escapes death sentence
April 21, 2005
smh.com.au
Schapelle Corby is facing life in prison after prosecutors said they won't pursue the death penalty if she is found guilty of drug smuggling.
As expected, Prosecutor Ida Bagus Wiswantanu chose to pursue a life sentence rather than the maximum death penalty for Corby, should she be convicted.
Corby's team was worried Wiswantanu may toughen his request after Corby's main financial backer, Gold Coast businessman Ron Bakir, accused him of bribery.
Wiswantanu told the court that Corby, who was arrested at Denpasar airport last year, should be found guilty of importing 4.2 kg of marijuana.
He said the case against her was "convincing".
"The defendant's actions can ruin the image of Bali as a tourist destination," he told the Denpasar court.
"The defendant's actions can make Bali look like a drug haven and affect young people's lives."
Wiswantanu also asked the trials' three judges to impose a 100 million rupiah ($13,500) fine.
In Indonesia, a life sentence means a prisoner spends the rest of his or her life behind bars.
Today, submission by the prosecution is only a recommendation. It will be up to a three-judge panel to determine Corby's guilt or innocence and determine her ultimate sentence.
They are not expected to hand down a verdict for several weeks.
The 27-year-old former Gold Coast beauty student has been charged over allegedly carrying 4.1 kilograms of marijuana into Bali airport last year in her luggage.
Meanwhile, the judge overseeing Corby's trial says he won't be influenced by the arrests of nine fellow Australians accused of heroin trafficking in Bali.
Chief Judge Linton Siriat said he and his fellow two judges would consider the Corby case on its merits, and would not be influenced by the other arrests.
Judge Siriat says Australians should have faith in the integrity of the Indonesian justice system.
The judges are expected to hand down their verdict in mid to late May.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
Loc:
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Re: 27 year old faces death for marijuana [Re: veggie]
#4080620 - 04/21/05 08:50 AM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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Judge warns Corby could still face death
21 April 2005
abc.net.au
 It is still possible that Australian woman Schapelle Corby, who is accused of smuggling marijuana into Bali, will face the death penalty if she is found guilty next month.
Speaking outside the Denpasar District court, chief judge Linton Siriat confirmed that he has the power under Indonesian law to sentence Corby to death by firing squad, despite the prosecution calling for a life sentence.
He said his deliberations will be conducted in secret and no details will be announced until he delivers his verdict at the end of May.
During sentencing submissions, prosecutors said the 27-year-old Gold Coast woman's actions in attempting to smuggle marijuana into Bali had given an image that the island is a haven for narcotics distribution.
The prosecution team took turns summarising their case and demolishing the credibility of all of Corby's witnesses, including prisoner John Ford and criminologist Paul Wilson.
They said Corby's refusal to admit her crime had compounded her culpability.
They said the only reason to give leniency from the maxmimum death sentence was Corby's politeness to the court and lack of previous criminal record in Australia.
Finally, after a two-hour presentation, prosecutors declared that Corby should receive a life sentence for the crime of smuggling 4.1 kilograms of marijuana into Bali last October.
"[We] demand the district court of Denpasar... declare the defendant Schapelle Corby guilty of breaking the law by importing narcotics, and give a life sentence in jail to the defendant," prosecutor ID Wiswantanu said.
They also requested a fine of $13,400.
Before being led from court Corby tearfully embraced her sister.
Schapelle Corby waited until she was deep inside the holding cells at the back of the Denpasar District Court before she unleashed the wail that has been building inside her for months.
Defence lawyers say they will ask the judge to reject the application and set Corby free when they address the court at the next hearing.
The case will resume next Thursday.
A verdict is not expected to be known for three to four weeks.
Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer says he is pleased the prosecution did not ask for the death sentence for Corby.
He says there is a chance the life sentence can be reduced if Corby is found guilty.
"We didn't want her to be sentenced to death and so the tiny little shard of positive light that comes through today is that the prosecution there have not recommended the death sentence, although they have recommended life," he said.
"But there again that is only a recommendation of the prosecution."
Mr Downer has warned the case is far from over, with further submissions yet to be heard from both the defence and prosecution.
"The judges obviously have the responsibility of making a decision, first of all as to whether Schapelle Corby is guilty or innocent and secondly, they will have the responsibility if she is found guilty of determining the sentence - not the prosecution," he said.
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 faslimy
Dead Man
Registered: 04/03/04
Posts: 3,436
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Re: 27 year old faces death for marijuana [Re: veggie]
#4081990 - 04/21/05 03:14 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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look at how us governments can juggle with a life like a stone, aren't we so good to the people we govern
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
Loc:
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Re: 27 year old faces death for marijuana [Re: veggie]
#4083550 - 04/21/05 10:55 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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Russell Crowe urges PM to act on Corby
April 22, 2005
news.com.au
HOLLYWOOD superstar Russell Crowe has appealed to the Australian Government to act to save Schapelle Corby from life in jail over what he says is a questionable charge.
Crowe, who owns a property at Nana Glen on the mid-north New South Wales coast, not far from the hippie capital Nimbin, also said it was time to decriminalise marijuana, as the present system was jeopardising too many lives.
The 41-year-old Oscar-winning actor jumped to the defence of of the Gold Coast woman, who faces life imprisonment if convicted of smuggling more than 4kg of cannabis into Bali's Denpasar airport last October.
Photographs of the distraught 27-year-old filled the front pages of newspapers today after Indonesian prosecutors yesterday announced they would seek life imprisonment rather than the death penalty.
Crowe called on Prime Minister John Howard to act, saying it was ridiculous that Ms Corby could rot away in prison for the rest of her life.
"When there is such doubt, how can we, as a country, stand by and let a young lady, as an Australian, rot away in a foreign prison?" he said on the John Laws Radio Program.
"That is ridiculous.
"We just gave Indonesia how many hundreds of millions of dollars in tsunami relief? We're not disrespecting your (Indonesia's) laws or anything, but in our minds we think there is a massive doubt here."
Crowe said the Government should request Ms Corby be brought back to Australia to face trial under the Australian judicial system.
"The photographs of Schapelle Corby broke my heart," he said.
"The first thing I thought this morning was, like, how can I get Johnny Howard on the phone and say 'look, what are you gonna do, mate, what are you gonna do?' - that's ridiculous, what if it was your daughter?
"You know it as well as I do - all of these things, international diplomacy, can be moved to meet the needs of the individual country in that time.
"The due process of Indonesian law we have to respect from an international relations point of view, but from my individual point of view, looking at it, it's like it's bulls**t, let's deal with it."
But his sympathies appeared to run dry when it came to the nine Australians held in Bali this week over an 8.65kg heroin seizure.
Four of the group allegedly had heroin strapped to their bodies and police have said they could face death by firing squad if found guilty of trafficking.
"That's a completely different thing," Crowe said.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
Loc:
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Re: 27 year old faces death for marijuana [Re: veggie]
#4084822 - 04/22/05 10:52 AM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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Corby 'would serve full sentence'
April 23, 2005
theage.com.au
Schapelle Corby would serve her full sentence even if she was transferred to an Australian jail, says Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
But a prison transfer to Australia would still leave open the option of a presidential pardon, an Indonesian expert said.
With the prosecution demanding life imprisonment for Corby, who allegedly smuggled four kilograms of marijuana into Bali, Mr Downer said he would prefer Australians convicted in Asia to serve their sentences here. A prisoner exchange agreement with Indonesia was being negotiated, he said.
Once the agreement was finalised, 11 other Australians imprisoned in Indonesia could also finish their prison terms back home, Mr Downer said.
Corby's defence will put its closing submission to the court next Thursday. Corby may get to make her own statement. After that it's up to the judges, who may deliver a verdict next month.
Under such agreements, like the one with Thailand, prisoners would serve the same sentence as the local court had handed down, Mr Downer said.
"They don't come here and get retried in Australia, there's no question of that," he said.
Deakin University's Damian Kingsbury said a life sentence in Indonesia meant precisely that, with none of the usual remissions for set-term sentences. But it was not uncommon for Indonesia's president to grant pardons to prisoners serving life terms, he said.
Dr Kingsbury said the president normally granted several pardons towards the end of each year. It would be open for Corby to request a pardon if she was convicted.
She could also appeal to a higher court to have her sentence reduced, he said.
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LiveByFreedom
Catalyst
Registered: 03/21/05
Posts: 652
Loc: Mountains
Last seen: 5 years, 9 months
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Re: 27 year old faces death for marijuana [Re: veggie]
#4084933 - 04/22/05 11:26 AM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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Damn, look at her picture. How could they honestly think she (a Gold Coast beauty student) was trying to smuggle 4.1kg of pot through the airport? The legal system in Indonesia sucks. I respect Russel Crowe for at least attempting to help, but i don't think it would have happened if he didn't see her picture. Wish there were something more we could do.
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"Everything is not as it seems." Eye
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero
Registered: 04/27/01
Posts: 23,196
Loc: Caribbean
Last seen: 7 hours, 17 minutes
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Re: 27 year old faces death for marijuana [Re: LiveByFreedom]
#4087763 - 04/23/05 05:23 AM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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> How could they honestly think she (a Gold Coast beauty student) was trying to smuggle 4.1kg of pot through the airport?
If a picture could determine guilt or innocence, life would be a lot easier. There are a lot of young woman that take stupid risks for the thrill. Winona Ryder shoplifting is a classic example. I don't know if Schapelle is innocent or not.
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Just another spore in the wind.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
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Re: 27 year old faces death for marijuana [Re: veggie]
#4091388 - 04/24/05 10:30 AM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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Corby readies tearful last plea
April 25, 2005
Courier-Mail
SCHAPELLE Corby will deliver a personal plea "from her own heart" to the judges in her trial this week, begging them to listen to all the evidence and find her not guilty of drug smuggling.
Corby has told her lawyers she wants to write and deliver the plea herself, to supplement their lengthy legal closing address.
Her lawyers said she was writing her own statement in jail on the weekend and hoped to perfect it early this week.
It is expected that delivering the statement will be an emotionally difficult moment for the 27-year-old, who has, from day one, tearfully proclaimed her innocence.
On the last occasion she addressed the judges and the prosecutor she broke down, begging them to let her go home.
Corby's lawyer Lily Lubis, who visited her on the weekend at Bali's Kerobokan Jail, said she was nervous and worried after hearing the prosecutor last week demand that she be jailed for life.
She said Corby was working on the statement, which will be her own words and her own handwriting and "from her own heart".
"She is basically going to ask the judges not to be blinded by what the prosecutor has said. She is going to beg the judges to open their eyes and their hearts and use their intelligence and the facts," Ms Lubis said.
"It is going to be her words, we are not telling her what to say," she said.
Prosecutors last week told the three judges hearing her case that she was legally and convincingly guilty of attempting to smuggle 4.1kg of marijuana into Bali and that she should be sentenced to life in jail with a 100 million rupiah ($13,500) fine.
In a damning assessment of the defence witnesses, including Victorian prisoner John Patrick Ford, prosecutor I.B. Wiswantanu told the three judges that all their testimony should be disregarded.
He was most scathing of Ford, whom he said had wanted to come to Bali from his prison cell "to inhale the air of freedom".
Ms Corby's lawyers plan to tell the three judges about the large number of letters they have received from Australians who claim their luggage was tampered with at airports in Sydney and Brisbane.
After Thursday the prosecutor will then be given an opportunity one week later to address the judges again.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
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Re: 27 year old faces death for marijuana [Re: veggie]
#4093997 - 04/24/05 11:57 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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Corby to be sedated for 'plea from heart'
April 25, 2005
smh.com.au
Accused drug smuggler Schapelle Corby will be sedated to prevent an attack of nerves as she protests her innocence to judges in a final "plea from her heart", her lawyer said today.
She will read a personal letter to judges in Bali on Thursday, saying she was an innocent victim of Australian drug gangs.
She will also attack the prosecutor for demanding a life sentence during his final statement to the Denpasar District Court.
Corby's Indonesian lawyer Lily Lubis said her client would need a sedative to help her face the hearing, after stress attacks forced the cancellation of two recent court appearances.
"Of course, yes," she said when asked if the 27-year-old former Gold Coast beauty student would continue taking powerful calming pills which helped her through her court appearance last week.
"Whatever she says will be counting as consideration. Of course she will get nervous, of course she will be afraid that it doesn't mean anything to the judges.
"But, hopefully, the situation will support her to be focused and then concentrate so that she can read the plea from her heart."
The defence team and Corby had also been unsettled by noisy protests in an adjoining court in recent weeks as students turned out in force to back a free-speech demonstrator involved in a clash with Indonesia's president, Lubis said.
Prosecutor Ida Bagus Wiswantanu last week said Corby had been proven officially and convincingly guilty of attempting to smuggle 4.1kg of cannabis into Bali, demanding judges hand her a life sentence.
But Lubis said Corby would ask judges "not to be blind" and would protest her innocence in a letter she was writing alone in her cell at Kerobokan Prison.
"Basically, she will state that she is innocent, the fact that when she heard it is a life sentence from the prosecutor, that basically it is not fair, that there is no justice for her," she said.
"She will protest, complain to the prosecutor, and ask the judges not to be blind like the prosecutor."
The letter, which Lubis hoped to receive today, would be translated into Indonesian before being read to the court, first by Corby in English, then by her translator.
A written copy would also be given to the judges hearing her case.
"It is the chance for her to say the way it is and then the judges can judge what it's all about," Lubis said.
"Hopefully it will make their belief even more strong, the belief of her innocence."
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
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Re: 27 year old faces death for marijuana [Re: veggie]
#4098247 - 04/26/05 08:06 AM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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Corby pregnancy claims 'rubbish'
April 26, 2005
theage.com.au
Schapelle Corby has taken a jail pregnancy test after a newspaper suggested she might be pregnant to a foreign lover - a story her family and lawyers angrily denounced as "absolute rubbish".
A Bali newspaper reported the 27-year-old Gold Coast woman, who faces life in jail if found guilty of drug smuggling, had fallen pregnant in Denpasar's Kerobokan Prison.
Corby will present her defence statement to a Bali court this week, denying charges of attempting to bring 4.1kg of cannabis into Bali airport last year.
"After (the prosecution demanded the court) sentence her to life in prison at Denpasar District Court last week, now the beautiful Corby is rumoured to be two months' pregnant," the Harian Umum Nusa (Island Public Daily) newspaper said. "Who got her pregnant?"
Corby had been having a casual relationship with another foreigner being held in the jail on drug charges since she was moved to the prison on January 6, the paper said.
Kerobokan Prison doctor AA Gede Hartawan asked Corby to undertake a pregnancy test in a bid to quash the rumours.
"It's negative," he told AAP.
Hartawan said rumours of Corby's pregnancy had been swirling since she collapsed in court and her trial was postponed for two weeks due to a mystery illness.
Corby's Indonesian lawyer Lily Lubis slammed the paper for not checking the accuracy of its report.
"It's absolute rubbish," she said. "These people. What else do they want from Schapelle?"
Corby's Indonesian brother-in-law, Wayan Widiartha, said the family was outraged.
"Schapelle has morals and there is no way she would have sex in that dirty, rat-infested, no-privacy place," he said.
"Where is she meant to be meeting her so-called lover? Are they having sex in the garden?"
He said Corby was stunned when told of the rumour last week.
"We don't understand why people make up these lies and the press actually prints them knowing it's all crap," Widiartha said.
Lubis said the rumour may have started because Corby had asked her main financial backer, Queensland businessman Ron Bakir, to buy baby clothes for a woman sharing her cell who was seven months' pregnant.
"Maybe someone overheard Schapelle reminding (her sister) Mercedes to remind Ron and misunderstood," she said.
She said Corby was still completing the statement she planned to make to the court on Thursday.
Corby is expected to ask judges not to ignore evidence backing her claims of innocence.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
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Re: 27 year old faces death for marijuana [Re: veggie]
#4101561 - 04/27/05 01:07 AM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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Corby's hopes plummet
April 27, 2005
seven.com.au
Schapelle Corby will make a final "appeal from the heart" on Thursday, urging three Indonesian judges to acquit her of drug smuggling and reject demands that she spend the rest of her life in jail.
Corby's Indonesian lawyer Lily Lubis said the 27-year-old Gold Coast woman sat in her prison cell on Tuesday, preparing the statement she will read to a Bali court.
Lubis said her client's spirits were fading.
"I am very worried now," Lubis told AAP after visiting Corby in Denpasar's Kerobokan Prison.
"I know her very well after six months, and I can see Schapelle loses all hope."
Corby's statement, to be read out before defence lawyers present their final submission, may prove crucial to the judges' verdict which is expected in several weeks' time.
Last week, Corby broke down when prosecutors demanded that she serve a life sentence for allegedly bringing 4.1kg of marijuana into Bali airport last year.
Amid a huge media presence, every word and even movement will be scrutinised in a country which places great store in manners and polite behaviour.
Prosecutor Ida Bagus Wiswantanu last week agreed to drop the death penalty for Corby, partly because she had been well mannered during the trial process.
Another Australian, millionaire champion sailor Chris Packer, also escaped a tough penalty earlier this year because he had no prior record and had been polite throughout the trial.
The statement will place Corby under great stress and Lubis has said her client will take a sedative to help her stay calm and avoid attacks of nerves which have forced two previous trial appearances to be postponed.
Lubis said Corby had perhaps lost heart after speaking to others in jail on drug offences.
A South African man received a life sentence on Monday for possessing heroin. Like Corby, he claimed the drugs had been planted in his belongings without his knowledge.
"I can see that it is not really her now," Lubis said.
"She is not just nervous, she is angry and at the same time she is sad."
Lubis said she had stressed to Corby that the trial was not over and Thursday was just a summing up.
"I've told her don't give up," she said.
"But her eyes, her face - it is not a good expression anymore.
"After the last few days I can see she is angry."
Corby on Tuesday underwent a jail pregnancy test after a newspaper reported she had fallen pregnant to a foreign lover.
The test was negative, and her lawyers and family lashed out at the report, branding it "absolute rubbish".
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
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Re: 27 year old faces death for marijuana [Re: veggie]
#4102160 - 04/27/05 08:35 AM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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Major hitch on quick Corby transfer
April 28, 2005
smh.com.au
The top Indonesian official negotiating the agreement to allow prisoners like Schapelle Corby to serve sentences in Australia believes the first five to eight years of a jail term should be spent in Indonesia.
Zulkarnain Yunus, a director-general of the Department of Justice, said his team would ask Australia to consider three options in negotiations about to begin for a prisoner repatriation agreement, but his view was a substantial portion of a sentence should be served in Indonesia.
"The second idea is for the prisoner to serve five or eight years in prison in Indonesia, and after that, allow an application for a transfer … This is a good idea, a good solution from Thailand," he said.
Mr Yunus made his comments to the Herald as Corby was preparing to implore three judges in Bali to accept her insistence that she had nothing to do with the 4.1 kilograms of marijuana found in her luggage at Denpasar Airport in October.
Last week prosecutors rejected Corby's case and urged the court to convict the Queensland woman and sentence her to life imprisonment. Corby's response to the prosecutors today is her last scheduled chance to convince the court of her innocence.
Canberra has said it would negotiate a prisoner repatriation agreement with Jakarta to allow Corby - if convicted - and 11 other Australians to serve their sentences at home and offer Indonesians in Australia the same chance. Indonesia has not yet concluded any agreement to repatriate prisoners, although Mr Yunus said that after two years, negotiations had almost been concluded with the French Government.
But the French agreement was very different from the one the Australian Government had proposed, Mr Yunus said.
Not only does it allow for French prisoners to apply for repatriation as soon as they are sentenced, it also allows for them to have their sentences "converted" by a French court to one more in line with that country's law once they were back home.
The Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, has already rejected the conversion option and said Australia wanted Corby and others to serve out whatever sentences an Indonesian court imposed: "A prisoner exchange - we have such an arrangement with Thailand, so that will do as a model," Mr Downer said last week.
"Under the … agreement with Thailand, if there is an agreement that the prisoner be transferred then the sentence has to be served as was handed down by the court in Thailand.
"They don't come here and get retried in Australia - there's no question of that."
Introduced in 2002, the International Transfer of Prisoners Scheme with Thailand allows prisoners to serve out their sentences in Australia if language or cultural barriers would prevent them from being rehabilitated.
Each application is considered individually and applicants must have at least one year remaining of their sentence and no other legal proceedings pending against them. If the transfer is approved, the prisoner must serve out the full remainder of the sentence in Australia. Although Indonesia has agreed with the conversion model in the negotiations with the French, Mr Yunus said he preferred the continued enforcement model proposed by Mr Downer.
Another option to be discussed with Australia included the right of a prisoner to apply to return home immediately after sentencing, although Mr Yunus said this was "not fair".
A third option was for Australian prisoners serving life sentences to wait until Indonesia's president approved an appeal for clemency and imposed a fixed term, usually 20 years, before they could apply for a transfer.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
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Re: 27 year old faces death for marijuana [Re: veggie]
#4104213 - 04/27/05 06:16 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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Corby team 'anxious but hopeful' on key day
April 28, 2005
smh.com.au
Schapelle Corby's frustrated lawyers are "very anxious" but hopeful about today's crucial hearing, when the accused drug smuggler pleads for her life.
Corby will beg three Indonesian judges to spare her life in a Balinese Court room today.
The 27-year-old Gold Coast beauty therapy student is on trial for allegedly trying to smuggle 4.1kg of marijuana into Indonesia.
She says she is innocent and that the drugs were planted in her bodyboard bag, possibly by a airport baggage handler.
Defence lawyer Robin Tampoe told ABC radio from Denpasar today Corby should not spend any time in jail.
"Schapelle Corby certainly shouldn't spend any time in jail ... but if they were to come back and impose a substantial sentence, well, the fact that we've got death off the table is small comfort if they impose life," he said.
The defence team was feeling confident but anxious about the hearing, he said.
"We're all very anxious, there's a lot of frustration amongst the defence but I think we've got some confidence as well, so we're hopeful we'll get a good hearing," he said.
The judges would deliver a verdict within a few weeks, he said.
"From the date she's charged, I think they have 207 days in which to deliver a verdict, which I think takes us to the 17th of May," he said.
"It could be a fast decision ... but certainly within the next few weeks we will know the answer. It's coming very quickly."
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
Loc:
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Re: 27 year old faces death for marijuana [Re: veggie]
#4105708 - 04/28/05 12:09 AM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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A tearful Corby begs judges for freedom
April 2, 2005
news.com.au
In a wavering voice, a tearful Schapelle Corby has begged three Indonesian judges not to convict her of drug smuggling, saying her life is in their hands.
"Firstly, I'd like to say to the prosecutors I cannot admit to a crime I did not commit," she told the Denpasar District Court.
"And to the judges, my life at the moment is in your hands but I would prefer that my life was in your heart."
"And I say again that I have no knowledge of how the marijuana came to be inside my bag, and I believe the evidence shows (that), one, there is a problem in Australia with security at airports and baggage handling procedures.
"Two, my own mistake is not putting a lock on on my luggage.
"Three, I have never at any stage claimed ownership of the plastic bag and its contents.
"Four, had the police weighed all of my luggage for the total weight, it would have proven to show a difference from the total weight at check-in at Brisbane airport."
In a voice cracking with emotion, she told the judges she had already been punished enough for doing no more than failing to lock her bags.
"I believe the seven months I have been in prison is severe enough punishment for not putting locks on my bags," she said tearfully.
Corby said her family's reputation and her own had been "severely burdened" since her arrest last October at Bali's Denpasar airport with 4.1kg of marijuana in her unlocked body board bag.
"I don't know how long I can survive in here," she said.
"I swear that as God is my witness, I did not know that the marijuana was in my bag.
"Please look to your God for guidance in your judgment for me. For God only speaks of justice, and your Honours, I ask for you to show good judgment and send me home.
"I am the innocent victim of a ... drug smuggling network.
"I am not a person involved in drugs and I am not a person who might become involved in a drug smuggling operation."
Observers say there is little chance the statement will make any difference to the outcome of the case.
Before today's hearing even began, the chief judge confirmed that he is 75 per cent of the way towards deciding her punishment.
Corby made her plea after her defence lawyers delivered a 70-page submission to the court.
Members of the Corby family had earlier decorated the courtroom with symbolic yellow ribbons and had written placards demanding her freedom.
Onlookers in the packed court applauded as Corby completed her statement that she had penned in her prison cell.
Moments earlier, her defence team had delivered its final submissions to the judges, who are expected to take weeks to consider their verdict.
Prosecutors last week demanded Corby receive a life jail term.
After making her statement, the 27-year-old Gold Coast woman left court room and the hearing was adjourned.
Corby has always denied smuggling the drugs into Bali when she arrived on a flight from Brisbane last October.
She claims she was an unwitting victim of an Australian drug smuggling ring, probably involving baggage handlers at Australian airports.
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