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 veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
Loc: 
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 Re: Schapelle Corby trial updates [Re: veggie]
#4177546 - 05/15/05 08:30 AM (7 years, 17 days ago) |
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Corby judge unmoved as PM steps in
May 16 - smh.com.au
The chief prosecutor in the Schapelle Corby case fears the Australian Government is trying to influence the verdict with a letter that details new accusations of baggage handlers smuggling drugs.
The Prime Minister, John Howard, yesterday said "I feel for the girl" when he revealed the Government's letter - sent to Corby's defence - would be tendered to the court in Bali before it delivers its verdict next week.
But the chief judge in the case, Linton Sirait, said the letter would make no difference to the decision on 27-year-old Corby, who faces life in a Balinese jail if she is found guilty of importing 4.1 kilograms of marijuana.
While Mr Howard insisted he was not interfering in Indonesia's justice system, the chief prosecutor, Ida Bagus Wiswantanu, said the letter had no legal standing and should be ignored.
"I cannot say the Australian Government is interfering but surely whoever sent the letter will try to gain influence in the decision," Mr Wiswantanu said.
Judge Sirait did not believe there had been any intervention, but said: "We don't watch what happens in Australia. We just keep moving with what we are doing. We don't read Australian papers. We don't think it's important to follow developments in Australia."
Mr Howard said: "I cannot interfere in the justice system of another country. It's fundamental to our system of democracy that the executive arm of government doesn't interfere with the judiciary and I know that if a foreigner … were arrested in Australia and charged with an offence and the president or PM of another country started telling our courts what to do, Australians would be mightily angry.
"But having said all of that, I feel for the girl. I think the whole country has been drawn into this and I can only repeat my fervent hope that the verdict is true and fair and right and just."
The Opposition Leader, Kim Beazley, went further, saying he hoped Corby was acquitted, and pressed the Government to complete a prisoner-exchange agreement with Indonesia, to repatriate her if she was not.
"I think the hearts of all Australians are with her," Mr Beazley told Channel Nine's Sunday. "Now, if the verdict goes the wrong way, and I sincerely hope she's acquitted, but if it goes in the opposite direction … the Government must complete its agreement with Indonesia, as it has with a number of other countries." Mr Beazley later clarified his comments to the Herald: "It doesn't suggest I've made a judgement she's innocent. I just hope she's innocent."
Mr Wiswantanu said the only way for Corby to be acquitted was to prove that someone placed the marijuana in her luggage. "Of course I have the heart for justice. If she's not guilty she has to be free, but in this case she's guilty."
Mr Howard said the Attorney-General had "settled" the letter on Friday, but Corby's lawyers were unhappy with it yesterday. They said it should have gone directly to the chief justice, and it did not contain any of the specific information they needed to help prove baggage handlers placed the marijuana in her luggage.
They wanted the Government to admit directly that baggage handlers had been involved in moving drugs and that may mean Corby is innocent.
The Government's letter said: "Following a joint investigation which has been conducted over the last six months, the [Australian Federal Police] and the NSW police have dismantled a Sydney-based syndicate involved in the trafficking of drugs.
"Police are currently investigating a number of baggage handlers who work at Sydney's international airport about these drug trafficking activities. The police believe the baggage handlers were on duty on 8 October 2004 when a shipment of drugs was brought into Sydney international airport."
Mr Beazley suggested the Federal Police Commissioner, Mick Keelty, had been unwise to make comments interpreted as damaging to Corby.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
Loc:
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Re: Schapelle Corby trial updates [Re: veggie]
#4177634 - 05/15/05 08:55 AM (7 years, 17 days ago) |
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Botched smuggling 'highly likely'
May 16, 2005 - dailytelegraph.news.com.au
A FORMER Qantas security officer said
it was "highly likely" Corby had been the victim of a botched drug smuggling effort by baggage handlers.
Claude Killick, who worked on the airline's security staff at Sydney airport for almost 10 years, said it was common knowledge drugs were often smuggled through the terminal by baggage handlers.
Likewise, there were often mix ups with bags -- both those with and without contraband.
Corby has repeatedly claimed she had the marijuana put in her boogie board bag by mistake as part of an airport drug racket.
"Not only is it possible, I would say it's more than likely," Mr Killick said yesterday.
"There's a very good chance she's entirely innocent.
"What she's claiming is highly possible and highly likely."
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
Loc:
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Re: Schapelle Corby trial updates [Re: veggie]
#4181066 - 05/16/05 12:24 AM (7 years, 16 days ago) |
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Letter worthless: prosecution
May 16, 2005 - heraldsun.news.com.au
THE Government's letter to a Bali court about drug trafficking at Australian airports has been sent too late to save Schapelle Corby from jail, the prosecution says.
Ms Corby's defence team and the Law Council of Australia have praised the Government for sending the letter, which will be delivered to the court today.
But the chief prosecutor in the case, Ida Bagus Wiswantanu, said the letter had been sent too late.
"After the hearing is closed, it's impossible to present more evidence," he said on ABC radio through an interpreter.
"If it were to be submitted now, it would have no value at all according to Indonesian law."
Mr Wiswantanu also said the Australian Government appeared to be trying to influence the decision in the Corby case.
"I cannot say the Australian Government is interfering, but surely whoever sent the letter will try to gain influence in the decision," he told The Sydney Morning Herald.
The chief judge in the case, Linton Sirait, said the letter would make no difference to the decision on Ms Corby, who faces life in a Bali jail if found guilty.
Judge Sirait said he did not believe there had been any intervention, but told the newspaper: "We don't watch what happens in Australia.
"We just keep moving with what we are doing. We don't read Australian papers. We don't think it's important to follow developments in Australia."
Prime Minister John Howard revealed yesterday the Government had agreed to a request from Ms Corby's lawyers to explain to the Bali court new information involving baggage handlers who may have helped smuggle cocaine through Sydney airport.
Ms Corby, 27, who is accused of smuggling 4.1kg of marijuana into Bali on October 8 last year, has begged Mr Howard to act in the interest of justice, saying she is innocent.
Ms Corby's Australian lawyer Robin Tampoe said he was delighted the Government's letter said alleged drug smugglers were at Sydney airport the day she passed through on her way to Bali.
"We were very happy with the letter that we received from (Foreign Minister) Mr (Alexander) Downer's office, extremely happy with the contents of it," Mr tampoe said on ABC radio.
"We asked for the letter on Thursday and I think by Friday evening we had it, so we're ecstatic with what Mr Howard has done for us."
The president of the Law Council of Australia, John North, also praised the Government for taking the unusual step.
"The Law Council is pleased that the Australian Government is sending the letter to possibly assist an Australian citizen facing life imprisonment, and it is to be hoped that it is not too late," he said.
"It's fairly unusual (for the Government to write such a letter) because circumstances were obviously meant to be kept secret until the alleged cocaine ring (at the airport) had been broken.
"But it is absolutely vital in Schapelle Corby's case that the Government move quickly because her trial was nearly at an end."
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ZippoZ
Knomadic
Registered: 06/17/03
Posts: 12,096
Loc: Pongyang, North Korea
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Re: Schapelle Corby trial updates [Re: veggie]
#4181354 - 05/16/05 04:45 AM (7 years, 16 days ago) |
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im hoping for this girl i am, i read this every day... but damn if convicted and i was in her shoes, i would probably have to kill mylself before they could.....
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PEACE
 zippoz
"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"
"People do it every day, they talk to themselves ... they see themselves as they'd like to be, they don't have the courage you have, to just run with it."
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
Loc:
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Re: Schapelle Corby trial updates [Re: veggie]
#4181948 - 05/16/05 10:37 AM (7 years, 16 days ago) |
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Corby judges bombarded
May 17, 2005 - heraldsun.news.com.au
SCHAPELLE Corby's lawyers have pulled out all stops in one last desperate bid to save her, yesterday giving her judges petitions, character references, letters, media reports and even the police fact sheet from the Sydney Airport cocaine bust.
But Prime Minister John Howard has ruled out any further letters of support from the Australian Government.
Mr Howard last week asked the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to draft a carefully worded letter to the court pointing out details of the case involving baggage handlers running an alleged drug ring at Sydney Airport.
The man bankrolling Corby's defence, Gold Coast businessman Ron Bakir, yesterday called on Mr Howard to add some fresh lines to the letter. "We need the letter to be a bit more tailored, so to speak, towards Schapelle Corby and we'll be asking for specific things," Mr Bakir said.
But The Courier-Mail understands the original letter will not be changed.
It was unclear yesterday what, if any, effect the Government's 11th-hour intervention would have on the Corby case.
Indonesian Parliament Speaker Hidayat Nur Wahid, who is visiting Australia, warned the letter would not have the explosive effect the Corby team had hoped.
"It's OK (but) of course the Indonesian court would never be pressured because of such a letter," Dr Wahid said.
"A letter is a letter. A letter is not evidence, unless the letter came with evidence."
Corby's prosecutor, Ida Bagus Wiswantanu, was also dismissive, saying that under Indonesian law the documents were not legal evidence and could not be used in considering the verdict.
Mr Howard yesterday expressed sympathy for Corby.
Corby will learn on May 27 if she will spend the rest of her life in prison for attempting to import 4.1kg of marijuana into Bali on October 8 last year.
But Mr Howard said his Government was "walking a fine line" between helping Corby and interfering with Indonesian justice.
Mr Howard also refused to defend Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty, who has come under fire for repeatedly questioning Corby's claim that she was set up by baggage handlers.
When asked if Mr Keelty had been too outspoken, Mr Howard said: "All I can say is that I have been very circumspect . . . and I believe everybody in any position of authority in Australia should be circumspect if we are really concerned that this girl will receive a fair trial."
Mr Keelty last week branded Corby's defence "flimsy" and said there was no evidence her bag had been tampered with between Sydney and Denpasar.
Mr Keelty angrily denied yesterday that he had deliberately tried to damage Corby's chance of freedom.
"I don't have a vendetta against Schapelle Corby," he said. "I have not tried to discredit her evidence."
In another development yesterday, Today Tonight revealed that Corby was married to a Japanese man for three months when she was working in Japan serving drinks in nightclubs.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
Loc:
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Re: Schapelle Corby trial updates [Re: veggie]
#4184365 - 05/16/05 08:42 PM (7 years, 16 days ago) |
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Corby case cause of diplomat death threats
May 17, 2005 - abc.net.au
The Indonesian Embassy in Canberra has confirmed it has been receiving death threats in relation to the Schapelle Corby drug case in Bali.
A spokesman from the Embassy says its diplomats in Canberra, and Indonesian consulate officials across the country have been targeted with anonymous letters and emails about Corby.
The spokesman says an on-going investigation is looking into a number of leads but, due to the nature of the threats, embassy officials and the Australian Federal Police will not comment further.
The embassy says Australians need to understand that the Indonesian Government has no influence with the legal proceedings in the Corby case.
Corby has been accused of carrying four kilograms of cannabis into Bali.
A verdict on her trial is due on Friday week.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
Loc:
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Re: Schapelle Corby trial updates [Re: veggie]
#4184403 - 05/16/05 08:53 PM (7 years, 16 days ago) |
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Corby could be jailed in Australia
May 17, 2005 - theage.com.au
The Australian and Indonesian governments are in talks to set up a prisoner exchange program, which could see Schapelle Corby jailed in Australia if convicted.
Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said Australia already had a transfer agreement with authorities in Thailand and negotiations were underway with the Indonesian government.
Such a scheme could include Corby, he said, if the Queensland woman was convicted of drug smuggling when a decision in her case is announced by judges in Bali later this month.
"We have had discussions with the Indonesians about the possibility of a prisoner transfer agreement," Mr Downer said during an ABC radio interview.
"They are well disposed to the idea, of course details will have to be negotiated and we have already sent them a draft text.
"Hopefully we can negotiate that reasonably quickly."
Mr Downer said it was important to note Corby, who was discovered entering Bali with a bag of marijuana in her boogie board bag, had not been convicted of drug smuggling.
He denied the federal government had obtained an agreement from Indonesian authorities that Corby would be found guilty of a lesser charge and serve the bulk of her prison sentence in Australia.
Mr Downer said the transfer program would cover any Australians serving prison terms within Indonesia, and he said there were about 11.
"This is not specifically related to the Schapelle Corby case because she has not been convicted," he said.
Meanwhile, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock has defended the timing of a letter the government sent to the Bali court hearing Schapelle Corby's case about alleged drug-smuggling at Sydney airport.
The letter was handed to the court, but the chief prosecutor and judge overseeing the Corby drug smuggling case have branded it a waste of time.
The two-paragraph letter from the federal government alleges Australian airport baggage handlers may be involved in drug trafficking.
Mr Ruddock said the letter could not have been sent any earlier because it would have ruined a secret police investigation of alleged cocaine smuggling at Sydney airport.
"What we did in this case was to provide factual information to her (Corby's) attorneys at their request so that it could be tendered in the court," he told ABC radio.
"But could you have done it earlier? Well I think it's well known that this cocaine operation into Sydney was a very major one.
"Police were undertaking continued surveillance with a view to being able to apprehend all of those involved."
Mr Ruddock said the government was only able to provide the details it did about the airport after part of the investigation was thwarted when some of the suspects discovered police surveillance equipment.
"And therefore the information was able to be brought out into the public because the operation had been concluded," he said.
Mr Ruddock said he was frustrated about how hard it was trying to convince Australians if the federal government tried to interfere in the Corby case their efforts could have backfired.
"I think the frustration I might have is that I haven't been able to persuade people that in a matter of this sort Australia trying to be belligerent about court proceedings in another country would in fact have a very adverse outcome," he said.
Mr Ruddock said if Corby was convicted, the government could plea for clemency on her behalf.
In another development, Corby's financial backer, Ron Bakir, has registered her name as a private company.
Mr Bakir has denied he will benefit financially and that while he was a director of Schapelle Corby Pty Ltd, he would not collect any money from the company.
Asked if he had set up the company to recoup his losses from financing Corby's legal fight against drugs charges in Bali, Mr Bakir told the Nine Network, "Absolutely not."
"That company receives not one dollar, receives not one dollar.
"Everything I do is in the interests of Schapelle Corby and only in the interests of Schapelle Corby.
"I will not be collecting any money from that whatsoever."
Mr Bakir said the company's shares were owned by the Schapelle Corby Trust, of which he is the trustee.
But he said Corby was in total control of the trust.
"She controls and ultimately owns the trust," he said.
"No-one can do anything without her approval. It's set up for the sole purpose of Schapelle Corby."
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
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Re: Schapelle Corby trial updates [Re: veggie]
#4191294 - 05/18/05 01:23 PM (7 years, 14 days ago) |
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Corby 'the girl next door'
Family and friends say the nation's best-known accused drug trafficker is a typical Aussie girl
May 19, 2005 - thecouriermail.news.com.au
AS a nipper frolicking in the surf at Bilinga on the southern Gold Coast, Schapelle Corby was a carefree kid with no clue that she would one day be sitting in a Bali jail cell, facing the prospect of never riding the waves again.
Relatives and friends remember the 27-year-old Gold Coast beauty therapy student as a "surfie chick" who loved body-boarding, camping and spending time with her family and mates.
In contrast with her generally laid-back persona, she also had a fiery side, an obsession with cleanliness and was at times a loner, family members say.
Corby was born in Brisbane, the youngest of three children to Michael and Rosleigh Corby, who separated when Schapelle and her siblings Mercedes, now 30, and Michael, 29, were young.
Corby ? who also has two half-brothers Clinton, 21, and James, 17, and a half-sister Neleane, 14 ? attended Waterford West primary school and Loganlea High, leaving in Year 11.
Ros Corby took her children to the Gold Coast almost every weekend and it was there she developed a passion for the ocean.
"She joined Bilinga Surf Club as a nipper and got into boogie-boarding as well," her brother Michael said yesterday.
Corby's father, Michael Sr, said his daughter "had me wrapped around her little finger" and he was always helping her out financially.
"Whatever Schapelle wanted, she always got because she was my little girl and I suppose I spoilt her a bit," he said.
"I worked in the coal mines for 20 years and earned good money, so I helped buy her her first car when she was about 17 but she never drove it. She never even got her licence and was just happy to ride her push-bike or catch buses. Then, all of a sudden a couple of years ago, she went for her licence and got it first time.
"She bought herself an old rust-bucket and used to take off down the coast to northern NSW camping by herself. She'd pack her tent and boogie board and off she'd go. Schapelle liked people but she also enjoyed her own company."
After leaving school, Corby worked part-time in her mother's seafood takeaway and also as a Coles "check-out chick". It was in a Gold Coast supermarket in the late 1990s that she met Japanese surfer Kimi, who was on a working-surfing holiday.
Corby spoke a little Japanese and the pair struck up a friendship that blossomed into romance.
"Schapelle and Kimi both loved the ocean and they just fell for each other," Michael Jr recalls.
"We all liked Kimi, he was a funny guy, and were happy for Schapelle when they decided to get married."
The couple tied the knot in mid-1988 in a city hall ceremony in the Japanese surf town of Omaezaki. Their romance, however, began to crumble amid arguments over money problems and jealousy.
"Schapelle found it hard to adjust to the Japanese culture," her brother said.
"Kimi really wanted to work and make some money and I think Schapelle found it very lonely. Schapelle is a very social person and everyone likes her, and Kimi used to get jealous if she talked to other guys. Many relationships are ruined by jealousy."
Three months after their wedding, Corby left for Tokyo, where she joined other Western women working as hostesses in a bar.
Her uncle, Shun Hatton, said the family was outraged at suggestions Corby was doing more than just serving drinks.
"It makes us so mad because Schapelle was definitely not into prostitution or anything of the sort, she's a prude," Mr Hatton said.
"It was a traditional Japanese gentleman's club where the girls are fully clothed and are paid to serve the men drinks and talk to them, but nothing more. The mere suggestion that she was involved in anything else is offensive to the whole family."
Corby returned to Omaezaki and Kimi in 2000 but the reunion ended in a final blazing row, during which the couple reportedly threw things at each other, breaking a window. "Schapelle is pretty mellow but step on her toes and look out, she'll fire up," Michael Sr said.
Corby was also a "neat freak", Mr Corby said and was nicknamed "Grub" because of her obsession with cleanliness.
"The first thing she did when she was arrested was scrub her cell from top to bottom," he said.
Soon after returning to the Gold Coast, Corby ? whose divorce from Kimi was finalised in 2003 ? met concretor Shannon McClure at a Surfers Paradise beer garden. They dated for 2? years, shared a flat and talked about marriage and children. However, the couple drifted apart.
In spite of the breakup, Mr McClure has only sympathy for his ex-girlfriend's plight.
He said that, despite regular trips to Bali where Mercedes was living, Corby "loathed" drugs and "she just doesn't have the contacts to be able to pull something like this off".
"She wouldn't be able to afford it and just couldn't organise it," he said. "I just feel so sorry for the girl."
Michael Jr, a surfer who works in the family's Southport fish and chip shop, said he had heard "all the rumours" about the family's alleged involvement in drugs.
"But that's all they are ? vicious rumours," he said. "None of us have had any involvement in drugs and we're sick of the innuendo."
Fish and chip shop worker Katrina Richards, who befriended Corby about two years ago, said Corby had put her beauty therapy studies on hold to look after her father after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and told he had only months to live.
Michael Sr said he knew his daughter was innocent but was bracing for the worst.
"I tied up that bloody boogie board for her before she went," he said. "I just wish she'd got into surfboard riding like her brother and her sister because she never would have had that boogie board and she'd never be in the mess she's in now. She's just an ordinary, nice kid. Just an Aussie girl who was in the wrong place at the wrong time."
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
Loc:
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Re: Schapelle Corby trial updates [Re: veggie]
#4193739 - 05/18/05 11:27 PM (7 years, 13 days ago) |
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Years before Corby could come home
IF a Bali court finds Schapelle Corby guilty next week it could be years before a possible deal with Indonesia allows her to serve time back in Australia.
May 19, 2005 - news.com.au
Donald Rothwell, a professor at the Centre for International and Global Law at Sydney University, said "any sort of perception that a prisoner exchange agreement will see Corby back in Australia within months, I think, is quite misconceived".
Well down the track, a convicted Corby's best chance of early freedom might be a pardon from Indonesia President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Separately, the Australian government also holds the politically sensitive option of going to the International Court of Justice in The Hague if it believes minimum international legal standards have not been met during her case, Prof Rothwell said.
Issues that might trigger that include the failure of Indonesian police to fingerprint, weigh or analyse the drugs found in Corby's boogie board bag.
There's also the perception among many Australians that Corby has been distressed by "show trial" media coverage and the conditions she's being held under in Bali are substandard.
A verdict for Corby is scheduled to be handed down by a three-judge panel in the Denpasar District Court on May 27.
Her family and supporters hope for an acquittal.
But Indonesian prosecutors have demanded she be sentenced to life imprisonment if convicted of trying to smuggle 4.1kg of marijuana into Bali last October.
Indonesia's Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda has said his country is willing to negotiate a general prisoner transfer deal with Canberra – not just for Corby.
The likely model for such an accord is one that has already been struck between Australia and Thailand.
The Attorney-General's Department says that since that treaty came into force in September 2002, three Australian inmates have returned to Australia to complete jail sentences handed down by Thai courts.
On the flip side, 15 foreigners have been tranferred out of Australia to prisons in the Netherlands, Britain and Israel under similar treaties since January 2003.
Prof Rothwell identified two fundamental issues for negotiations over a treaty with Indonesia.
Firstly, Jakarta would have to say what offences an exchange deal would cover.
Drug crime would probably be included, "but it may prove to be a sticking point".
Secondly, Indonesia might demand an Australian inmate serve a minimum amount of time in its own prison system before it would be willing to permit a transfer to an Australian jail.
"If Corby gets, say 20 years, they might stipulate that she has to serve 10 years in Indonesia under this agreement," Prof Rothwell said.
If the proposed Indonesian treaty follows the Thai model, a convicted Corby who has been transferred to an Australian jail would not be able to appeal her sentence in the Australian courts.
"There would really be no possibility of Schapelle Corby or her legal team seeking within Australia to reopen the conviction or reopen the sentence that's been made against her," he said.
Australian law, though, probably would determine when she would be paroled or have her sentence reduced for things like good behaviour.
However, Indonesia would likely have to be notified first.
The Thai treaty model also doesn't indicate what sort of imprisonment would be enforced in Australia.
That raises the possibility of a convicted and transferred Corby serving out her time in a minimum security facility in Australia after enduring the squalor behind the high whitewashed walls of Bali's overcrowded Kerobokan Prison.
Prof Rothwell said politics between Australia and Indonesia will come into play and public opinion in both countries will probably also influence Corby's fate.
His sees her best case scenario like this: "She serves some sort of time in Indonesia. This exchange agreement gets negotiated. She gets transferred to Australia and then she gets pardoned" by the Indonesian president.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
Loc:
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Re: Schapelle Corby trial updates [Re: veggie]
#4195359 - 05/19/05 11:20 AM (7 years, 13 days ago) |
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Schapelle endures her darkest days
May 20, 2005 - thecouriermail.news.com.au
EVERY night that she lays down to a fitful sleep, Schapelle Corby shares her space with at least eight other women - and the light is on 24 hours a day.
Her family brought Corby aeroplane eye masks so at least she can have a semblance of darkness.
This is the reality of life in the remand section at Kerobokan Jail.
The women all sleep, side by side, on the floor. Corby has a roll-up camping mattress provided by her lawyers. There is no airconditioning and no fan to guard against the tropical heat.
This is allowed only when a prisoner is sentenced and moved to the cell block for prisoners serving out their terms.
There is one cramped Indonesian squat toilet and "mandi" for them all to use, where water from a little concrete tank is ladled over one's body.
Each woman gets a bucket of water a day that they must fetch themselves from the jail's regularly malfunctioning well.
This water is for the toilet, bathing and washing clothes.
Most of the inmates' time, when they are not receiving visitors in another area, is spent inside the cell. Jail authorities, fearful of unwanted pregnancies, are careful not to allow too much contact between male and female prisoners.
For this reason, female inmates cannot use the jail library when the men do.
Occasionally they are allowed a game of tennis on the jail's tennis court, which is normally reserved for the men.
According to Corby's family, most jail food is inedible. The rice is full of stones and dirt and the giant stew pot is encrusted with dried food. The family bring food to Corby each day to sustain her.
Since her time in jail began, Corby has found solace in religion. She attends the jail's church services three times a week and a leather-bound Bible is one of her most-read books.
She has managed to decorate the wall next to her cell with a series of photographs of her family and friends, children's drawings and other memories of life at home.
Her family is confident that, come next week, she will be resuming life on the outside.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
Loc:
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Re: Schapelle Corby trial updates [Re: veggie]
#4198970 - 05/20/05 08:51 AM (7 years, 12 days ago) |
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Corby faces appeal threat
May 21, 2005 - theage.com.au
Indonesian prosecutors say they will immediately appeal for a heavier penalty if Schapelle Corby is sentenced to only 15 years' jail when judges deliver their verdict on Friday.
Chief prosecutor Ida Bagus Wiswantanu said he would probably appeal if the sentence was 20 years unless the judges had good legal reasons for a sentence of less than life imprisonment.
Mr Wiswantanu said sentencing Corby to life was the best way to send a message to foreigners not to smuggle drugs into Indonesia.
"This is a kind of shock therapy, the life sentence," he said. "We have to understand the impact these drugs have on society."
Mr Wiswantanu said Australians protesting about the treatment of Corby were "over-reacting" to charges brought against the Queensland woman after 4.1 kilograms of marijuana were found in her bodyboard bag last October.
"They exaggerate, as if this is a big case," he said. "The case is actually simple because we found this stuff in her bag. But I think it (the reaction) is pretty normal because she's Australian and her fellow Australians feel sympathy for her, but we don't put someone on trial because of his or her citizenship - it's because of his or her offence."
Mr Wiswantanu said he felt under pressure because of the involvement of Australian and Indonesian politicians, including Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said Corby could serve her sentence in the Brisbane Women's Prison if she was found guilty under a prisoner transfer deal. She would not be able to appeal here.
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 StrandedVoyager
The People's Champ
Registered: 12/09/04
Posts: 3,229
Loc: (202)-456-1414 Call Me
Last seen: 6 months, 18 days
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Re: Schapelle Corby trial updates [Re: veggie]
#4199598 - 05/20/05 12:16 PM (7 years, 12 days ago) |
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Is her sentencing this week or next week? I hope she gets 10 to 20 and is allowed to serve them in a Aussie jail because I know those pigs won't give her any less. God I hate this, I'm not racist or profiling in anyway but the Indonesian govenment and their laws are pretty fucked. I want my tsunami money back.
Because the eyes of the world are on this fucked up backwards ass country and it's getting attention, she's going down and she's going down hard. I don't think she'll be executed but I'll be shocked if she gets less than twenty five years.
This is depressing the hell out of me.
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Hi 
My god... it's full of stars...
Edited by PhatWhitey420 (05/20/05 12:19 PM)
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Re: Schapelle Corby trial updates [Re: veggie]
#4201415 - 05/20/05 07:45 PM (7 years, 12 days ago) |
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The case against Schapelle
May 21, 2005 - theaustralian.news.com.au
THE evidence stacked against Schapelle Corby is enough to put her on trial anywhere in the world, according to legal experts, and will almost certainly keep her behind bars in Bali.
Almost obscured by the mushrooming cloud of Corby hysteria, the mounting Australian anger, the death threats and xenophobia, the blanket media coverage and the mouthings of various singers, talkback hosts, film stars and politicians, three Indonesian judges have concentrated on a few basic facts.
A transparent plastic sack filled with 4.1kg of marijuana was found inside another plastic sack in Corby's unlocked bodyboard bag at Bali's Ngurah Rai airport on October 8 last year. The former beauty school student has admitted she owns the bag, as well as the bodyboard and the flippers that were in it. Despite lifting the bag on to an arrivals hall counter, she apparently failed to notice its substantial extra weight. Indonesian Customs officers and police stationed at the airport have testified the 27-year-old was reluctant to open the bag, even trying to prevent an official opening it.
Corby's lawyers have tried to throw doubt on the prosecution case, making the point the bag was unlocked, so the cannabis could have been slipped into it anywhere between Brisbane airport and Bali.
A defence witness testified he had heard prisoners talking about how Corby had been an unwitting courier. The defence lawyers suggested the marijuana might have been on a domestic drugs run, destined for Sydney from Brisbane, and a mix-up left it in Corby's bag when it was transferred to the second flight.
They harped on the lapses of Indonesian officials. They pointed out the examination of Corby's bag and the initial interrogation was not video-recorded or tape-recorded by police, and an official translator was not provided. Most important, they told the three judges in Denpasar District Court, the plastic sacks were not examined for fingerprints.
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty has described the Corby defence case as flimsy. The director of the Asian Law Centre at the University of Melbourne, Tim Lindsey, guardedly says the defence lawyers didn't have much material with which to work.
But a top defence lawyer from Jakarta may have been able to do more with it and made a more convincing case, says the Indonesian law expert, adding more mileage could have been made of the police failure to take fingerprints.
Perhaps most important in the eyes of the Australian public, there has been no direct witness testimony to incriminate the young woman from the Gold Coast, who has regularly and tearfully assured the court of her innocence.
But in Indonesia, as in Australia, witness testimony is not necessary for a prosecution or essential for a conviction. Lindsey says the prosecution has made a substantial prima-facie case against her, a case in which she seems, on the surface, to be guilty.
"This is her bag, in the bag was found the cannabis," he says. "In any legal system in the world that would establish a prima-facie case." Once the prima-facie case is before the judges, the defence has no option but to prove it wrong.
Indonesia has a different legal system: juries are not used and a panel of three judges usually decides a defendant's guilt. Many cases in Australia are decided by a judge alone, without a jury. In Australia, Lindsey adds, "a person in her circumstances is very likely to be charged", declining to speculate on whether Corby would be convicted.
Other legal experts, speaking anonymously, say it is likely an Australian judge would find her guilty.
Much of the prosecution's case turns on the arrest of Corby at Ngurah Rai airport. She arrived in Bali in the afternoon of October 8 with her brother, 17-year-old James Kisina, and two friends: Alyth McComb, 25, and Katrina Richards, 17. According to the official indictment, a Customs official saw "forbidden goods" in the bag after it was unloaded from the plane and put through an external X-ray machine.
"Because he was suspicious, the official followed the bag to the baggage claim area and kept watch to determine who owned the bodyboard bag," the indictment says. Corby retrieved the bag and the official maintained his surveillance of her, noting she looked anxious, the indictment continues.
Customs official I Gusti Nyoman Winata told Denpasar District Court that he asked Corby to open the blue bag, but she unzipped only a front pocket. He opened the main zip himself, he said. "When I opened it a bit, she said: 'No,"' Winata said. "I asked: 'Why?', and she said: 'I have some,' and looked confused."
Winata also said she blocked his hand to stop him opening the main zip. Finally the bag was opened, and officials saw a pillow-case sized clear plastic zip-lock bag filled with 4.1kg of marijuana heads.
Winata said Corby identified it as marijuana. "I asked the suspect what was in the plastic bags. She said it was marijuana. I asked her, 'How do you know?' She said, 'I smelled it when you opened the bag."'
Yet casting some doubt on whether the English conversations were fully understood, a second Customs officer, Komang Gelgel, said Corby had told Winata she owned the marijuana, an unlikely admission. "She said, 'This is mine, I own it,"' Gelgel said, a claim Corby vehemently denied.
Gelgel and two police officers largely agreed with Winata's version of events, including Corby's attempt to prevent him opening the main zip. It was damning testimony from four Indonesian civil servants, all apparently objective witnesses.
Corby flatly denied she had tried to avoid opening the main zip of the bodyboard bag. "Well, firstly he didn't ask me to open the bag, he just asked whose bag it was," she told the court. "I opened the bag and I don't remember saying anything or hitting anyone's hand. I opened the bag and then I closed it."
Corby says she voluntarily opened the bag because she thought it was expected of her. She told the court she didn't know what was in the bag, even after the zip was opened. "I was scared, I didn't know what it was," she said. "Then when I closed my boogie board bag up, a strong smell came out. I was very scared, I didn't know what was going on."
Corby didn't deny she identified the substance as marijuana but she said flatly she had never claimed it as hers. She was not looking restless or suspicious, she said; she had been happy about her Bali holiday until grim reality struck.
"I open it, I lift it up and I'm surprised, there's a plastic bag and half-open, and I'm like 'Ohhh!' And I close it up, I can smell it," she told the court. "I never, at any stage, stated that that marijuana belongs to me; never, ever, have I stated that."
In their last statement to the court, Corby's lawyers averred she had said, in a startled fashion, "There is something" rather than "I have some" to Winata, the first time this version of events was related. The lawyers said Winata's ability to speak fluent English was in doubt. Corby's brother and her friends supported her testimony.
Corby also denied one of the police officer's claims that her flippers were found on top of the pillow-case sized plastic sack of marijuana. "There is no way that the flippers can be on top of the plastic bag," she told the court. "I packed my bodyboard and flippers, I did not pack the plastic bag. The flippers cannot be on top of the plastic bag, it can't be there."
Regarding her failure to notice the bag's extra weight, Corby told the court the bag's handle had somehow been broken en route to Bali, meaning she had to drag it.
Asked if that was why she failed to notice the added 4kg, she replied: "Well, I had my suitcase and another bag and I had never dreamed there was anything else in my boogie board bag than what I had just packed."
One of Corby's chief lawyers, Erwin Siregar, asked the two police officer witnesses, Wayan Suwita and I Gusti Ngurah Bagus Astawa, why no fingerprints had been taken from the ziplock plastic sack inside the bodyboard bag. Suwita answered: "We knew it was marijuana, so it wasn't necessary." Siregar pointed out that the crime of drug smuggling potentially carried the death penalty and asked if that made a "perfect investigation" more important.
"It's not my duty to answer that," Suwita replied. "Ask my superior." Astawa also said he did not know whether fingerprints were taken. "It's not my field," he explained. Asked whether fingerprints were necessary in Corby's case, he replied, "No."
Fingerprinting is not a common procedure in Indonesia, where the under-resourced police force is hard-pressed to deal with burgeoning crime.
The defence, though, submitted transcripts of television footage showing gloved police officers dealing with the nine Australians recently arrested for heroin smuggling in Bali. Why gloves for the Bali Nine and not for Schapelle, came the question from the defence.
A transcript of an Indonesian TV interview with Bali drug squad chief Bambang Sugiarto was also tendered to the court by the defence after the closing addresses. Sugiarto said Corby's "condition" was only 50 per cent, apparently referring to shortcomings in the fingerprinting and videotaping elements of the investigation.
Countering the defence's queries about the failure to fingerprint the plastic sack of marijuana, prosecutor Ni Wayan Sinaryati told the court it was unnecessary.
"In this case, the criminal perpetrator was caught red-handed by the Customs officers at the airport," Sinaryati said.
The defence was also unable to prove the weight of Corby's bag when she checked in at Brisbane airport, since all the bags were weighed together and police in Bali did not weigh all the bags for an overall comparison. Nor did Balinese police take up an AFP request to test the marijuana to determine its origin; there was no need, they said, they already had a case.
The prosecution dismissed as worthless various defence witnesses, including Victorian prisoner John Patrick Ford, flown to Bali by the Australian Government to give evidence. Ford had come to Bali, the prosecutors said, because he "wanted to breathe free air", but his testimony was pointless. Already dubbed "hearsay on hearsay" by Keelty, Ford's testimony would not have been admitted by an Australian court, legal experts say.
Chief Judge Linton Sirait, presiding over the Corby case, has also told reporters hearsay is not admissible in Indonesian courts.
Accused of rape, Ford told the Bali court how he overheard two men in prison discussing a drug shipment gone wrong. Corby, he said, was the unwitting scapegoat, but he declined to name the real criminal.
Lindsey says the Indonesian judicial system, unlike the Australian system, will accept dubious evidence for consideration and the judges will then give it no weight.
Defence witness Scott Speed, a Qantas baggage handler at Brisbane airport, told the court it was possible to put drugs or other goods into bags after they had been checked in.
Another defence witness, criminologist Paul Wilson, told the court Corby did not fit the profile of a drug courier, based on his only interview with her, conducted that morning.
Late in the piece, after the closing statements had been made, Corby's legal team presented the judges with a bundle of letters, character references, newspaper articles, a court statement of facts and a report from the Australian Government concerning an airport-linked cocaine-smuggling ring, a gang that was operating on the date she flew to Bali.
Yet legal experts query the cocaine case's evidentiary strength, considering the cocaine smugglers have yet to be tried, let alone convicted.
The bundle of evidence included transcripts of Australian and Indonesian TV programs, with other allegations of drug smuggling in Australian airports.
Yet none of it is sworn evidence, and none can be tested in court. The judges accepted it as an attachment to the defence, but that doesn't mean it will carry any weight in their judgment.
Indonesia is notoriously corrupt, routinely languishing at the bottom of international corruption indexes. The judicial system, too, undoubtably has rotten elements, especially in connection with large civil cases. But no charges of corruption have been levelled against the three judges in Corby's case, who have listened gravely and courteously to all the witnesses and allowed the defence to submit last-minute documents.
On the known evidence, it's almost certain they will find Corby guilty when they hand down their verdict next Friday, and on past history it's likely they will sentence her to a lengthy jail term. Indonesia has tougher drugs penalties than Australia, up to and including death.
Perhaps it's the sentencing disparity that has galvanised so many Australians rather than the question of whether she has been justly tried. Sirait has dubbed her trial "ordinary"; yet it's one that has provoked an extraordinary reaction in Australia, a reaction that is likely to roll on for some time.
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Re: Schapelle Corby trial updates [Re: veggie]
#4203076 - 05/21/05 10:13 AM (7 years, 11 days ago) |
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Schapelle's last plea for a pardon
May 22, 2005 - thesundaymail.news.com.au
SCHAPELLE Corby has made a desperate plea to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for a pardon.
Her lawyers are preparing a petition to Mr Yudhoyono that may be sent even before Friday's verdict is handed down in Denpasar Court.
Yesterday, she begged Mr Yudhoyono to believe in her innocence and release her.
"I cry myself to sleep each night wondering why this happened to me," the Gold Coast student, 27, said from her cell.
"President Yudhoyono, you hold the key. Please set me free.
"I have done enough time for this terrible crime that I promise you that I did not do. Please set me free. That is the truth."
Indonesia's President traditionally pardons several prisoners each year.
In the past, this has included foreigners serving long sentences for drug offences.
Corby's lawyer, Robin Tampoe, said he was preparing a formal pardon appeal in a letter to President Yudhoyono. "It's just a matter of whether it's sent sooner or later," he said.
Corby's last-ditch plea came as Australian Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock revealed bureaucrats were working furiously behind the scenes to prepare a prisoner transfer treaty that could see her sentence slashed if she is found guilty.
Mr Ruddock said the Government sent a draft treaty this week to Indonesia's Minister for Law and Justice, Hamid Awaludin, and Jakarta had given it priority status.
"If a conviction was no longer under appeal, then under such a treaty, prisoners could serve their sentences at home," Mr Ruddock said.
"That doesn't preclude two countries saying that we think that a lesser sentence, given extenuating circumstances, would be appropriate."
Eleven Australians are in jail in Indonesia, and nine Indonesians in Australian jails.
Mr Ruddock said Australian officials were due to visit Indonesia soon to discuss the treaty, similar to the one in place with Thailand.
Corby is said to have convinced herself she will be released on Friday.
Her sister Mercedes vowed yesterday she would never leave Corby's side and would fight for as long as it takes to have her name cleared.
"I just say to her, 'You are going to get out, if it's not on Friday we are going to continue fighting, it won't be too much longer. You have to be prepared for that, Schapelle'."
Mercedes has been in Bali with her husband Wayan Widiartha and her two children since Corby's arrest on October 8.
The children - Nyeleigh, 4, and Wayan, 5 - visit Corby about once a week in jail, taking their drawings and paintings for "Aunty Pell" to put on the wall in her cell.
Yesterday, they proudly showed off several more they intend to take for their final visit before the verdict.
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Re: Schapelle Corby trial updates [Re: veggie]
#4205455 - 05/21/05 11:05 PM (7 years, 10 days ago) |
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Questions raised over Corby's rookie lawyer
May 22, 2005 - smh.com.au
Accused drug smuggler Schapelle Corby has pinned her hopes on a young lawyer who refuses to say if she has ever won a criminal case.
And the only reason Corby hired Lily Lubis was because she was the lawyer prepared to take her case late on a Friday afternoon when most chambers had closed early for the weekend.
As Ms Lubis, 31, awaits the verdict of a case that engulfed her small legal practice of four after Corby was arrested last October, seasoned legal figures in Bali's criminal courts have expressed doubt about her strategy.
They say the rookie, who has been practising for about six years, should have ensured that her client kept a low profile and sorted the matter out behind closed doors.
"Our system cannot accept trial by press so [it's better to] just make all people happy," said one senior lawyer who has successfully handled high-profile expatriate cases.
Earlier this month when prosecutor Ida Bagus Wiswantanu submitted that Corby should spend the rest of her life behind bars, it was not just the desperate inmate who cried. Ms Lubis, too, broke down in tears.
Outside the court the advocate declared the case was "really unfair".
But her public criticism only put pressure on a legal system that was already well known for being corrupt, Balinese legal experts said.
Any appearance of giving foreigners special treatment would be frowned upon, particularly when voters last year chose a president who campaigned on a platform of cracking down on graft.
Corby's financial supporter, Ron Bakir, has angrily claimed that the defence was asked by Indonesian officials to offer bribes to get an acquittal. But the lawyer said it was important not to let court officials "lose face".
"[Keeping people] happy is not only about the money but also about how to respect the system. The money is not important," he said.
Another veteran of the Balinese court system, Ngurah Karyadi, said most cases involving expatriates and drugs were handled "under the table".
"But it's hard now that there's a lot of attention," he said. "They get pressure from international media. The whole court system wants to handle it the right way."
Ms Lubis is familiar with working with foreigners, who make up the overwhelming majority of her clients at Bali Law Chambers, but she and her team are vague about exactly how much criminal court experience she has.
Life in her practice in the wealthy beachside district of Sanur changed dramatically on October 8 when Corby, 27, was arrested at Ngurah Rai Airport with 4.1 kilograms of marijuana in her boogie board bag.
Previously, Ms Lubis had not handled a drug case for an accused trafficker, said her sister Anggia Lubis Browne, who is also a lawyer.
Corby's sister Mercedes was handed a list of local lawyers by the Australian Consulate, and she found that lawyers in Bali finish up work early on Fridays.
Eventually she dialled the number for Ms Lubis Browne, who said she did not handle narcotics cases but her sister Lily did.
Next recruited was a "consultant" Vasudevan Rasiah, an engineering graduate of the University of East London who has worked in the Middle East, the US and Australia. He calls himself the team's case co-ordinator.
Also on the team is Erwin Siregar, who court-watchers say has been the most convincing advocate for the defence. Corby's ever-present translator, who is carefully referred to only by her Javanese nickname Eka, is a trained accountant.
Bali Law Chambers is not devoted exclusively to criminal law. Last week, the firm was working on commercial contracts on the West Java coast, a getaway for Jakarta's wealthy.
The two sisters are daughters of a police officer and were born in the North Sumatran city of Medan. Lily is the youngest of nine and studied law at Jakarta's Jayabaya University, where she graduated in 1996. She started practising two years later.
In Bali, most of the expatriate drugs cases Ms Lubis had handled involved partygoers caught with illicit substances, Ms Lubis Browne said.
"Kuta party" cases were usually "settled" before they reached the courts by establishing that prosecutors did not have enough evidence, she said.
While Corby's legal team continues to declare her innocence, it is preparing for an appeal.
Now, as she awaits the court's verdict on Friday, Ms Lubis could only describe her own feelings as "anxious and hopeful".
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Re: Schapelle Corby trial updates [Re: veggie]
#4208367 - 05/22/05 09:13 PM (7 years, 10 days ago) |
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More jail expected for Corby
May 23, 2005 - news.com.au
SCHAPELLE Corby will remain in a Bali jail for months even if three Indonesian judges acquit her on Friday.
And chief prosecutor Ida Bagus Wiswantanu told The Australian he would launch an appeal if the 27-year-old Gold Coast woman were found guilty of drug smuggling but sentenced to anything less than life in prison, the sentence he and his colleagues have recommended.
"What is suitable is a life sentence," he said.
"If it is less than that, it will not fit our sense of what is just, so we will appeal."
Appeals to Bali's High Court can take anywhere from weeks to months to be decided. Either side can then appeal to Indonesia's Supreme Court, based in Jakarta.
If Ms Corby's defence lawyers appeal, they run the risk of the High Court imposing a tougher sentence, as it has in previous drugs cases. Yet Ms Corby's chief lawyer, Lily Lubis, has repeatedly declared she would appeal if her client were sentenced to a prison term, however light.
Mr Wiswantanu said an appeal would follow if the judges deciding the case gave unwarranted weight to documents tendered after the trial process had ended, such as the Australian Government's letter and a statement of facts that Ms Corby's barristers sent to the judges.
The letter and statement concerned the cocaine-smuggling ring found to have been operating in Australian airports on October 8 last year, the day Ms Corby flew to Bali.
Ms Corby was arrested at Denpasar airport when a customs official found 4.1kg of marijuana in her unlocked body-board bag.
Made Suraatmaja, a judge and spokesman for the Denpasar District Court, said defence lawyers had to consider an appeal very carefully.
"I remember a case when the prosecutors recommended 10 years in prison; we gave him eight years," Judge Suraatmaja said. "He appealed, and then he got 13 years in prison from the High Court. It was a drugs case."
In another case, the prosecution recommended the death penalty, but he and his fellow judges sentenced the defendant to life in prison. The defendant appealed and the High Court increased the penalty to death.
"There have been many cases like that," Judge Suraatmaja said.
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veggie
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Re: Schapelle Corby trial updates [Re: veggie]
#4209479 - 05/23/05 08:41 AM (7 years, 9 days ago) |
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Security upgrade sought as Corby verdict looms
May 24, 2005 - smh.com.au
Australian consular officials have written to Bali police and sought a meeting with them to address mounting concerns about inadequate security at Schapelle Corby's trial on Friday.
The acting consul-general, Anne Quinane, wrote to the head of the Bali police, General I Made Pastika, on Friday asking for extra police. She said yesterday she would be speaking to the police again this week in an attempt to get better protection for Corby.
The Australian Government last week issued another warning of a possible terrorist attack in Indonesia, and while there are concerns the whole court could become a target, the consul-general appears most concerned for Corby's welfare.
Arriving at the court several weeks ago, Corby fell as she was led from the prison van through a huge media scrum and, with scores more media representatives coming to Bali for the decision, Ms Quinane said it was important to provide the right level of protection.
Ms Quinane said she had heard rumours the venue for Friday's decision might be changed but said she was "not in a position to confirm or deny" their accuracy.
A spokesman for Denpasar District Court, I Made Suraatmaja, said there had been no request to move the court. His staff would need 10 days to do this if requested.
With so many Australians expected in court on Friday, he said there were rumours the court could become a target for terrorists, although this information was "baseless".
If the court believed there was a credible threat of an attack "we would not read the verdict on that day", he said.
Mr Suraatmaja said he was worried Corby supporters might be unhappy with the verdict and he wanted extra police on hand.
However, friends of Corby's who visited her in jail yesterday remained confident the Queensland woman would be acquitted and released.
"She's in high spirits and she's looking forward to being released on Friday," said Glen Jeffers, a family friend from Tugun in Queensland, where Corby lives. "She's a strong girl, she's got religion now. God is helping her, I suppose, and she knows she's going to be released because she's innocent."
With Mr Jeffers was Alyth McComb, a friend and former flatmate of Corby's who travelled to Bali with her on October 8 when Corby was arrested.
She said her friend was "doing really well", but did not want to talk about the visit.
However, she told New Idea magazine she feared the judges would find Corby guilty, even though she was certain she was not. "She's innocent. I saw that bag with my own eyes when it was checked in at Brisbane airport, there was no drugs there."
Ms Quinane also visited Corby for about an hour yesterday but said Corby had asked her not to say anything to the media.
Meanwhile in Queensland, the man who says he's funding Corby's defence, Ron Bakir, issued an apology for his remarks accusing Corby's chief prosecutor, Ida Bagus Wiswantanu, of seeking bribes.
The apology, written after Indonesia said the remarks were a breach of the law, described the comments as "baseless and unsubstantiated".
Mr Bakir is expected to arrive in Bali today and to attend the trial on Friday.
Mr Wiswantanu said that as a religious person he was bound to accept the apology with an "open heart". He said the Indonesian legal system "will not tolerate interference".
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Re: Schapelle Corby trial updates [Re: veggie]
#4212386 - 05/23/05 09:28 PM (7 years, 9 days ago) |
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Australia asks for Corby exchange
May 24, 2005 - theage.com.au
Australia has submitted a draft prisoner exchange agreement for Indonesia to consider, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says.
The government is negotiating with Indonesia an agreement which could be used for accused drug smuggler Schapelle Corby, who will find out on Friday if a Bali court will convict her on trafficking charges.
She faces a life sentence if found guilty.
Mr Ruddock told ABC TV that Australia had submitted a draft to Indonesia which followed the form of agreement negotiated with other countries.
"Most of those agreements do not make provision for a country that receives a prisoner back to unilaterally alter the sentence," he said.
"I don't think I've seen an agreement where that is possible.
"It could be that together you could vary a sentence.
"(But) you don't get a lesser sentence because you're able to serve it out at home."
Mr Ruddock said it was likely any agreement would provide that a prisoner could serve a sentence at home after all appeals had been exhausted.
"That would need to be agreed by both Indonesia and Australia," he said.
Mr Ruddock also spoke out against the intense media coverage surrounding the Corby case.
But he did not necessarily blame media outlets.
"There has been a great deal of comment, much of it initiated by those who were employed to assist the charged in this matter," he said.
"Right from the beginning these matters have been addressed by the defence using the media."
Mr Ruddock again defended comments by Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty, who cast doubts on suggestions there was intelligence supporting claims that baggage handlers were smuggling drugs through Sydney airport using passengers' luggage.
"There were views being put about the nature of the evidence that the Australian Federal Police could adduce in Corby's favour," he said.
"What he was simply saying ... was that they shouldn't assume that the evidence wouldn't be adduced in the way in which they had suggested."
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Re: Schapelle Corby trial updates [Re: veggie]
#4213401 - 05/24/05 07:25 AM (7 years, 8 days ago) |
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Judge gives Corby ominous warning
May 24, 2005 - abc.net.au
The chief judge in Schapelle Corby's Bali trial has admitted that he has never acquitted anyone in hundreds of drug cases.
Corby was arrested last October at Denpasar airport with just over four kilograms of marijuana in her luggage.
Judge Linton Sirait says he has been unmoved by her emotion in the court room.
"It's normal because it's not only Corby who is like that, in other hearings many of the defendants cry," he said.
"We can't be influenced by crying, we treat her just like normal.
"It's an ordinary drug case but as it is reported by so many media it becomes like an extraordinary one."
Mr Sirait said he would be criticised whatever he and his fellow judges decided in Ms Corby's case.
"If people believe Corby is innocent and she is found guilty, the public may hate the judges without realising the judges have been considering the evidence carefully," he said.
"Then if Corby is released, the public think the judges get money or something."
Judge Sirait has also confirmed an ominous pattern to his past judgements.
"I've handled many cases, not a hundred or 200, but over 500 since I became a judge.
"As far as I remember in a drugs case I haven't yet set anyone free."
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Re: Schapelle Corby trial updates [Re: veggie]
#4213589 - 05/24/05 08:45 AM (7 years, 8 days ago) |
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Admission of guilt the key to severity of sentence, says Corby judge
May 25, 2005 - smh.com.au
Amrozi, the so-called "smiling" Bali bomber, yelled racial and other insults at Schapelle Corby inside Denpasar's jail, according to one of her lawyers.
Robin Tampoe said Corby was extremely upset when Amrozi, who is on death row, yelled the abuse from his cell as she was exercising on a makeshift tennis court inside the jail compound. She ran back to her cell in tears.
Mr Tampoe told a Channel Seven reporter that Corby had been asking for some time to be allowed to exercise in the yard.
Corby's mother, Rosleigh, visited the jail yesterday and said her daughter was "feeling numb" and "scared" three days before judges are scheduled to announce her sentence.
Asked if Schapelle was praying, Mrs Corby said: "Of course she is praying she will be home."
Queensland businessman Ron Bakir, who says he is underwriting some of Corby's legal costs, arrived in Bali yesterday for the first time since he accused the chief prosecutor Ida Bagus Wiswantanu of soliciting a bribe.
Mr Bakir refused to answer questions about his apology to the Indonesian Government this week in which he retracted his allegation. "Bring the girl home" was the only comment he made.
The chief judge in the case, Linton Sirait, has told the Herald the key factor in what sentence the court would give if it found Corby guilty was whether or not the defendant admitted guilt.
The quality of the defendant's character and behaviour in court meant little. "They contribute only a little. The main factor is honesty, whether he or she admits guilt," Judge Sirait said.
Corby has consistently denied any knowledge of how a 4.1 kilogram bag of marijuana came to be in her luggage.
Judge Sirait reiterated in a Channel Nine interview yesterday that he has never before acquitted an accused drug smuggler.
He told the Herald that in hundreds of cases of people carrying marijuana he had judged in North Sumatra he had never sentenced anyone to less than five years.
"Sometimes they carry two kilograms, three kilograms even five kilograms, so the sentence on average was more than five years," he said.
In an interview with The Bulletin to be published today, the federal Justice Minister, Chris Ellison, said the Government was looking to negotiate an one-off interim agreement with Indonesia to get Corby home, should a formal prisoner-exchange deal take too long.
As Indonesian police announced new security rules for Friday's court hearing to cope with scores of media representatives, tourism operators in Bali issued a statement warning they were "dismayed" at calls by some Australian travel agents to boycott travel to Bali because of the Corby case.
Robert Kelsall, the chairman of the Bali Hotels Association, said he feared a guilty verdict could prompt a cutback in Australian tourism numbers similar to that which followed the outbreak of SARS two years ago.
He said 177 travel agents in Australia had already told a travel industry newsletter they would stop selling Bali if Corby was found guilty.
Australians were now visiting Bali in record numbers and probably brought more money in than any other country, Mr Kelsall said.
Hotel operators could not understand calls to punish the Balinese, he said, when Corby's defence team had accused Australians of being responsible for the marijuana found in her bag.
"Why are they persecuting us when Schapelle Corby's main defence is that baggage handlers were responsible?"
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