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 veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
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 Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4382352 - 07/07/05 11:49 PM (6 years, 10 months ago) |
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Bali court sets new hearings in Corby appeal
08 July 2005 - stuff.co.nz
BALI: An Indonesian court will hear new witnesses on July 20 in the case of an Australian beauty therapist appealing a 20 year jail sentence for smuggling marijuana to the resort island of Bali, a judge said yesterday.
The Denpasar District Court will hold the additional hearings in the appeal by 27-year-old Schapelle Corby, convicted on May 27 of importing 4.1kg of marijuana in a case that gripped and infuriated much of the Australian public.
"We have decided to hold a trial to examine additional witnesses...on July 20," Linton Sirait, the chief judge who sent Corby to jail, told reporters.
Corby's lawyers want to present new witnesses to the court, including some whom the lawyers say have been convicted of drug crimes in Australia, arguing they could help her case.
The court declined a further request by Corby's defence team to delay the hearings until August 5 to allow for expected difficulties in getting the witnesses on time.
"I'm having problems to bring the additional witnesses because...(their) status is prisoners. Therefore it needs bureaucracy between the Indonesian and the Australian governments to bring them," one of Corby's lawyers, Erwin Siregar, told reporters.
The same team of Bali judges from the previous trial will preside at the hearings, and Corby is required to be present.
The prosecution sees the case as open-and-shut drug trafficking because Corby told Bali customs the bag was hers.
Legal experts say that to overturn the conviction, Corby's defence must provide hard evidence Australian airport luggage handlers put the cannabis into the bag without her knowledge.
Australian media have reported that judge Sirait has never acquitted a defendant in some 500 drugs trials. Corby, of the Australian state of Queensland, could have faced a death sentence.
Meanwhile, Schapelle Corby will be spend her 28th birthday inside the whitewashed walls of Bali's Kerobokan prison, without a visit from family or friends. Visits are banned on Sunday when Corby's birthday occurs.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4383640 - 07/08/05 10:30 AM (6 years, 10 months ago) |
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Hotman's world of smoke and mirrors
July 9, 2005 - theage.com.au
The lawyer who is master of the theatrical gesture gets his results behind the scenes.
Just before he asked the Bali High Court to re-open Schapelle Corby's case, Paris Hotman Hutapea warned how difficult it would be to get the judges to agree to his request. Despite the obstacles, the brash Jakarta lawyer flew to Bali, met his client and lodged his documents with the appeal court in a blaze of television lights.
Then bingo. Three weeks later, the court not only agreed to his request, but the chief judge, Made Lingga, held a news conference announcing the decision, delivering the widespread coverage Hutapea wanted.
Getting a criminal case like Corby's re-opened might be unusual in Indonesia, but getting the chief judge to call a news conference to discuss it is unheard of.
As long as Hutapea, with his whatever-it-takes approach, is on Corby's case, it's impossible to predict what will happen next, and you won't get many clues by watching what goes on in public.
He's a behind-the-scenes operator. While Corby's new lawyer spends much of his time on the phone convincing journalists to run his deliberately provocative comments, he keeps the real information to himself, like what it took to get the judges onside.
"I can't disclose, it's not open for the public," he said when asked if he had met the High Court judges on his Bali visit.
Anyone who has watched him operate would take that as a "yes", given his candid admissions he meets judges privately to get the result he wants and has sent them money in the past as thank-you gifts.
As well as strings of diamonds, Hutapea reportedly owns 60 houses and 15 cars, including a Hummer that he used to ferry around Schapelle Corby's sister, Mercedes, when he brought her to town a few weeks ago. He doesn't pretend he has won a bunch of highly lucrative commercial cases just by being a good lawyer.
In Indonesia's notoriously corrupt court system you have to pay, to cut a deal, although he prefers not to use language quite as blunt as that: "I live in Indonesian courts every day, it's unethical if I say something bad about my court, although you know the answer. Everything is possible."
For Corby's case, though, he promised to change his ways. "As a lawyer I am not clean, I have to confess that . . . but for this case I am temporarily clean."
Temporarily clean or not, Hutapea has already shown he gets things done.
On face value, his appeal to the High Court against Corby's conviction and sentence appears doomed. He asked the court to re-open the case to bring a dozen new witnesses, including a person who supposedly placed a bag of marijuana in Corby's luggage.
But so far he's got no one to come forward, although he will probably get an Indonesian academic, Professor Indriyanto Seno Adji, to talk about the principle of reasonable doubt.
And if the judges agree, he may also produce the head of the Bali drug squad, Colonel Bambang Sugiarto, and the officer in charge of closed circuit TV at Bali airport, although it's hard to see how this group will say anything to save Corby.
Hutapea admits there is no more prospect now of getting a person who might have planted the marijuana than there was during the original trial, but that hasn't slowed him down.
What he is trying to do is create a climate of activity where there's a sense of new information being disclosed and mounting discontent with an unco-operative Australian Government.
Even a few wobbly witnesses might give the judges something to hang their hat on, enough of a reason for them to succumb to Hutapea's entreaties and give Corby a favourable verdict without being accused of corruption.
Unlike her previous lawyers, Hutapea doesn't claim the Queensland woman is innocent; he just says there is reasonable doubt over her guilt.
With no witnesses who will back up Corby's version of events, he is busy blaming the Australian Government.
Since he took on her case a month ago, he has been firing off angry letters to Justice Minister Chris Ellison and anyone else he can think of, demanding they help find customs officers and baggage handlers on duty the day Corby flew to Bali.
He has never really explained just what evidence he really expects from baggage handlers, if he had the chance to quiz them about a bodyboard bag they might have loaded nine months ago.
The evidence, though, is less important than the atmosphere Hutapea is hoping to create as he fights to give the judges a sliver of a reason to acquit Corby or reduce her sentence.
As the hearing, scheduled for July 20, gets closer, his letters and their distribution list are getting longer. His latest, to Prime Minister John Howard on Thursday, was also addressed to Senator Ellison, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and a Qantas lawyer, as well as Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the ministers for Foreign Affairs and Justice. Among other things, it added Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty to the witness list.
And while Hutapea's letters might go in the bin in Australia, it would be foolish to underestimate his influence at home. His office wall carries a framed photograph of himself with Mr Yudhoyono (well clear of the one of two G-string-clad women getting well acquainted) nestled among the magazine and newspaper stories detailing his past triumphs.
The six-page letter has also been cc'ed to 13 others, including the top four people at Indonesia's Supreme Court, which Hutapea is already leaning on in preparation for another appeal if he can't get the result he wants from the Bali High Court.
Although efforts have been made to reduce the corruption in the Supreme Court, its decision in the Tommy Soeharto case three weeks ago has convinced many Indonesians there is no sign of success yet.
A panel of judges lead by the head of the whole court, Professor Bagir Manan, cut by five years the 15-year sentence imposed on the son of the former president, who was convicted in 2002 of murdering a judge who had found him guilty of corruption.
With generous remissions and a law allowing his release after serving two-thirds of his sentence, Soeharto is now due for release next year, just five years after he ordered the judge's murder.
Despite such judgements, a Perth QC who was asked by the Federal Government to get involved in Corby's case said the decision to re-open her trial was evidence Indonesia's legal system was honest.
"You see people, I think, were too cynical about the Indonesian legal process," Mark Trowell said. "The judges are competent, they are honest in the way they discharge their duty, and that's been proven by today."
Few lawyers in Indonesia would agree with him.
The Perth lawyer has continued to comment publicly on the Corby case even though Hutapea says he sacked him a fortnight ago, after Trowell ignored his instructions and publicly claimed Corby's then legal team wanted to bribe the judges.
Hutapea, who himself was recommended for the job by Trowell, says the Perth QC sabotaged Corby's case with his claims of bribery.
One of the reasons he keeps attacking Canberra for not doing enough is that he is hoping to make Corby a political issue again so that Australian Government ministers will be forced to lobby on her behalf and make his job easier.
The one real mystery is why Hutapea is doing all this, and for free. He says he always does 10 per cent of his work for no charge and that his only motivation is to help a woman in trouble so that he will be able to look his maker in the eye when the time comes.
Like so much of what Hutapea says, this explanation cannot easily be taken at face value.
A very different take on Corby's fate
While Australians were stunned at the severity of Corby's 20-year jail sentence, Indonesian legal experts can't believe how well she did. "It's a miracle," said Riza Afrizal Hasby, a Jakarta-based lawyer who has handled 10 drug cases, including a number involving foreigners.
"It's without precedent, getting only 20 years for 4.1 kilograms," he said.
Other lawyers The Age spoke to were all unable to name a drug smuggler with a similar quantity of drugs who had received a lighter sentence than Corby. "If she was tried in Tangerang Court (in Jakarta), Corby would be dead," Hasby said.
One of his clients, Zulfiqar Ali, is on death row for allegedly owning 300 grams of heroin, even though he was not caught with drugs in his possession. The man who did have the drugs has also been sentenced to death. Both were sentenced at Tangerang Court.
Hasby, like all Indonesian lawyers dealing with drug cases, says money usually decides the sentence more than the quantity of drugs.
"In general, in drug cases, if you don't give money the court will give you the maximum sentence, but if you have money they will give you a lighter sentence."
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4395048 - 07/12/05 04:13 AM (6 years, 10 months ago) |
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Govt can't give Corby witnesses immunity
July 12, 2005 - theage.com.au
The Australian government says it cannot give immunity to witnesses who could testify they put drugs in Schapelle Corby's luggage bag because it would violate national laws.
Justice and Customs Minister Chris Ellison said the request, from the lawyers of the convicted drug smuggler, was a matter for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and not the government.
It came as Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Mick Keelty also shot down a request to give evidence at Corby's appeal.
Bali's High Court has agreed to hear testimony from new witnesses backing the former Gold Coast woman's claims she did not know about the 4.1kg of marijuana found in her bag at Bali airport last October.
Corby was sentenced to 20 years in a Bali prison in May.
Her Indonesian lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea said he wanted at least a dozen witnesses to appear before the court via video link, including Australian prisoners, Qantas baggage handlers and check-in staff.
Unless the Australian government gave immunity to the witnesses, Corby's name would not be cleared, he said.
"The only solution now ... if possible under Australian law, give immunity under Australian law to the witness in Australian territory," Mr Hutapea told the Nine Network.
"That's the only solution, no other solution."
Senator Ellison said the Australian government did not grant such immunity.
"That is a role for the DPP ... and it would be inappropriate for the government to involve itself in granting witnesses immunity as such," he told AAP.
"It would be a transgression of our criminal justice system."
Senator Ellison said immunity could be arranged for witnesses in Indonesia under a "mutual assistance request".
He said Mr Hutapea's request for names of possible witnesses had been passed on to Qantas and Sydney airport, but the government could not compel a person to give evidence.
Meanwhile, Mr Keelty, whom Corby's lawyers requested give evidence at the appeal, said he had no further useful information about drug smuggling between Australian airports.
"The AFP is not in position to provide evidence that will assist in the matter," he said on ABC radio.
"We've provided the material that we've gathered in respect of the investigation that we conducted and if you put it in domestic terms within Australia it's very rare, almost unheard of, that a commissioner would actually give evidence in a court case."
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4402322 - 07/14/05 01:10 AM (6 years, 10 months ago) |
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Corby lashes out at prison inspection
July 13, 2005 - smh.com.au
An angry and distressed Schapelle Corby struggled and swore at male prison guards who manhandled her when Indonesian human rights officials, followed by a media scrum, inspected conditions at Bali's Kerobokan prison.
The outburst happened soon after the team of 14 officials arrived at the prison where the 28-year-old Gold Coast woman is serving a 20-year sentence for trying to smuggle 4.1kg of cannabis into Indonesia.
Corby became agitated and screamed at guards and the media as she was pushed and dragged through the prison grounds.
A clearly furious Corby was led away by the guards after a scuffle.
She repeatedly called on them to let her go.
Corby's sister, Mercedes Corby, said later the fracas started when the media entered the jail alongside the inspectors.
"The guards were dragging Schapelle out into an area where she could be filmed and she was pleading with them to stop" Mercedes said. "Schapelle just freaked out."
The scene contrasted with media pictures earlier this week of Corby smiling during a prison yard aerobic session.
Corby's family has been worried for some time that media attempts to get access to Corby in jail might prompt officials to curtail some privileges, such as exercise time.
The human right inspectors were concerned about the prison's food, with meat served only on Tuesdays and Thursdays, TV reports said.
Corby's mother, Rosleigh Rose, has been supplementing her daughter's diet with food brought from outside the prison.
Bali's High Court has agreed to hear testimony from new witnesses backing Corby's claims that the marijuana found in her luggage at Bali airport last October was put there by someone else.
Her hearing before the Denpasar District Court is scheduled to start on July 20.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4410525 - 07/16/05 12:02 AM (6 years, 10 months ago) |
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Schapelle Corby 'an escape risk'
July 16, 2005 - news.com.au
SCHAPELLE Corby is considered an escape risk by jail authorities, and guards at the Bali prison have been told to stay alert and monitor her movements.
Prison governor Bromo Setyono said he was concerned about the convicted drug-smuggler escaping from Kerobokan prison, which has a history of successful breakouts. "We are very worried," he said.
"We are trained to have that instinct, especially because she is a celebrity. That should always be instinctive. We must be alert. That (desire to run) can emerge in them."
One prisoner who escaped recently is still on the run from the overcrowded and understaffed prison.
Meanwhile, the 28-year-old may have damaged her chances of serving some of her sentence in Queensland. She dodged a delegation of parliamentarians who will consider the merits of a prisoner-transfer program with Australia.
The MPs, from a parliamentary law and human rights committee , visited the prison on Thursday with a group of journalists, but Corby hid in an empty room and later wrestled with wardens.
The famous inmate had tried to dodge the lenses because she was extremely sensitive about the press, Dr Setyono said. "I received a call from the director-general of prisons - 'why did you provide a special place for Corby, why has there been discrimination?"' he said.
"Actually she was just trying to take evasive action."
The parliamentary committee's deputy chief, Akil Mochtar, said the MPs had wanted only to ask her about her life in prison: whether she was being treated well and was allowed to pray, and whether her relatives were allowed to visit regularly.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4414752 - 07/17/05 11:39 AM (6 years, 10 months ago) |
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New boost for Corby
July 18, 2005 - heraldsun.news.com.au
Schapelle Corby's lawyers have been given new evidence implicating corrupt Australian airport staff in domestic drug smuggling.
Schapelle's sister Mercedes said yesterday the evidence would greatly assist Corby when her trial reopened on Wednesday.
The evidence involves a former Victorian policeman with a history of suspected marijuana growing who works in security at Melbourne airport.
One of his associates, Jeffrey Robert Milne, was in charge of baggage handlers at the airport until his arrest in June 2000 on drug trafficking charges. Milne, 41, was an Ansett employee at the airport for more than 10 years.
Police who arrested him found he was managing a drug warehouse for slain drug boss Mark Moran. A Victoria Police source claims the former officer -- who the Herald Sun will call Mr X for legal reasons -- is a long-term associate of members of the notorious Moran drug empire.
The source alleged a supergrass, who police hope will help convict accused drug boss Tony Mokbel, also claims to have evidence against Mr X. The source claimed the supergrass told police in a taped statement that Mr X, who left the police force in the 1980s, provided a Moran drug courier with amphetamines smuggled through Melbourne airport to Perth in 2000.
Corby's lawyer Erwin Siregar said yesterday he would try to use the evidence in the trial.
The new evidence doesn't relate directly to the 4.1kg of marijuana Corby was convicted of carrying into Bali. But Mr Siregar said it backed up the argument corrupt airport staff were involved in domestic drug smuggling in Australia.
Bali's High Court has agreed to hear testimony from new witnesses in relation to domestic drug smuggling at Australian airports.
The defence team has been given names of several serving and former Victoria Police officers with knowledge of the evidence. They are expected to be asked to testify.
"This is exactly the sort of stuff Schapelle needs right now, evidence of domestic drug smuggling by airport staff," Mercedes told the Herald Sun from Bali yesterday.
Police were first alerted to Mr X's alleged activities in 1996 by a fellow officer who claimed Mr X tried to involve him in setting up a hydroponic marijuana crop in Euroa.
Mr X later drew the suspicion of drug squad detectives investigating the Moran clan after the arrests of two Moran drug couriers in 1999 and 2000. Both were picked up in Perth after smuggling drugs through Melbourne Airport, where Milne was employed at the time.
One of the couriers, Pasquale Barbaro, was shot dead with drug boss Jason Moran in June 2003.
Corby's celebrity Jakarta lawyer, Hotman Paris Hutapea, did not mince words yesterday over his deep discontent with the Australian Government, claiming it was nowhere to be found when its help was needed. He said he had also been in communication with Qantas but that had also been fruitless.
Mr Hutapea said Qantas provided names of two check-in staff on duty the day Corby travelled but Qantas' legal counsel conveyed that they could not remember anything.
And it seems plans have stalled in getting several Australian prisoners to Bali to testify since the Government announced it could not grant immunity from prosecution.
"Your Government didn't approach them, basically nothing, they didn't do anything," Mr Hutapea said angrily.
He said Customs had also responded that since Corby was leaving Australia, her luggage was not subjected to checks and it too had no useful evidence.
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 scatmanrav
Brainy Smurf
Registered: 05/08/04
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4418970 - 07/18/05 12:04 PM (6 years, 10 months ago) |
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I do not believe she did it at all. I think this is very very sad, and the first I've heard of it. Read through the thing over the last hour and a half though, and just had to leave you some feedback veggie, I just found this forum a few days ago and I love you for keeping all this up to date..keep up the great work!
I'll be hoping for this girl, but right from the start it looked bleak as all hell...I mean, as bad as the US is, at least it isnt Indonisia, apparently. I can tell you for sure, I will be doing everything in my power to not support them.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4422096 - 07/19/05 01:47 AM (6 years, 10 months ago) |
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Corby team to seek two-week extension
July 19, 2005 - theage.com.au
Schapelle Corby's lawyers will request a two-week extension so they can continue their search for fresh witnesses, including Australian police, when her drug trial reopens this week.
Bali's High Court is scheduled to start hearing new testimony on Wednesday backing Corby's claims that 4.1kg of marijuana found in her luggage at Bali airport last October was put there by someone else, possibly baggage handlers at Brisbane airport.
Defence lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea said the extra time would allow Corby's team to try to find more witnesses, including an unidentified Australian police officer.
The defence team needed more time to get him to Bali to testify about alleged drug trafficking involving baggage handlers at Australian airports, Hutapea said in Bali after meeting with Corby's sister Mercedes and mother Rosleigh Rose.
"The Australian policemen might testify how terrible is the law enforcement in Australian airports, especially for recent months when one or two persons (have been) already arrested and taken to trial for (alleged) drug trafficking," he said.
So far the defence team has managed to lock in only two witnesses - an Indonesian legal academic and the head of the Bali police anti-drug squad, Bambang Sugiarto, who will be cross-examined about alleged failings in the police case.
Both will testify at this week's hearing, Hutapea said.
But he said the defence would then formally request a two-week extension to buy time to produce more witnesses, including at least one unidentified police officer and possibly more.
Junior counsel Haposan Sihombing had already delivered a letter to the High Court judges informing them of their intention.
Hutapea blamed the Australian government for failing to help find more witnesses, admitting the police witnesses did not have any direct evidence to clear Corby's name.
"Right now, we only have proof in relation to how dirty is your airports, that's all," he said, tapping a copy of what he said was a 2001 internal police report entitled 'Policing Organised Crime at Airports'.
Mercedes said the family was talking with "a few" Australian police who were willing to testify about investigations and arrests they had made relating to airport drug trafficking.
She would not say whether they were still serving officers.
Rose said the family did not want to identify them for fear the Australian government would try to stop them testifying.
"They (the government) want everything all hushed up," she said.
Mercedes said the family had received hundreds of offers of help from people in Australia claiming to have information to help clear Corby's name.
"There's a lot of people who have come forward, writing letters to us, we've heard so many things about what goes on," she said.
Mercedes earlier visited Corby and collected a suitcase of supportive mail sent to her at Kerobokan prison, where she is serving a 20-year term for drug smuggling.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4427463 - 07/20/05 08:08 AM (6 years, 10 months ago) |
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This is your last chance, judge tells Corby
July 20, 2005 - smh.com.au
Convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby's legal team has been given another two weeks and a final chance to find new evidence to back her claim of innocence.
The chief judge presiding over Corby's reopened trial in the Denpasar District Court, Linton Sirait, gave the defence team until August 3 to bring witnesses from Australia.
"This is the last chance," Sirait told Corby's celebrity counsel Hotman Paris Hutapea. "We conclude that this will be the last chance for the lawyers to bring witnesses."
The three-member defence team had initially planned to produce as many as 11 witnesses to support Corby's claim she did not know about 4.1kg of marijuana found in her unlocked baggage at Bali Airport last year.
One of the people who Hutapea hopes to bring now includes a mystery witness - someone who allegedly is willing to admit that he put the drugs in Corby's bag in Australia.
But this person will only testify if the Australian government grants immunity from prosecution, Hutapea said.
Earlier today, Corby's drugs trial reopened with an Indonesian law professor raising doubts about the case against her.
Indriyanto Seno Adji of Jakarta's University of Indonesia said police and custom officers should have found out how the marijuana got inside Corby's luggage.
"According to our law, you need witnesses who can prove who put the marijuana in the bag," he told the court.
Corby, 28, has consistently denied owning the drugs.
She claims she was the unwitting courier for a drug gang operating in airports in Australia.
Corby was caught in a media crush as she arrived at the Denpasar District Court today.
Her sister Mercedes lashed out at local and international television crews who almost pulled her sister to the ground in the melee.
But Mercedes Corby denied hitting anyone.
Hutapea warned the family yesterday to restrain their emotions at today's hearing,
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4436911 - 07/22/05 01:47 AM (6 years, 10 months ago) |
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Corby backer splits
July 22, 2005 - news.com.au
Ron Bakir has closed down the official Schapelle Corby website as he severs his final ties with the Corby family.
Mr Bakir confirmed yesterday he had stripped the site from the internet and closed down the business he had registered in Corby's name.
"That's it for me," the high-flying Gold Coast entrepreneur said yesterday.
"We shut down the website and deregistered the company. It's been in interesting ride."
Schapellecorby.com.au was set up by Mr Bakir to showcase media reports on Corby, who has been sentenced to 20 years' jail for smuggling drugs into Bali.
The site also solicited donations and lobbied for Corby's freedom.
At the height of Corby's sensational trial, the site received tens of thousands of hits a day.
Mr Bakir set the site up and registered the business without the knowledge of Corby or her family, but said all proceeds went to the family.
He said he had been left with substantial debts from his involvement in the case.
The relationship between Mr Bakir and the Corby family soured in recent months.
In June, Corby's mother Rosleigh Rose described Mr Bakir as a "black knight" who had not helped her daughter's cause. Mr Bakir responded by ending his relationship with the family, and has now severed his financial and legal ties.
His friend Robin Tampoe, Corby's former lawyer, has hit out at Corby's family, saying they had profited from her jailing.
Mr Bakir made a name for himself as a mobile phone retailer, trading as Crazy Ron.
A court case spurred by business rival Crazy John forced him to change his business name to Mad Ron, and left him with significant debts.
Three former companies of Mr Bakir's have gone into liquidation in recent months, and he reportedly has creditors chasing him for up to $1.5 million.
The Bali High Court has ordered the Corby case be reopened to explore evidence that someone other than Corby placed 4.1kg of marijuana into her bodyboard bag.
The Corby camp has two weeks to produce new witnesses to back their claims that corrupt baggage handlers may be to blame.
A second major website dedicated to Corby, schapellecorby.com, has also been closed down by its Brisbane owner.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4437290 - 07/22/05 07:07 AM (6 years, 10 months ago) |
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Corby lawyer threatens to quit
July 22, 2005 - theage.com.au
Schapelle Corby's Indonesian lawyer has threatened to quit her case saying Australian prosecutors are refusing to offer an immunity deal for witnesses that may help her.
Hotman Paris Hutapea said the defence team was being given a legal run-around by various levels of Australian governments.
Federal Justice Minister Chris Ellison says immunity for criminal witnesses was a matter for state and federal public prosecutors.
But Hutapea said the NSW public prosecutor's office had written to him saying it was not within its power but a matter for the federal government.
"I am bloody sick of this, I have to say," he told AAP.
"I am the most expensive lawyer in this city (Jakarta) and I am not getting anywhere with pro-activity from the Australian government.
"I am going to resign this case - I am thinking about quitting tomorrow - if they do not start helping. I am serious."
Bali's High Court has given the defence team until August 3 to secure new testimony backing Corby's claims that 4.1kg of marijuana found in her luggage at Bali airport last October was put there by someone else, possibly corrupt baggage handlers at Brisbane airport.
Hutapea has said a mystery witness in Australia is willing to admit to putting the drugs in Corby's bag, but only if the government grants immunity from prosecution.
In Perth, Senator Ellison said he was happy Corby's lawyers had approached the director of public prosecutions in NSW and Queensland requesting an immunity deal.
"We have advised Mr Hutapea that he approach the DPP at both state and federal level if he is seeking immunity for any witnesses to give evidence in relation to Schapelle Corby's hearing," he said.
"The question of whether immunity is given to a witness in a trial is one for the DPP and so it should be.
"We are pleased to see Mr Hutapea has taken this course of action.
But Hutapea said the letter had been almost immediately dismissed by the NSW DPP.
"I am sick of this. I think this Senator Ellison should go back to law school," he said.
A spokeswoman for Senator Ellison said the defence team had repeatedly been advised that an immunity deal depended on the type of crime for which it was sought.
"We have told them it depends on whether it is a Commonwealth matter or a state matter," she told AAP.
Corby is serving a 20-year jail term in Bali's Kerobokan prison.
Defence lawyers have been warned they have only one more chance to secure witnesses and present new evidence to the Denpasar District Court on August 3.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4443604 - 07/23/05 02:38 PM (6 years, 10 months ago) |
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Corby drug 'accused' is bashed
July 24, 2005 - heraldsun.news.com.au
The Melbourne man accused of owning the drugs found in Schapelle Corby's bag has been bashed by a gang of thugs.
Ron Vigenser said he was savagely beaten and taunted about the Corby case, during a vicious attack on Thursday evening.
The convicted criminal yesterday told how he was battered with a plank of wood, kicked and punched, after being set upon in the underground carpark at Warringal Shopping Centre in Heidelberg.
"I was putting my shopping in the car when I was tapped on the shoulder and hit with a lump of wood," Vigenser said.
"They were punching and kicking and holding me down and saying things like 'you f---ing dog, get over there and help out Schapelle Corby'.
"I was on the ground and there was blood streaming from my head."
Vigenser, who was also robbed of his wallet and mobile telephone, said he did not know how many attackers were in the gang or who they were.
The beating left him temporarily unable to see out of his left eye, he said.
"I was in shock, I had concussion -- I went home and I virtually went straight to sleep," he said.
Vigenser, who yesterday sported a large gash and lump on his forehead, was named by Victorian prisoner John Ford as the person who owned the 4.1kg of marijuana found in the Corby's boogie-board bag when she was arrested in October.
Vigenser, who was in jail at the time of the arrest, has vehemently denied the claims.
He said Thursday's attack coincidentally occurred hours after he had met with an intermediary sent by Corby's lawyers to see if he would give evidence to the re-opened trial in Bali.
"They wanted to know what I was willing to do and not do and if I was willing to go to Bali," Vigenser said.
"I said 'yes, I'd be prepared to go to Bali, that's not a problem, but I don't have any evidence to help (Schapelle)'."
Vigenser, who reported the attack to police on Friday, said his life had become a living hell since he was named as owning the drugs
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4443611 - 07/23/05 02:41 PM (6 years, 10 months ago) |
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Secret Corby witness denied immunity
July 24, 2005 - news.com.au
THE NSW Director of Public Prosecutions has refused to grant immunity to a secret witness who claims to have planted marijuana in Schapelle Corby's bag.
Her defence team fears the decision could dash the Gold Coast beauty student's chances of winning her upcoming appeal against her 20-year sentence for drug trafficking.
Corby's flamboyant Jakarta lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea claimed the man rang him to admit to his role and was prepared to testify provided he received immunity from prosecution in Australia and Indonesia.
But in a letter to the defence, NSW DPP Nicholas Cowdery said he could not agree to the request because he did not have the power.
He said the identity of the proposed beneficiary of the immunity was unknown and the Commonwealth had responsibility for extradition cases.
The Queensland DPP has also rejected immunity for another anonymous witness the Corby defence team claims could prove Corby was not responsible for drug trafficking.
Mr Hutapea criticised the decisions and said Corby was being given the runaround because of disagreement between the Commonwealth and the states. A spokesman for NSW Attorney General Bob Debus said the decision was entirely a matter for the DPP.
Corby faces a new hearing on August 3 in the Denpasar District Court at which her defence team has a chance to produce new witnesses to clear her of drug trafficking.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4447048 - 07/24/05 01:28 PM (6 years, 10 months ago) |
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Corby's postal plea
July 25, 2005 - news.com.au
SCHAPELLE Corby's lawyers will today write to the Federal Government and prosecution authorities in a bid to seek immunities from prosecution for two new witnesses.
The witnesses, from NSW and Queensland, have separately contacted the Corby legal team by telephone claiming to have information about the origin of the 4.1kg of marijuana found in her boogie board bag.
The legal team believes they could hold the key to unravelling the truth behind the saga but have criticised the Federal Government, who they claim is sending them in circles on who has authority to grant immunities.
Yesterday Corby's Jakarta lawyer, Hotman Paris Hutapea, was annoyed by comments from Justice Minister Chris Ellison.
Mr Ellison told Channel 7 the Corby team had failed to approach the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions regarding the immunity issue despite the Government's advice to take this path.
However, Mr Hutapea denied this, claiming the Government had informed him he needed to direct his requests to the state DPP's office.
He subsequently wrote to the DPP in both QLD and NSW, both of which, he said, had provided negative responses.
Now, with just 10 days before Corby's case resumes in the Denpasar District Court, time is short for the team to secure witnesses for their "last chance" to present defence testimony.
Another Corby lawyer, Erwin Siregar, has spoken by telephone with the two potential witnesses, who it is understood have no relationship to each other.
Mr Siregar said a man from NSW had told him during a telephone conversation late last week that "the marijuana in Schapelle's bag, actually this is for him [the man] in Sydney".
"In the discussion he told me that if there is immunity from the Australian Government he will [give evidence] by video link," Mr Siregar said.
It is understood the man from Queensland has proffered that he can testify about who put the marijuana in the bag but, likewise, would only do so with immunity.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4453843 - 07/26/05 12:30 AM (6 years, 10 months ago) |
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Australian prosecutors want name of Corby witness
July 26, 2005 - seven.com.au
Australian prosecutors won't consider granting legal immunity to a potentially key witness for Schapelle Corby until they get his name, her Indonesian lawyer said.
Corby's counsel Hotman Paris Hutapea said the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions is insisting that the witness - a Sydney man who is allegedly part of a drug ring operating in Australian airports - must reveal his identity as well as details of his criminal activities before an immunity deal can be made.
Comment was being sought from the DPP.
Hutapea said the man has said he is willing to testify via videophone link to Bali's Denpasar District Court that Corby was the unwitting mule for the gang that stashed 4.1 kg of marijuana in her bag before she flew to Bali last October.
But the witness will only give evidence if he is granted immunity from prosecution in Australia beforehand.
Hutapea said that revealing the man's identity would jeopardise Corby's attempt to overturn a 20-year sentence for drug smuggling.
"The DPP letter that I received today says in order (for the DPP) to even consider immunity, I must disclose the name of the witness and specify his offences - what criminal laws he has broken in Australia," Hutapea said.
"If I disclose his name, he will run away. And, then what happens if immunity is rejected? We need your government to guarantee immunity first."
Calling the DPP's letter "bureaucratic", Hutapea said he was perplexed as to why he was expected to know Australian criminal law better than Australia's top prosecutor.
"The DPP is the expert on Australian criminal law, he should know what offences the man has committed if I say he is the one who was meant to receive the drugs (found in Corby's bag)," Hutapea said.
The Denpasar District Court will reconvene on August 3 to hear new evidence from Corby's defence team.
Hutapea said there was no time to get caught up in bureaucratic wrangling.
He said the mystery witness has said that the drug stash was planted after Corby checked-in at Brisbane airport and was supposed to be collected in Sydney during transit to Bali.
Hutapea said he had no doubts about the man's claims or his motives for coming forward.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4455709 - 07/26/05 12:26 PM (6 years, 10 months ago) |
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Corby 'witness' emerges
July 27, 2005 - smh.com.au
A man labelled by his own lawyer as a "total bullshit artist" claims the drugs in Schapelle Corby's luggage were meant for him.
The man has told News Limited newspapers he was offered $50,000 to collect the 4.1kgs of marijuana from Sydney Airport in October last year.
The plan fell apart when a Sydney airport baggage handler did not pass on the package and it ended up in Corby's body board bag, the man who had demanded $250,000 for his story told the newspaper.
Corby was convicted of smuggling the cannabis into Bali and sentenced to 20 years jail.
"I was supposed to make a quid out of picking up the package but it never went ahead," the man said.
"I got a call telling me to forget it because the package had ended up with the Corby girl."
Corby's Indonesian lawyer, who is urging the federal government to grant the witness immunity from prosecution, says the man, who lives in Sydney's western Suburbs, is vital in saving her.
But the man refuses to testify if he is not granted the immunity and enough money to leave the state, the newspaper said.
The man's Kings Cross solicitor Michael Croke said his client was "a total bullshit artist who had tried this before".
"He will say anything to make a buck and this will devastate the Corby family," Mr Croke said.
"The bloke sits around reading newspapers and concocting false stories so he can try to sell them to the media."
The man approached Corby's former backer Ron Bakir in an attempt to cash in on the $1 million offered for information.
"He told me the reward didn't stand, so I had to look elsewhere," the man said.
The Corby case resumes in the Denpasar District Court next week.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4458463 - 07/27/05 12:05 AM (6 years, 10 months ago) |
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Corby family sells shop over case
July 27, 2005 - news.com.au
SCHAPELLE Corby's mother has sold her Gold Coast takeaway business to meet crippling costs from the convicted drug smuggler's second shot at freedom.
Rosleigh Rose today said proceeds from the Southport fish and chip shop sale would pay for her and ex-husband Michael to stay in Bali during their daughter's reopened trial, starting next week.
"We didn't have it up for sale – we were approached and it's come at a good time," said Ms Rose, who bought the business two years ago.
"It's mainly to pay for her father to be there with her and hopefully we won't have to be over there for long ... her father spent all of his money and his super on lawyers the last time."
She said the family would be sad to leave loyal customers after the shop changed hands on August 12, but "helping Schapelle" was a much bigger priority.
Ms Rose said she was optimistic Corby, 28, would successfully appeal against her 20-year jail sentence handed down after she was caught with 4.1kg of cannabis in her bodyboard bag at Denpasar Airport in October last year.
"When Schapelle comes home we would have had to have closed the shop for some peace and quiet and we would have been paying rent while it was not open," she said.
"We also need the money for living expenses."
Ms Corby said she was confused by media reports that Sydney lawyer Michael Croke did not believe a male client's claim to being involved in putting drugs in Corby's bag.
"I haven't heard that but if he said he was involved, why would (Croke) say that?" Ms Rose asked.
Mr Croke's client, reportedly named William Miller, alleged he was offered $50,000 to pick up the drugs from Sydney airport but the plan fell through.
Corby has continually said she was an unwitting drug courier of a botched drug trafficking operation between Brisbane and Sydney airports.
Corby's celebrity lawyer, Hotman Paris Hutapea, has said an alleged member of a drug ring operating through Australian airports had offered to testify at next week's appeal provided he was granted immunity from prosecution in Australia beforehand.
However, Australia's federal Director of Public Prosecutions wants the name of the potential witness before it considers bowing to the demand.
"It would make things easier if the Government would allow staff to talk – we have had people ringing us up offering help and then not following up and saying they are scared to lose their jobs," Ms Rose said.
Bali's High Court is scheduled to start hearing new testimony next Wednesday backing Corby's claims the marijuana was put there by someone else, possibly baggage handlers at Brisbane airport.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4463710 - 07/28/05 07:11 AM (6 years, 9 months ago) |
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Second prisoner claims knowledge of Corby drugs
July 28, 2005 - seven.com.au
A new last-minute witness for Schapelle Corby's case has come forward in a Victorian prison, her Indonesian legal team says.
In a signed statement to the Australian Federal Police, the witness - identified only as Paul - recalled a conversation he overheard earlier this year in Port Phillip Prison between two other inmates, Corby's defence counsel Hotman Paris Hutapea said.
One of the prisoners, allegedly identified as Ronnie Vigenser, was angry that 4.1 kg of marijuana he claimed belonged to him ended up in Bali after a bungled attempt to smuggle it from Brisbane to Sydney, Paul said in the statement, according to Hutapea.
In the past Vigenser has flatly denied being involved in the Corby case.
A spokesman for Justice Minister Chris Ellison confirmed a statement had been passed from the Attorney-General's Department to Corby's lawyers.
He could not provide any further details about the letter because it may identify the person who provided the information.
According to Paul's statement, Vigenser said: "F*** Schapelle Corby, she f****** cost me four kilos of smoke," Hutapea said.
In the statement, Paul said he would refuse to give evidence in Bali, but agreed to testify via videophone link from Australia.
To arrange Paul's testimony, Corby's defence will apply for another extension when her trial reopens at Denpasar District Court on August 3, Hutapea said.
Corby is appealing against a 20-year sentence for drug smuggling, claiming someone must have planted the stash in her luggage after she checked in at Brisbane airport last October.
Paul's statement might corroborate evidence given by another Victorian prisoner, John Patrick Ford, at Corby's original trial earlier this year.
Ford told the court that he overheard two prisoners - Paul and another man named Terry - talking about how Vigenser was angry that his drugs had ended up in Bali and thought it was funny that Corby was taking the blame.
At the original trial, a three Indonesian judge panel dismissed Ford's testimony as hearsay.
The same three judges have since reopened the trial to hear new evidence.
Hutapea called on the AFP to use Paul's statement to arrest Vigenser.
Hutapea said he received a copy of Paul's statement from the federal Attorney-General's Department on Thursday morning.
He had lobbied the Australian government earlier this month to track down Paul and Terry to see whether they could confirm Ford's story.
Federal agent GD McLeod from the AFP's Melbourne office had interviewed Paul, Hutapea said.
In the statement, Paul said he was standing three or four metres from Vigenser in a big yard at the prison one morning when he overheard Vigenser talking to another prisoner, Hutapea said.
Paul could not remember the exact date of the conversation, but said it was about three months after Corby's arrest in October last year, Hutapea said.
Paul also said he had known Vigenser for a long time and could easily identify him if needed.
He was too scared for his safety to publicly reveal the name of the other prisoner with Vigenser, but had given it to police, Hutapea said.
Corby's defence will submit the statement, signed by Paul and McLeod, as evidence at the August 3 hearing.
They will also apply to the Bali High Court via the district court for another extension to facilitate Paul's testimony via videophone link.
Under Indonesian law, at least one public prosecutor, judge and defence lawyer would have to travel to Melbourne to be present with Paul when he delivered his testimony via videophone link to the court, Hutapea said.
An AFP spokeswoman confirmed the police had spoken to a man named in Ford's earlier evidence.
"We have re-interviewed a man who was named in Mr Ford's affidavit," she said.
"The statement (this man) provided, he granted permission for this to be forwarded to Ms Corby's defence team."
The AFP and Senator Ellison's office were unable to provide a copy of the statement.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4477229 - 07/31/05 12:28 PM (6 years, 9 months ago) |
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New Corby fiasco
August 1, 2005 - dailytelegraph.news.com.au
A BREAKDOWN in communications between Schapelle Corby's legal team and the Federal Government has plunged her hopes of freedom back into doubt.
Corby's legal chief Hotman Paris Hutapea yesterday dismissed the last-minute efforts of Justice Minister Chris Ellison, who is jetting in to Jakarta to offer assistance.
"I won't be there," Mr Hutapea said. "I'll be in Bali preparing for the trial."
The trial is due to be re-opened on Wednesday but the defence case has already been rocked by a failure to secure new witnesses.
Of more than a dozen named earlier by Mr Hutapea, only two will appear.
Bali's drug squad chief Lieutenant-Colonel Bambang Sugiarto has not committed to attending.
Australian Federal Police chief Mick Keelty has refused, saying he has nothing new to offer.
A Victorian prisoner who claims he overheard fellow inmates saying who owned the drugs - effectively clearing Corby - has offered to give evidence, but only by video from Australia and if he receives immunity.
However, immunity talks have stalled and he will not be giving evidence.
Two other new witnesses - Qantas baggage handlers who checked in Corby's bags at Brisbane airport last October - are due to arrive in Bali today.
They're expected to say there was nothing suspicious about Corby's behaviour, luggage or travel companions.
Senator Ellison is due to arrive in Jakarta tomorrow night, saying he hopes to hold talks with Corby's legal team and fast-track any assistance.
Mr Hutapea yesterday said he would have left for Bali by then and derided Senator Ellison's effort as a cynical political ploy.
"He knows I will be in Bali preparing for the trial, not in Jakarta. He should come to see me. He knows we are in Bali," he said. "Maybe is he coming to pretend to do something, to show to the public they are trying to do something.
"He himself can't help in his own country, he himself can't do anything in Australia so maybe he is coming just to pretend he is doing something."
Meanwhile, Senator Ellison said he had repeatedly requested "urgent advice" on the state of the case.
The last communication was an e-mail copied to an Federal Government official last Thursday.
"It has been frustrating, in the sense that we don't want to be rushing around at the 11th hour," Senator Ellison conceded.
"Leaving it to the last minute makes it more difficult to render the assistance we've offered."
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OneMoreRobot3021
punky jewster
Registered: 06/06/03
Posts: 60,572
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Re: Schapelle Corby [Re: veggie]
#4477251 - 07/31/05 12:36 PM (6 years, 9 months ago) |
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--------------------
Acid doesn't give you truths; it builds machines that push the envelope of perception. Whatever revelations came to me then have dissolved like skywriting. All I really know is that those few years saddled me with a faith in the redemptive potential of the imagination which, however flat, stale and unprofitable the world seems to me now, I cannot for the life of me shake.
-Erik Davis
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