'Government won't help me': Corby

[Tom]

Lawyers for a Gold Coast student facing death in Bali on drugs charges have accused the Australian government of forsaking their client.

 

"We have lost all faith in the AFP (Australian Federal Police) and the Australian foreign ministry," Vasudeva Rasiah, a member of Schapelle Corby's legal team, said today.

 

"They promised us they would help, but it was lip service all the way.

 

"They have done nothing and now what do we have in her defence? Absolutely nothing."

 

Corby, 27, of Tugun, faces the death penalty under Indonesia's tough anti-drugs laws after customs officers found a plastic zip-lock bag containing 4.2 kilograms of cannabis leaf and heads in her bodyboard bag when she arrived in Bali last October.

 

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade today said Corby's trial was likely to begin later this month or early next month after Indonesian police recommended to prosecutors that the Australian be charged with trafficking.

 

Corby has maintained her innocence, saying somebody must have planted the stash in her luggage between Brisbane and Denpasar airports.

 

After meeting with Corby's legal team in Australia in November, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer called the case very curious and offered Australian Federal Police (AFP) help to test the origin of the cannabis - something that required Corby's consent.

 

Corby gave her consent last month and the AFP said today it had offered to help determine where the cannabis was grown - a potentially key issue in determining Corby's guilt or innocence.

 

However Indonesian police had declined the offer of help, an AFP spokesman said.

 

Bali police said today the AFP had not asked to test the drugs.

 

"The AFP never asked to test the drugs," Bali police anti-drugs squad director Bambang Sugiarto told AAP.

 

"We never asked them to test the drugs. We have our own forensic lab and our tests are enough to prove that what Corby brought in to Bali is marijuana.

 

"What else would we need to check the marijuana for?"

 

Police earlier this month handed all evidence and paperwork in the case to prosecutors.

 

Rasiah said he had repeatedly warned the Australian government that once the case went to the prosecutors it would be off-limits.

 

He said he suspected the AFP did not actually want to help Corby.

 

"When Lely (Corby's lawyer) pushed the Bali police to do the tests, they laughed at her," Rasiah said.

 

"They said: 'The girl's own government don't want to do anything, why should we do it?'

 

"It's all a political ping-pong and our client is caught in the middle."

 

Corby's legal team said it had also sought AFP help in conducting fingerprint tests on the plastic bag that contained the drugs.

 

Bali police said the bag could not be tested for prints because it was contaminated, but Rasiah maintained there were two bags: one containing the drugs and another on the outside.

 

Rasiah said the lack of Australian government help afforded to Corby was in stark contrast to that for Christopher Packer, another Australian being held in Bali.

 

Packer, an accomplished multi-millionaire yachtsman from Perth, was arrested in Bali in November on suspicion of arms-smuggling, but was expected to face court soon on reduced charges related to failing to declare half a dozen guns to Indonesian customs.

 

"The Australian government talk about corruption in Indonesia. They should look at their own system. Why are they running around in circles looking after Packer, but not Corby?" Rasiah said.

 

Australian consular officials in Bali are monitoring her case and continue to visit Ms Corby to provide her with assistance, a DFAT spokesman said.

 

Author:AAP

Date:January 17, 2005

Source:The Age

Copyright:Copyright © 2005. The Age Company Ltd.

[WantDaChronic]

its so fucked to think that a fellow aussie has gone through that kind of shit :thumbdown even more so when our own government wont help at all

 

IMO i believe the aussie govt. wont help as it doesnt want to appear soft on drugs or supporting them by trying to help a suspected smuggler :thumbdown but still the situations surrounding this madness make it hard for her to do anything but sit back and wait for a bullet :thumbdown

 

if the government doesnt do anything soon i say we all do a sit in using floodnet or a simular program that can crash sites with enough users and take down foriegn affairs or something to do with travel and the government and do it to bali's govt. too....im thinking national airlines and both Prime Minister's personal sites

[Tom]

This story is from our news.com.au network Source: The Daily Telegraph

back PRINT-FRIENDLY VERSION EMAIL THIS STORY

 

 

Corby to fight death penalty

By Cindy Wockner in Bali

 

 

PROSECUTORS have confirmed they will use laws which carry the maximum death penalty for drug trafficking when the trial of Australian Schapelle Leigh Corby begins in Bali tomorrow.

 

The four-page indictment against the 27-year-old beauty therapy student from the Gold Coast includes three charges relating to drug trafficking and possession – charges she will defend.

The charges, under Indonesia's tough anti-drugs laws, are made up of a primary charge and two subsidiary charges. The first two, under articles 82 and 81 of the country's narcotics legislation, carry the maximum penalty of death and are akin to drug trafficking.

 

Article 82 stipulates that the accused is involved in importing, exporting, offering for sale, dealing and acting as a broker in regard to drugs and carries the maximum penalty of death, a life sentence or 20 years in jail with a fine of one billion rupiah ($142,364).

 

The third charge, under article 78, is less severe and is akin to drug possession, carrying a maximum 10-year jail term and a fine of 400 million rupiah.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To prove this charge, the prosecution must show that the drugs were under Ms Corby's control and it is this element that her defence lawyers hope to be able to negate in court.

 

They say if they can negate this aspect of the case then the more serious charges are also negated and she would therefore not face a death penalty.

 

Ms Corby was arrested last October year at Bali's international airport with 4.1kg of marijuana in a vacuum-sealed plastic ziplock bag inside her bodyboard bag.

 

The bodyboard bag, which was checked in at Brisbane airport for the flight to Denpasar via Sydney, was unlocked and Ms Corby has consistently maintained she has no knowledge of the drugs.

 

It will be incumbent upon the prosecution to show the drugs were under her control.

 

Author:Cindy Wockner in Bali

Date:26jan05

Source:The Daily Telegraph

Copyright:© Herald and Weekly Times