Australia’s Corby in final appeal on Bali drug case

DENPASAR, Indonesia (Reuters) – An Australian beauty
therapist launched a final bid on Friday to overturn a 20-year
sentence in Indonesia for drug smuggling, offering to present
new evidence to a Bali court to help clear her name.

Schapelle Corby, found guilty last year of smuggling 4.1 kg
(9 lb) of marijuana into Bali in a case that has transfixed
Australia, was jostled by camera crews and journalists on
arrival at Denpasar district court.

Corby has maintained she is innocent, saying drugs found in
her bodyboard bag by a Bali customs officer at the island’s
international airport were placed there by someone at an
Australian airport.

Looking tense and dressed in a white shirt and a demure
black head scarf, Corby did not make any comment in court.

Her lawyer Erwin Siregar said he intended to ask Australia
for footage from security cameras at Sydney airport’s handling
area on October 8, 2004, the day Corby flew out for Bali, and
present it at the next hearing on September 6.

“I will send a letter to Senator Ellison to request the
recording from CCTV to be used as evidence,” he told reporters
after the hearing.

The lawyer said Australian Justice Minister Chris Ellison
had confirmed in a letter that all security cameras in Sydney
airport’s baggage handling area were working on that day.

He also told the court that the sentence was legally
unsound because judges did not distinguish between importing,
owning and using marijuana.

“The prosecutors could not prove that (Corby) was a drug
dealer or user. The prosecutors could not prove that the
defendant was involved in the business of large-scale
importation of drugs,” he told the judges.

In January, the Supreme Court ruled that Corby must serve
her entire 20-year jail term, overturning a lower court’s move
to cut it by five years.

Her lawyers have also argued her sentence is too harsh,
compared to punishments handed down for similar offences
elsewhere in Indonesia.

Indonesian police have vowed to crack down on illegal drugs
on Bali, which they have said has become a hub for
international narcotics distribution.

Courts there have delivered a string of tough sentences
against foreigners, including nine other young Australians
dubbed the “Bali Nine” by Australian media, over drug charges.