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Australia's Corby in final appeal on Bali drug case

Posted on: Friday, 25 August 2006, 04:24 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

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