Schapelle Corby
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Schapelle Leigh Corby (born 10 July 1977) is an Australian who is serving a 20 year sentence for the importation of 4.1 kg of cannabis into Bali, Indonesia. She is a former shop assistant and beauty student from Queensland. She was sentenced on May 27, 2005 and is currently serving her sentence in Kerobokan Prison, Indonesia.
Despite the conviction, Corby maintains that the drugs were planted in her bag, and that she did not know about them. Her trial and conviction were a major focus of attention for the Australian media.
Contents |
[edit] Pre-arrest history
While in Australia, Corby lived on the Gold Coast. She did a part-time beauty therapy course at TAFE but did not finish her last module due to her father being diagnosed with terminal cancer. She then worked in her family's fish and chips shop. In 1996 Corby met and started living with a Japanese tourist named Kimi.
In 1998 Corby moved to Japan with Kimi and they were married 3 months later. Corby and Kimi separated in mid 2000. Corby stopped over in Bali on her way home to Australia. She had been to Bali five times since the age of 16-though some of those trips were stop overs on her way to or from Japan.
[edit] Arrest and trial
[edit] Arrest
On October 8, 2004, Corby was apprehended by Indonesian customs agents at Ngurah Rai Airport on her arrival in Bali, Indonesia, from Australia. Corby was found to have 4.1 kilograms of cannabis in her unlocked bodyboard bag. Customs officer Gusti Nyoman Winata alleged that she tried to prevent him opening the compartment of the bag containing the cannabis. Corby denied this allegation during the trial, saying she originally opened the bag after being asked by Winata whose bag it was.
Corby stated that she had no knowledge of the drugs. Her defence centred on the theory that she had become an unwitting drug courier for what was supposed to have been an interstate shipment of drugs between Brisbane and Sydney in Australia.
[edit] Prima facie case
According to Professor Tim Lindsey, director of the University of Melbourne's Asian Law Centre, the prosecution had a prima facie case against Corby, established merely by her possession of the narcotics, regardless of her knowledge. In a lecture given at Melbourne University, he said, "Suffice to say that being caught with drugs on you, whether strapped to you or in a bag that is your property, is probably going to be sufficient in most instances for the prosecution to establish a prima facie case. The question then arises as to how that prima facie case is answered by a defence team."
[edit] Defence
Corby's lawyers gave a different version of the event, saying that she had no knowledge of the cannabis until the customs at the airport found it. They claimed that baggage handlers in Brisbane may have put the cannabis in her bag without her knowledge, acting as part of an inter-state drug smuggling network. According to her attorneys, the cannabis was to be removed in Sydney, but wasn't.
Three of Corby's travelling companions testified in court that they had seen Corby pack her bag before leaving for the airport and that only the flippers and yellow bodyboard were inside it. They also said that Corby did open the bag herself at the customs counter.
[edit] John Ford's allegations
John Patrick Ford, a prisoner at Port Phillip Prison who was awaiting trial and was subsequently convicted on charges of rape, was flown to Indonesia to give evidence in Corby's defence.
Ford testified that he overheard a conversation in prison between two men and alleges that one of the men planted the marijuana in Corby's bodyboard bag in Brisbane with the intention of having another person remove it in Sydney. He stated that the drugs were owned by Ron Vigenser, who had been a prisoner at the same gaol as Ford. He stated that a mix-up resulted in the marijuana not being removed and subsequently being transported to Indonesia, all without Corby's knowledge. He refused to name the man whom he states planted the drugs. In the Australian media Vigenser has strenuously denied any connection with the drugs and has reportedly given a statement to the Australian Federal Police.
A $1,000,000 AUD reward was offered for information to substantiate claims made by Ford about baggage handlers with no result. Since his return from Bali, Ford was convicted of rape. Ford was beaten and stabbed in prison and was held in solitary confinement for his own protection. [1]
The prosecution pointed out that his evidence was entirely hearsay and that he was facing trial for several serious offences in Australia. Legal commentators in Australia have remarked that Ford's testimony, as hearsay, would be inadmissible evidence in an Australian court. Professor Tim Lindsay stated that the defence case contained "virtually nothing that was admissible evidence to be given weight under Indonesian criminal procedure law" [2]. An Indonesian judge referred to Ford's evidence as "Hearsay upon hearsay".
[edit] Alleged involvement of baggage handlers
According to the Sydney Morning Herald Corby flew out of Sydney on the same day (8 October 2004) as a large shipment of cocaine was shipped out of the airport by a drug ring involving corrupt baggage handlers. During the week of 9 May 2005 in Australia several arrests occurred related to cocaine smuggling through Sydney airport. Her defense claimed that the cannabis was planted in her bag by mistake by baggage handlers.
However, the AFP commissioner Mick Keelty stated that a key aspect of her defence was not supported by the available intelligence([3]) and that the cocaine-smuggling ring which had been discovered involved the reception of shipments of drugs from overseas, not the transportation of drugs domestically. ([4])
No CCTV footage from the day of travel exists.
[edit] Ron Bakir
Ron Bakir, a Gold Coast bankrupt, claimed that he had retained the services of the Australian law firm Hoolihans to investigate the origin of the drugs. He made statements suggesting that he would fund Corby's defense. Bakir later registered a company titled Schapelle Corby Pty Ltd [5], and made statements to Corby's family that they owed him several hundred thousand dollars.
Bakir accused the prosecution team (chief prosecutor Ida Bagus Wiswantanu) of seeking a bribe to reduce the requested sentence. The prosecution team and the Indonesian government vehemently denied that this occurred. Corby's legal team were openly angry with Bakir since this could cause the imposition of a more severe penalty.
Bakir cut ties with the Schapelle Corby case on 24 June 2005 after Corby wrote a letter asking to disassociate himself. [6]. Schapelle Corby Pty Ltd was voluntarily deregistered on 23/10/2005.
[edit] Corby's pleas
Corby made numerous emotional pleas to be released. At the defence's last address to the court, April 29, 2005, Corby said to the three judges:
| I cannot admit to a crime I did not commit. And to the judges, my life at the moment is in your hands, but I would prefer if my life was in your hearts....And your Honour, I ask of you to show compassion, to find me innocent, to send me home. Saya tidak bersalah ("I am not guilty", in Indonesian). [7] |
Corby also wrote to the case's prosecutor, Ida Bagus Wiswantanu, and judges with a request for leniency,[8].
[edit] Controversy
The following points have been identified by many as flaws in the way Corby and her team presented her case:
- The rejection of an offer of experienced defence barristers: After the verdict, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer revealed that the government had offered the free help of two highly skilled Queen's Counsel and that this offer was rejected. However the family took up the offer for the High court appeal, but after more damaging allegations of bribery by the barristers, further assistance was refused.[9].
- Failure to attack the weaknesses of forensic evidence. The bag of cannabis was not weighed or fingerprinted by the Indonesians. Tim Lindsey of the University of Melbourne, Asian law expert, suggested that a greater focus on the weaknesses of the forensic evidence could have been helpful.[10]
- Use of hearsay evidence: No substantive probative evidence was presented to back up the suggestion that baggage handlers had put the drugs in Corby's bag. Hearsay evidence from John Patrick Ford was a distraction and had no chance of being accepted as having probative value.
- Other agendas: Defence lawyers and other Corby supporters often seemed to be equally interested in their own publicity and celebrity as they were with Corby's interests.
- Trial by media: Seemingly no effort was made to lower the profile of the case in the media. Even minor issues were the subject of headlines. The high profile of the case made it impossible to come to a quiet, negotiated settlement with the Indonesian justice system.
- Persons associated with Corby publicly attacked the Indonesian judges and legal system in the media. (Notably Ron Bakir suggested that bribery was inherent in the system.)
Criticism of the prosecution's case included:
- The bag of cannabis was not fingerprinted by the Indonesian custom officials or police, nor analysed to determine its source of origin.
- Indonesia police rejected assistance from Australian Federal Police to DNA test the cannabis and bag. On December 3rd 2004 Corby signed papers for her consent for testing to be done by the AFP but Indonesian Police would not release a sample. Since then, the Australian ABC has reported that the Indonesian Police did provide the samples and that Corby's team declined to have them tested [11] (7th Dec 2006)
[edit] Verdict and sentence
The verdict in the Corby trial was broadcast live on television in Australia, and the Nine Network television coverage was also broadcast live in New Zealand. The coverage included the eighty page trial outline, the verdict and sentencing.
On 27 May 2005 Corby was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years jail. She was also fined 100,000,000 IDR ($A12,663 AUD), with an additional six months if unpaid. The defence and prosecution appealed separately to the High Court, the defence appealing for a retrial, the prosecution appealing for life imprisonment.
On 17 August 2006, Indonesia's Independence Day, Corby receieved a two-month remission on her 20-year jail term. She is now due for release on August 10, 2024 [12].
[edit] Appeals
On 5 July 2005, the High Court ruled that the case should be reopened by the district court, allowing the defence to call new witnesses. The onus was on the defence team to call sufficient witnesses to prove that Corby did not place the drugs in her boogie board bag. A man was named as the owner of the drugs in Corby's bag. He was named as a key witness, but he said that he 'knows nothing'.[13].
On October 14, 2005, Bali's High Court reduced the sentence to 15 years. Both sides again appealed, this time to Indonesia's Supreme Court.
On 19 January 2006, the Indonesian Supreme Court overturned the five year reduction in her sentence on appeal and reinstated the original 20 year jail term handed down. The Court also ordered that the evidence - the bodyboard bag and drugs - be destroyed, signalling that the case was now closed [14].
The three-judge panel also rejected a final appeal from Corby, whose lawyers had been seeking a lighter sentence or acquittal meaning all legal avenues have been exhausted unless exceptional new evidence can be produced to reopen the case.
On 25 August 2006, Schapelle Corby appeared before the judges of the Denpasar District Court on an extraordinary appeal. Her lawyers submitted a letter from an Australian government official that CCTV cameras were operating at Sydney airport on the day she left, and indicated that they hoped that footage (although none seems to exist) would show drugs being put into Corby's bag. Corby's lawyers also alleged that the trial court did not have evidence of actual ownership of the drugs and so erred in convicting her. The judges agreed to wait ten days to see if such footage turns up before sending the record to the Supreme Court, which is expected to rule in several months. There is no possibility of this appeal increasing the term of Corby’s current sentence. However, should the attempt fail, her sole recourse is clemency from Indonesia's president - but Corby would have to admit guilt to apply.[15]
[edit] News Limited photographs
It was reported that a joint South Australian-Queensland police operation [16] had seized photographs of Corby with a man charged with marijuana smuggling after a police search of the alleged dealer's home.
It was originally believed by South Australian police and reported in the media that the photos had been taken prior to Corby's arrest in Bali. Subsequently, it was found that the photos were taken in Kerobokan prison after her arrest and that the man was merely one of many hundreds of people that visited Corby in prison.
[edit] Corby family's drug links
[edit] Michael Corby
Thirty years ago, her father, Michael Corby was fined in Australia for possessing two grams of cannabis but no conviction was recorded. [citation needed]
[edit] Clinton Rose
Her half-brother Clinton Rose has spent time in gaol for a range of offences. He was serving a 15 month sentence in Queensland for drug possession, breaking and entering, and fraud. It was reported that he also has a drug possession charge. This is his second time in prison.
[edit] James Kisina's arrest
James Kisina, was travelling with Corby when she was arrested in Bali. He had also been carrying the bodyboard bag before the arrest and had appeared in the media to support his sister.
On the same day as the reinstatement of Corby's original sentence, he appeared in a Brisbane Magistrates Court on drug possession and assault charges. [17]. Kisina, along with two friends allegedly invaded the home of a well-known drug dealer, tied up the occupants and bashed a male occupant before fleeing with a quantity of cannabis and cash [18]. It is alleged by police that the residents were threatened with iron bar and menaced with a machete. On 17 January 2006, Queensland Police found a quantity of cannabis in the home of Schapelle Corby's mother and half-brother.
Police stated that the house in which James Kisina broke into had been watched by police for some time and that the occupant of the home was a known drug dealer.
Kisina's lawyer has denied this and claimed his client broke into the home believing its occupants may have had information that could assist in Schapelle Corby's sentence appeal. On 8 March 2006, Kisina appeared in the Beenleigh Magistrates Court in relation to the drug-related home invasion and was comitted to stand trial after a committal hearing in June.
In Beenleigh District Court on October 13, 2006, Kisina pleaded guilty to eight charges: two counts of deprivation of liberty, two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm, and one count each of producing a dangerous drug, possessing a dangerous drug, possessing an item used in a criminal offence and entering a dwelling. He was sentenced on October 16, 2006 to a four year suspended sentence with a 10 month non-parole period. With time already served, he is expected to be released from prison on November 18, 2006.
[edit] Effect on relations with Indonesia
The Corby case generated intense controversy in Australia, where public opinion, generally in support of Corby[19] and at times expressed publicly with a perceived anti-Indonesian bias, caused tension in Australia's relationship with Indonesia. Mainstream Indonesian media showed minimal interest in the story with the small exception of Bali newspapers. Some small-circulation English language publications such as The Jakarta Post and the Bali Sun gave moderate levels of coverage.
A letter was delivered to the Indonesian embassy in Canberra containing an unknown substance on May 31, 2005. It was later found to be non-toxic and was considered a hoax.
It was frequently reported in Australian and Indonesian media that many Australians called aid agencies and demanded donations for the 2004 Tsunami relief be refunded. In response, officials of Australia's largest agencies - including World Vision, headed by Tim Costello - stated publicly that only a small number of people had made demands for refunds.
[edit] Australian government response
During the trial, Corby's father wrote to Prime Minister of Australia John Howard, saying in part
| as a father and as a leader, I plead for your help. I did not do this. I beg for justice. I don't know how much longer I can do this. Please bring me home. |
Howard was quoted as saying in response:
| I feel for her. I understand why there's a lot of public sympathy for her; I would simply say that I hope justice is done and it's a fair and true verdict...I would ask the rhetorical question: My fellow Australians, if a foreigner were to come to Australia and a foreign government were to start telling us how we should handle (it), we would react very angrily to that."[20] |
Australian Prime Minister Howard spoke publicly on the case, as did the Opposition Leader Kim Beazley. Although they were always careful to state that they were not seeking to interfere in the Indonesian judicial system, these comments were construed as applying pressure on the court trying the case. The comments from Australian political leaders and others were construed in Indonesia as interference in the Indonesian judicial system.
The Australian Government is pursuing a prisoner exchange programme with Indonesia, which may include Corby. [21] However, Corby has stated she is not interested in being exchanged, with her mother saying that Corby has no desire to be among the "big butch sheilas" in Australian women's prisons.
[edit] Media and public response
There was considerable media interest in and popular discussion of Schapelle Corby's predicament. The theory that Australian baggage handlers had placed the drugs in her baggage received considerable attention. For many months, every minor development in the case was highlighted on prime-time TV. For example, a minor "collapse" in the court engendered much erroneous speculation that she was pregnant to her erstwhile financial backer, Ron Bakir.
A poll commissioned and published in June 2005 by the Sydney Morning Herald found that opinion was divided whether Corby was guilty but there was a perception that the trial had not been carried out fairly.
In Australia, over 100,000 people signed a petition that they believe Corby should be freed. On the other hand, in Indonesia about 40 protesters gathered on 5 June 2005 at the Australian embassy in Jakarta calling for Corby to receive the death sentence, carrying placards with words such as '"Corby, drug dealer, must die"' [22]. In November 2006, she released her autobiography '"My Story"' [23].
[edit] References
- "Corby lodges lastditch appeal", The Age, 11 August, 2006.
- No link in Corby brother drug case
- "Man in Corby photos speaks", News.com.au, 13 January, 2006 (*broken link).
- "Snapped with alleged dealer", The Sydney Morning Herald, December 11, 2005.
- "Here's a thriller for a long flight", The Sydney Morning Herald, September 21, 2005.
- "Weighing the Evidence", The Sydney Morning Herald, 05 March, 2005.
- "Corby brother on drug charges", News.com.au, 19 January, 2006.
- "I ask for you... to find me innocent", The Age, 29 April, 2005.
- "Crowe heartbroken at Corby's plight", The Age, 22 April, 2005.
