Free! Legal advice for Schapelle Corby

As Schapelle Corby prepares to again protest her innocence in a Bali court, Peter Faris QC takes a look at what her defence team should be doing:

Schapelle Corby and her lawyers were recently given an opportunity by the Appeal Court to call more evidence to establish her innocence. They now say they need an adjournment for two weeks. Here's some of the evidence an innocent person would (and should) collect over those two weeks.

Her character. Most people would not have the knowledge or contacts to be able to obtain such a large quantity of marijuana. She should give sworn (truthful) evidence that she has never used drugs, never associated with people who do and that she is completely opposed to drug use. Her friends and family should all give evidence that corroborates her.

Her family and friends. They should all give evidence that they didn't own the drugs and that Schapelle was not being used to move drugs for them. In particular, the sister and her Indonesian husband should give evidence that they don't use marijuana and that drugs were not destined for them, either as a gift or for sale.

The board and bag. What is the history of purchase? Who owned it? Had Corby ever used it? Had she ever taken it overseas before (and to Bali before)? Why did she need it in Bali? Do the sister and husband have easy access to similar boards?

Luggage packing. Who packed her luggage prior to this trip? Who packed the board? Most importantly, who had access to the board? All her family and trip-friends should be called. Evidence should be led that when they saw the bag before check-in at Brisbane it was not “pregnant” – that is, there was obviously nothing packed in it. Who carried the bag at any time between packing and check-in? Did the weight and size seem normal?

The airports. Subpoenas should be issued (either in Indonesia or within Australia) to obtain the airline records of rosters for the relevant baggage handlers at Brisbane and Sydney international airports. All these people need to be subpoenaed to give evidence so that the allegations can be put to them. Alternatively, her lawyers should request that the Australian Crime Commission investigate each of these handlers and call them in for compulsory evidence. It's probably too late to get the airport videos – that should have been done on day one. In Indonesia, the baggage handlers and other staff with access to the baggage should be identified and interrogated. The backgrounds of the “lying” airport staff who gave evidence against her should be investigated.

The marijuana. This should be tested in Australia to determine its origin.

You'd think Corby's team of hack-lawyers would have come up with it themselves, instead, they have become just another sideshow act in the Corby Circus, a line up that includes her profiteering family, an infamous mobile phone salesman, a salivating media throng other assorted other hanger-on-erer's.

Anyway, the whole lot are about to be paraded around again in a couple of weeks.  But the question needs to be asked, do we still care?

Comments

[John MacKean]

The prosecution has never addressed the question of motive: why import $80,000 of marijuana into a country where the same product can be bought for $4,000? Crooks are not that stupid: it makes no sense whatever. How did she acquire the drug? Her family was not in a position to invest that sort of sum in a speculative venture.

[Lainey]

So my question is, did they weigh the bag when she got to the airport? And if so, was it recorded? Does the bag with the pot weigh the same as when she checked the bag? Maybe the airline should be responsible for copping the brunt of these types of things when they don't use the proper methods of protecting their passengers when we are not allowed to use locks on our bags - to protect us from the airline personnel.