Unfair dinkum? NOT

# Verdict was just, sentence mild: experts
# Demand for Aussie marijuana was there
# Brother is in jail for drug possession
# Dad was fined for having marijuana
May 30, 2005

WHY would anyone smuggle marijuana into Bali when it's supposed to be cheaper there? And why would a pretty girl with good prospects do such a stupid thing anyway?

That's the thinking behind the outpouring of vitriol in Australia after 27-year-old Schapelle Corby was found guilty and jailed for 20 years by a Bali court on Friday for drug trafficking.

But, swamped by the chorus of calls for tourism boycotts, diplomatic protests, court appeals and even the return of tsunami donations, were the voices of Aussie legal experts who believe the Bali judges made the right decision.

Separate the emotion from the evidence, they argue, and the case against the former beauty school student would have had her convicted in any country.

Other reports pointed out that she's not the innocent-abroad her supporters have portrayed her as.

THE EVIDENCE

A 4.1kg bag of marijuana was found in Corby's bodyboard cover at Bali airport on 8 Oct last year.

Corby admitted she owned the long, flat bag and lifted it off the baggage carousel herself, apparently without noticing it weighed more than twice what a bodyboard should and had a pillow-sized lump in it.

Four Balinese customs officers and policemen testified that she tried to prevent an official from opening the bag. She had been under surveillance since an x-ray of the bag detected drugs before it was loaded onto the carousel.

These facts gave the prosecutor a 'substantial case', the director of the Asian Law Centre at the University of Melbourne, Professor Tim Lindsey, told The Australian.

'This is her bag, in the bag was found the cannabis,' he said. 'In any legal system in the world, that would establish a prima-facie case.'

Other legal experts told the paper that an Australian judge would find a person guilty on that evidence.

Corby's lawyers argued that anyone could have slipped the drugs into the unlocked bag, and suggested corrupt baggage handlers were to blame.

But their argument rested on the word of an Australian rape suspect seeking a plea bargain who claimed to have overheard other inmates discussing a lost package of drugs, a baggage handler who said such a scam was possible, and a bundle of papers alleging a cocaine smuggling ring was operating between Australian airports.

Such 'hearsay on hearsay' would not have been admissible in an Australian court, legal experts told the paper.

The defence also claimed that Bali airport officials failed to videotape their search, dust for fingerprints or provide a translator.

The Balinese officials testified that they didn't need to: They knew there were drugs in Corby's bag before she collected it - and they spoke to her in English.

'The verdict is not surprising bearing in mind that all the defence could rely on was poor police practice and hearsay about lax airport security,' Dr Mark Findlay, from the Institute of Criminology at the University of Sydney, told the Sydney Morning Herald.

'Even in Australia, if (she) was found in possession of the bag, and the bag is hers and she says it is her bag, and if there's no other evidence to challenge that, then that could be enough to convict her,' he said.

He also noted that the sentence was 'remarkably light sentence for what is, in Indonesia, a serious narcotics crime'.

THE FLAWED LOGIC

Why would anyone smuggle drugs into Indonesia, which upholds the death penalty for such a crime?

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, for Westerners who live in Bali, buying marijuana locally is extremely risky, as the seller could be an undercover cop or police informer.

So, they will pay a premium to buy it off another Westerner.

The paper quoted four sources as saying that high-quality Australian marijuana had long been sold on a limited basis to Westerners living in Bali.

One Caucasian, jailed in Bali for drug possession, claimed he knew several Australians who smuggled marijuana into Bali because it was more expensive than local varieties and more potent.

Another expatriate in Bali said his children were often offered such 'Aussie gold' for A$600 ($1,000) an ounce.

A Balinese drug dealer said Australian-grown marijuana was made up of large buds and had a much greater effect than the marijuana he sold, which had small buds and was more leafy.

'It's safer for foreigners to bring their own,' he told the paper. 'It's been happening for quite some time.'

Corby had gone to Bali to visit her sister, Ms Mercedes Corby, 30, who lives there. She is married to a Balinese man, Mr Wayan Widiartha, 34, and has two children, Nyeleigh, 4, and Wayan, 5, whom she is raising as Hindus.

Corby's family has repeatedly denied rumours that some of its members are involved with drugs.

But The Australian unearthed court documents that showed her half-brother, Clinton Rose, 22, had an extensive criminal history.

Six weeks before Corby was arrested, he was jailed for 18 months in Brisbane on 62 counts ranging from burglary to fraud. He also has two convictions for drug possession. Corby had visited him in jail before her own arrest.

Her father, Mr Michael Corby, admitted to The Courier Mail that he had been fined A$400 for possessing two grams of marijuana when he was about his daughter's age.

Like his daughter, he maintains to this day that the drugs were not his.

HER HOSTESS PAST

The Bali holiday was not Corby's first overseas trip. In fact, she had lived in Japan for several years.

While working as a supermarket cashier after leaving school, Corby met a Japanese surfer, identified only as Kimi.

She followed him back to Japan, where they married in 1998 in the town of Omaezaki, reported the Courier Mail.

Three months later, Corby left for Tokyo alone, where she worked as a hostess in a bar.

Her uncle, Mr Shun Hatton, told the paper he was outraged by suggestions that she did more than just serve drinks.

'She was definitely not into prostitution. She's a prude,' he said.

Corby returned to Kimi briefly in 2000 but soon returned to Australia. She later divorced and set up home with concreter Shannon McClure, but was single at the time of her arrest.

A hell-hole?

SCHAPELLE Corby now faces spending the next 20 years in a Bali jail that has been widely described as a 'hell-hole' by the Australian media.

But the truth about her living conditions could prove somewhat different.

'For those without money, the lack of necessities can be fatal. But for those with a bit of cash, and friends on hand, life can berelatively tolerable,' reported The Age on Friday.

'Prisoners can eat and drink whatever friends bring them, furnish their cells, own handphones and have full contact visits five days a week, which is unheard of in most jails.'

It quoted Scottish inmate Robert Fraser, 45, as saying: 'It's no hell-hole here. If you are going to be in prison in Asia, this is the place to be.'

Taken from The Electric New Paper