Australia to seek clemency in drug case

Australia to seek clemency in drug case

AUSTRALIA: Australia would seek clemency if an Australian woman facing drugs trafficking charges in Indonesia's tourist island of Bali should be sentenced to death, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on Thursday.

Schapelle Leigh Corby, 27, was arrested at Denpasar airport on Oct. 9 with 4.2 kilograms of high-grade cannabis in a bodyboard bag after arriving on a flight from Sydney.

Indonesian police have said it was the largest quantity of cannabis ever seized being taken into Bali.

The beauty therapy student, from the touristic Gold Coast in Queensland state, is facing prosecution under Indonesian legislation that orders death as the maximum penalty for importing drugs.

She has maintained her innocence.

"That's a long way down the track from now and there is a great deal of legal process to go through before you would ever end up in that situation, if you did end up in that situation," Downer told commercial radio.

"But we would always plead for an Australian's life in that situation." --AFP