Australians still hold out hope for Bali drug smuggler

Australians still hold out hope for Bali drug smuggler

Agencies, Sydney/Canberra

An expert witness in the trial in Indonesia of Australian
Schapelle Corby said on Saturday that a successful appeal against
her 20-year sentence for attempting to smuggle 4.1 kilograms of
marijuana into Bali was not out of the question.

Queensland criminologist Professor Paul Wilson also condemned
fellow Australians who blamed 27-year-old Corby's Indonesian
lawyers for the guilty verdict announced on Friday.

"It will be extremely difficult but not impossible to win an
appeal," Wilson told Australia's AAP news agency. He testified at
Corby's trial in Denpasar that the divorcee did not fit the
profile of a drug courier.

"There will be different judges and different judges may make
different assessments of all evidence," Wilson added.

He said the hope for Corby was the prosecution's lack of
forensic evidence tying her to drugs found in her luggage last
October. Conflicting accounts of the drug seizure could throw the
prosecution's case into doubt, he said.

Wilson, who lives in Corby's Gold Coast hometown, deplored
criticism of Corby's defense team.

"I am enormously disappointed with the public criticism of the
defense team," Wilson said. "It's based on a lot of
misunderstandings of what was happening. What isn't realized is
that the odds were almost impossible. As the judge pointed out,
he had 500 trials and not one had he acquitted."

Similarly, Australian newspapers on Saturday defended the
integrity of the Indonesian justice system but said it had failed
to show mercy to Corby.

"Nation's fury" Sydney's Daily Telegraph declared on its front
page.

It said, "Judges show Corby no mercy" while the Sydney Morning
Herald focused on the prosecutors' determination to appeal for a
heavier sentence.

The Herald's website and Channel Nine's ninemsn portal both
reported record numbers of hits as Australians logged on to find
out the verdict of the case that has transfixed the country for
more than six months.

The Herald said the Corby trial had stopped the nation, with
workers crowding around office television sets to watch the
court's verdict on the charges against the 27-year-old beauty
therapist.

The Telegraph said it had been inundated with e-mails
expressing fury and frustration at the sentence. "This is
outrageous. I will never visit Bali. Their justice system is a
joke," wrote Jesse from Sydney.

Sharni Potter told the newspaper: "I just keep thinking this
could have been me or someone close to me."
But there was also support for the Indonesian judges. "Thank the
Lord, justice has prevailed," John Sullivan wrote. "If those
drugs had made it into Bali, it would have been our kids getting
poisoned. One more drug trafficker off the streets."

Newspaper editorials said Australians had no choice but to
accept the verdict.

Meanwhile, Indonesian justice minister Hamid Awaluddin will
meet the legal team of Corby, her Australian lawyer said on
Saturday in Canberra, as the team considered pursuing political
as well as legal ways to free her.

Lawyer Robin Tampoe, of Corby's hometown of Gold Coast in
Queensland state, said Hamid had agreed to speak to Corby's
Indonesian legal team to discuss her options. He did not say when
the meeting would take place.

"We'll pursue every conceivable avenue that we can," Tampoe
told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio when asked if he wanted
to pursue political negotiations as well as a judicial appeal.
"Anything we can possibly do to get Schapelle Corby home, we'll
leave no stone unturned," he said. "Everything is an option."

Her lawyers have suggested it may have been corrupt airport
baggage handlers who had intended to transport the marijuana
within Australia, but failed to retrieve it before Corby's
luggage was transferred to an international flight in Sydney.

However, Indonesian prosecutors plan to appeal the 20-year
prison sentence given to the Australian woman, saying the
punishment is too lenient.

The prosecutors, who demanded a life sentence, were not
satisfied with the 20-year sentence and will appeal to the higher
court, Attorney General's Office spokesman R.J. Soehandoyo was
quoted as saying by Antara on Saturday.