Corby might be innocent

The plight of Schapelle Corby and the desperation in her pleas of innocence drive me to write the first letter I have written to a newspaper in 15 years.

I was living in Darwin in 1982 when Lindy Chamberlain was found guilty of killing her nine-week-old baby daughter Azaria in 1980 at what was then called Ayers Rock in Central Australia. Like the prosecutor is asking for here, she was given a life sentence.

At the time the majority felt she was guilty because the prosecution had presented evidence that overwhelmed the resources of her tiny defense team. As well, at the time all sorts of rumors were spread around about weird and strange religious rituals involving infant sacrifices.

Because Lindy never fit the profile of a woman who would kill her baby daughter, many people later fought to prove her innocence. Four years later Lindy was released and two years after that given a full pardon.

Perhaps it is this sad experience in Australia's legal history that makes 92 percent of Australians believe Schapelle Corby is innocent.

Her defense team claimed that someone else, particularly Australian airport luggage handlers, could have put the drugs in her bag in an attempt to transport them interstate. This makes a lot more sense than the prosecution's case. Any foreigner who has ever walked down the streets or on the beaches of Bali will confirm that there is no shortage of locals trying to sell them marijuana, at much cheaper prices than it sells for in Australia.

The Northern Territory legal system lost a lot of credibility by convicting Lindy Chamberlain and for many years both tourism and investment suffered badly. Bali is still recovering from the bombing that killed almost 100 innocent Australians. Sentencing Schapelle Corby to a long jail sentence on the flimsy evidence presented to date will cause huge damage to the reputation of Bali and Indonesia, as what happened to her could happen to anybody.

Almost all of the foreigners I know investing and working in Indonesia think President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his team are doing a great job of rebuilding Indonesia's reputation, with the result that investment and tourism dollars are starting to come back in again. It would be a pity to see that effort set back by an unjust decision in Bali.

KEN DAY Jakarta