Australians glum over Bali drugs case

Jul 5, 2005, 2:13 GMT

Sydney - The 20-year prison term an Indonesian court last month handed an Australian woman found guilty of trying to smuggle 4 kilogrammes of marijuana into Bali will be hard to erase, a Melbourne-based lawyer said Tuesday.

Melbourne University's Tim Lindsay was commenting on a surprise decision by the Bali High Court to reopen hearings in the case of 27-year-old Schapelle Corby, who was stopped with drugs in her luggage after arriving from Sydney last October.

Professor Lindsay said that the prospect of Corby's legal team finding someone to appear before the Denpasar court and claim ownership of the drugs was extremely slim.

"Why would they go there and admit to a serious criminal offence, perhaps change places with Schapelle Corby in jail?" Lindsay told national broadcaster ABC.

Corby's conviction created a furore in Australia, where most people tell pollsters they believe she is innocent.

Indonesian diplomats received death threats. Corby supporters set up anti-Indonesia websites and urged a boycott of Bali, where Australians make up a quarter of the visitors.

Canberra has given legal aid for Corby's appeal and even canvassed an "interim arrangement" for swapping prisoners that would allow her to serve her sentence at home.

Justice Minister Chris Ellison said he had written to Qantas Airways and the Sydney and Brisbane airport authorities asking them to comply with a request from Corby's lawyers that baggage handlers give evidence at the new hearings.

He also proposed video conferencing. "That could make it easier for witnesses to give evidence and they might be more inclined to do so by way of video conferencing and that's something we can explore," Ellison said.