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Schapelle Leigh Corby

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Arrest

On 8 October 2004, Corby, her brother and two friends flew from Brisbane to Bali transiting in Sydney. It was her first visit to Bali in four years, having several previous stopovers between Australia and Japan to visit her sister, Mercedes.

Passing through customs upon her arrival at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar, Corby was apprehended by customs officers. She was found to have 4.2 kg (9.3 lb) of cannabis in a double plastic vacuum-sealed plastic in her unlocked body board bag. Customs officer Gusti Nyoman Winata said that she tried to prevent him from opening the compartment of the bag containing the cannabis. Corby denied this during the trial, saying she originally opened the bag after being asked by Winata whose bag it was. Corby said she and the customs official had difficulty understanding each other. No CCTV footage of this interaction was retrieved or preserved.

The four bags belonging to Corby and her companions were not weighed individually at Brisbane Airport, with a total weight of 65 kg being taken instead. The Bali police and customs did not record the weight of the bags, despite requests from Corby for them to do so. Corby stated that she had no knowledge of the drugs until the body board bag was opened by customs officers.

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Alleged involvement of baggage handlers

Corby's legal defence suggested that airport baggage handlers had put the drugs in Corby's bag, but they could not provide substantive probative evidence of this. In a June 2008 documentary, Schapelle Corby: The Hidden Truth, Corby's former lawyer, Robin Tampoe, said that he fabricated the defence theory that Australian baggage handlers could have planted the drugs in Corby's luggage and that former Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer told him he suspected Corby's brothers were behind the convicted drug smuggler's crime.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Corby flew out of Sydney on the same day (8 October 2004) as a large shipment of cocaine was shipped out of the airport by a drug ring involving corrupt baggage handlers. During the week of 9 May 2005, several arrests occurred in Australia related to cocaine smuggling through Sydney airport. Her defence claimed that the cannabis was planted in her bag by mistake by baggage handlers. However, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) commissioner, Mick Keelty, stated that a key aspect of her defence was not supported by the available intelligence and that the cocaine-smuggling ring which had been discovered involved the reception of shipments of drugs from overseas, not the transportation of drugs domestically.

CCTV cameras at the Bali airport could not corroborate or contradict Corby's account of what happened in customs. The prosecutor said the tapes were not checked. The defence requested to see them. Corby's mother claims that Corby requested the CCTV footage be shown in court, to which the judge replied, "We will use that if we need to". Corby's mother claims the footage was never shown. According to the documentary Ganja Queen, which aired on HBO, the CCTV Cameras within the airport were not operable the day of Corby's flight.

Corby requested that her other luggage be weighed in order to establish if there was an addition of approximately 4.2 kg from the weight checked in and recorded at Brisbane Airport. The weight increase would, according to her defence, have shown that the cannabis had been added after she had checked in her luggage. However, the request was denied.

On 30 June 2011, a woman came forward who had dated a Brisbane Airport baggage handler, a colleague of whom allegedly hid a large bag of marijuana in a traveller's bag in October 2004.

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Forensic testing

The bag of cannabis was not fingerprinted by the Indonesian custom officials or police, nor analysed to determine its origin. Tim Lindsay of the University of Melbourne, an expert on Asian law, suggested that a greater focus on the weaknesses of the forensic evidence could have helped Corby's case.

The cannabis was contained in two bags, and although the outer bag had been handled by customs officers, Corby's defence argued that only the bottom of the inner bag had been contaminated. Therefore it was claimed that fingerprinting of the inner bag could be of value to the defence if it was shown not to possess Corby's fingerprints. In spite of requests to have the bag tested, including at the time of her arrest, such had not occurred by the time of Corby's second court appearance on 3 February 2005. At that court appearance the bag was handled by court officials. A formal request for fingerprinting made after the court appearance was unsuccessful. The prosecution argued that fingerprinting was unnecessary, as Corby was found with the drugs in her possession.

In 2004, Alexander Downer, the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, announced that the Australian Government would be requesting permission from Indonesia to test the cannabis and help determine its point of origin. It was argued that testing of the cannabis would have strengthened Corby's defence if it could have been shown that the drugs were grown in Indonesia, or potentially weakened it if they were grown in southern Queensland. However, shortly thereafter the Australian Consul General in Indonesia informed Corby that the AFP had no jurisdiction in the case, and in early 2005 the AFP was advised that the Bali police would not be providing a sample. Downer acknowledged that Indonesia had denied the request, but clarified that as the case was in Indonesia, it was their sovereign right to do so.

Three years later, in 2007, Vasu Rasiah, the "case co-ordinator" for Corby's defence team, appeared on Today Tonight to say that he managed to obtain a sample of the cannabis for testing prior to Corby's conviction, but that Corby did not allow the sample to be tested. This was similar to earlier claims by Mike Keelty, who in 2005 stated that Corby's legal team had advised the AFP that they did not wish to have the drugs tested when it became apparent that the results of the tests would be shared with Indonesia. In both cases these versions of events were disputed by Corby's family, who insisted that it was the Indonesian police who turned down the request, and that they wished to have the drugs examined by Australian authorities.

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Verdict and sentence

The verdict in the Corby trial was broadcast live on television in Australia and the Nine Network's television coverage was also broadcast live in New Zealand. The coverage included the 80 page trial outline, the verdict and sentencing.

On 27 May 2005, Corby was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years' jail. She was also fined 100,000,000 IDR (about A$12,663), with an additional six months if unpaid. The defence and prosecution appealed separately to the High Court with the defence appealing for a retrial and the prosecution appealing for life imprisonment.

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