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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- It's a case that an Australian official compares to the Michael Jackson affair for its sensationalism.

The sister of the accused has lashed out at the media, and the defendant herself fainted once outside the courtroom.

Inside the courtroom, an emerging pattern has left the judges frustrated.

Such is the ordeal of 27-year-old Schapelle Corby, an Australian beauty-school student arrested last October on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.

Customs officials at the airport discovered a 9-pound bag of high-grade marijuana in her luggage.

Corby has always maintained it was planted there, after she checked her bag through in Sydney.

"I swear, by God as my witness, I did not know that marijuana was in my bag," Corby says.

But Corby is facing three judges and an Indonesian justice system determined to crack down on drug-trafficking.

Several death sentences have been handed down to foreign nationals in recent years.

Prosecutors have asked for a life sentence for Corby, but the judges could still sentence her to death by firing squad if they convict.

"Please look to your God for guidance in your judgment for me," Corby says.

As she pleads for her life, Corby seems to have a keen sense of how this case is playing back home.

An Australian official tells CNN that this story is dominant news every day, with popular sentiment favoring Corby's side.

Movie star Russell Crowe has joined the fray, telling an Australian radio program the government must apply more pressure.

"How we can as a country, stand by and let a young lady -- as an Australian -- rot away in a foreign prison? That is ridiculous," Crowe said on "The John Laws Morning Show."

Australian officials say the government will seek clemency if a death sentence is imposed -- but for now, this is a matter for the Indonesian courts, where a young lady appeals for compassion.

"I believe the seven months I've already been in prison is sufficient punishment for not putting locks on my bag. ... I don't know how long I can survive in here," Corby says.

At least one judge seems to have heard enough.

"I'm already 75-percent decided, but I can't tell you our conclusion," the judge says.

That conclusion could come any day now when the judges announce their verdict and sentence.

In the meantime, Australian officials say they're discussing the idea of a prisoner-transfer agreement with Indonesia -- opening the possibility that if Corby is convicted, she could serve her sentence at home.

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Muted response by Canberra as Australian woman faces death penalty in Indonesia

By Richard Phillips
6 April 2005

In early October last year, Schapelle Corby, a 27-year-old Australian beauty-school student, was arrested at Bali���?�s Denpasar airport after 4.1 kilograms of marijuana were found by Indonesian customs in her body-board surfing bag. Under Indonesian law, the penalty for marijuana dealing is the same as for heroin dealing.

Corby was charged with drug trafficking and faces execution by a 12-man firing squad if the court finds her guilty. If she is convicted on the lesser charge of importing the marijuana for her own personal use, she faces a 20-year jail sentence and $150,000 fine. A three-judge court heard the final arguments in the defence case last week and is expected to hand down its verdict in May.

From the outset, Corby, who has no criminal record or any history of drug abuse, has denied any knowledge of the drug, arguing that it must have been planted in the unlocked bag. She had travelled from Australia with her 17-year-old half-brother and two friends and planned to holiday with her sister Mercedes, who is married with two children. Mercedes and her Balinese husband have been on an extended visit to the popular tourist island.

The Corby case raises a number of basic legal and political questions, not the least of which is the muted response of the Howard government to the plight of an Australian citizen. Government assistance to the young woman has been minimal, with any help provided only after growing public alarm over Corby���?�s treatment.

Denpasar public prosecutor Wiswantanu has demanded the young woman���?�s execution. He has successfully prosecuted six foreigners for importing drugs, one of whom received the death penalty. Wiswantanu told the court that the only way he would accept Corby���?�s innocence was if the defence could prove that the drugs were not in her body-board bag when it was checked in at Brisbane airport, or provide visual evidence of someone placing them there. It is extremely difficult for Corby���?�s lawyers to provide such evidence.

No motive

Notwithstanding the lack of important evidence, the most obvious question the prosecution must answer is: why would Corby, or anyone else for that matter, smuggle 4.1 kilograms of marijuana from Australia into Bali? Although the drug is illegal in Indonesia, it can be easily procured and is far cheaper than in Australia. It is well known that marijuana is generally smuggled out of Bali.

Even if Corby were trafficking the drug, as claimed by the prosecution, what would be the point of bringing it to Bali? To purchase more than four kilograms of marijuana in Australia at the current wholesale price would cost approximately $36,000. Anyone smuggling this quantity into Bali would be risking his or her life for a tiny fraction of the purchase price.

Moreover, as family and friends have explained, Corby was a student, worked long hours to pay for her Bali holiday and had no access to the sort of money required to purchase four kilograms of marijuana in Australia.

No serious attempt was made to hide or disguise the marijuana from Indonesian customs officials. It had been placed inside a large transparent plastic bag, about the size of a pillow, in Corby���?�s unlocked body-board bag and at the front, close to the zipper. Indonesian customs officials said the drugs had an overpowering smell.

If Corby had been attempting to smuggle the drug, one would assume she would have, at the very least, locked the bag and made some attempt to hide it more effectively, including sealing off its pungent odour.

Immediate requests by Corby and her travelling companions for the plastic bag to be fingerprinted were ignored by Indonesian customs officials and police, who claimed that it was â�?��?too lateâ�?� because too many people had touched the bags.

While none of the customs officials wore gloves when they handled the evidence, Corby���?�s lawyers insisted that only the external plastic bag was contaminated. The inner bag, which contained the drugs, had not been removed from the outer bag and only the bottom of it had been handled.

Immediate and repeated requests by Corby and her lawyers for fingerprinting of the inner bag, however, were ignored and on February 3 it was brought into the court and handled by a range of individuals, including a testifying customs officer, the prosecutor, and one of the judges.

Corby���?�s lawyers also asked the Australian Federal Police (AFP) to carry out forensic testing of the marijuana and plastic bags, in a bid to determine their origins. When official AFP requests for access were rejected by the Indonesian police, neither the AFP, nor the Howard government, issued a protest.

Because of this extraordinary lack of assistance in compiling basic evidence, Corby���?�s main defence has rested on attempts to establish that Australian traffickers planted the marijuana in her bag.

Bruce Griffin, a former New South Wales drug squad detective, has testified that some local drug traffickers with airport contacts use the luggage of innocent travelers to move drug shipments between Australian cities. In Corby���?�s case, the marijuana was somehow not removed in Sydney and, instead, mistakenly transported to Bali. Within Australia, there are no inspections of bags or vehicles used by airport personnel with access to Aviation Security Identification Cards.

Last week, John Foster, an Australian remand prisoner, was allowed to travel under escort to Bali to testify in Corby���?�s defence. He told the court that while awaiting trial in Australia he overheard two prisoners discussing how the marijuana shipment of another criminal had been placed in Corby���?�s bag but mistakenly not removed when it reached Sydney. Although Foster named the individual involved, his evidence is hearsay and unlikely to carry much weight in the Bali court.

Death penalty calls Together with the problems created by the lack of concrete evidence and highly irregular methods used by the Indonesian police and customs, the Indonesian media is attempting to whip up sections of the population against Corby. There are ongoing calls for her execution, and some of the local media have taken to referring to her as the â�?��?Ganja Queenâ�?�.

In February this year, members of GRANAT, an anti-narcotics group, burst into Corbyâ�?��?�s trial carrying placards and chanting slogans demanding her execution. One protestor shouted: â�?��?There is already one person executed in Bali for 2kg of marijuana. I donâ�?��?�t want to see Corby go free for bringing 4.1kg.â�?�

Indonesian police have called for the death penalty and told the local media that they want Corby to be a public example. â�?��?Itâ�?��?�s a drug case and it must be the toughest so that it will intimidate others who try to copy her,â�?� said police chief Colonel Sugiarto.

While the death penalty has existed in Indonesia since independence was established in the late 1940s, drug crimes were not punishable with execution until 1997. Currently there are 54 people on Indonesia���?�s death row, 31 convicted on drugs charges and 20 of these are foreigners.

Agitation for the execution of drug dealers and traffickers has intensified in the past decade, with Islamic leaders and prominent politicians in the forefront. In 2002, President Megawati Sukarnoputri stated: â�?��?For those who distribute drugs, life sentences and other prison sentences are no longer sufficient. No sentence is sufficient other than the death sentence.â�?�

Last year, a presidential election year, three foreign drug offenders���?�an Indian and two Thais���?�were put to death by firing squad, the first executions of any kind in Indonesia for three years.

In a blatant violation of their democratic rights, the accused were barred access to interpreters and lawyers during the police investigation that preceded the trial. The Indian prisoner was denied a final request that his family be allowed to visit before he was executed and his lawyers were not informed of his death until after it had taken place.

Another eight people found guilty of drug trafficking face execution. Megawati Sukarnoputri rejected their clemency appeals last June and July.

Current Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is presently visiting Australia, made clear during a presidential election debate last year that, if he were elected, there would be no change in Indonesiaâ�?��?�s execution policies. The death penalty for drug dealers, he declared, â�?��?is justice which must be enforcedâ�?�. This, he claimed, was necessary â�?��?to give deterrent effects to the perpetratorsâ�?�.

Diplomatic maneouvres

Canberra, with some media support, maintains that it has been assisting Corby and her lawyers. Justice Minister Chris Ellison declared last weekend that the government â�?��?will go into overdriveâ�?� if she is sentenced to death.

The reality is, however, that the Howard government has refused to condemn the serious irregularities in the police investigation, the show-trial nature of the court proceedings, or uttered a word of protest against Indonesia���?�s repressive drug laws and death penalty. This is in line with Prime Minister Howard���?�s new-found friendship with Yudhoyono, which is aimed at further cementing Australian capitalism���?�s economic and strategic interests in the Indonesian archipelago.

In a brief interview with a Sydney radio station early last month, Howard said he had â�?��?some concernsâ�?� about â�?��?aspectsâ�?� of the trial but did not elaborate. Instead, he declared that his government was â�?��?aware of its obligations and weâ�?��?�ll continue to follow the case to the extent that we can, consistent with the right of Indonesia to run its justice systemâ�?�.

Claims that the Howard government cannot speak out about Indonesia���?�s legal system are bogus and thoroughly hypocritical. Following the Bali bombing, Washington and Canberra pressed the Indonesian government for the arrest of Islamic fundamentalist Abu Bakir Bashir, even before a criminal investigation had begun.

Bashir was eventually charged and found guilty, not over the Bali bombing, but immigration irregularities and a conspiracy to assassinate President Megawati Sukarnoputri. After being released, he was rearrested, again on the urging of the US and Australia, and charged with involvement in the terror bombing of Bali and the Marriott Hotel. On the basis of flimsy evidence, he was sentenced to three years imprisonment for conspiracy over the Bali attack.

In that case, the Howard government did not hesitate to voice its disapproval of the courtâ�?��?�s verdict. Foreign Minister Downer even directed the Australian ambassador to tell Indonesian officials that the sentence was too light. Labor leader Kim Beazley declared that Bashir should spend the rest of â�?��?his miserable life in jailâ�?�.

In other words, whatever the trial verdict and sentencing outcome, the Howard government, while nervous about the outcome of Corby���?�s case, is determined that nothing should upset its diplomatic manoeuvres with the Indonesian regime.

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I think she's innocent. It's sad that this woman will most likely be executed for a crime she had no part in.

Originally posted by todras:

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For some flippin' pot!? I'm not a fan of any drug but death over some pot. This sounds like a true to life version of Broke Down Palace.

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Originally posted by RTStabler51:

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SE Asia doesn't mess around typically with crimes. Sometimes, ok alot of the times, I wish our criminal justice system was as harsh as theres, I think people would think twice about doing things then...

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Originally posted by todras:

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Originally posted by RTStabler51:

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SE Asia doesn't mess around typically with crimes. Sometimes, ok alot of the times, I wish our criminal justice system was as harsh as theres, I think people would think twice about doing things then...

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I agree but it seems like the the evidence is in her favor. They weren't willing to figerprint the damn bag! Sounds like if they find drugs thay just kill the ppl involved w/o going through a proper trial. Who smuggles 36k in pot in a board bag w/o really trying to conceal it?

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Originally posted by PackRat:

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We need to execute drug dealers and traffickers.

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