Sentences reduced ... drug traffickers Schapelle Corby and Renae Lawrence (inset) have each had one month cut from their jail terms by the Indonesian Government to mark Christmas / Reuters

THE families of convicted Australian drug traffickers Schapelle Corby and Renae Lawrence have welcomed a one-month cut to each of their jail terms but say they wish it could be more.

Corby and Lawrence are both serving 20-year sentences at Indonesia's Kerkobokan prison where today the Ministry of Human Rights and Justice decrees announcing the remissions were stuck on the walls.

Corby was jailed for smuggling 4.1kg of cannabis into Bali while Lawrence was sentenced for trying to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin to Australia.

Prison governor Ilham Djaya said they both deserved the one-month remission because they had behaved well and as prisoners, it was their right.

Lawrence's mother, Beverley Waterman, said any remission was "greatly accepted, but obviously I'm hoping that she gets a lot more of them."

She said she had spoken to her daughter who was in "pretty good spirits".

"It's very sad (to not have her home for Christmas)," Ms Waterman said.

"Obviously, she's very sad as well but we just make the best of the situation."

Lawrence is the only member of the Bali Nine to get remission. Her fellow drug smugglers are not eligible because they are serving life terms or are sentenced to death.

Schapelle Corby's family in Queensland echoed the sentiments of Ms Waterman.

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Schapelle Corby's sentence cut

Bali pair have sentences cut

District court judges involved in the case of convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby will urge Indonesia's Supreme Court to reject her request for a judicial review.

Corby applied to the supreme court in August for the review. She has exhausted all other legal avenues to have her 20-year jail term for trafficking 4.1kg of marijuana into Bali overturned.

If the court rejects her bid for a judicial review, the only other avenue open to her is a plea for clemency to Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

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DENPASAR, Bali: An Indonesian prosecutor denied on Wednesday that the drug smuggling conviction of an Australian beautician was flawed because there was no fingerprint evidence tying her to the marijuana found in her bag.

Lawyers for Schapelle Corby have lodged a final appeal against her 20-year jail sentence for smuggling 4.1 kg of marijuana into Bali in a high-profile case that has transfixed Australia.

Corby has said the drugs found in her bodyboard bag at Bali's international airport were placed there by someone at an Australian airport.

"There was no need to fingerprint the evidence (the bag of marijuana) because it was evident that it was in the bag belonging to the convict," Prosecutor Suhadi said in a written submission to the Denpasar district court trying the appeal case.

"What has been submitted by the plaintiff was not an argument based on law but merely a conclusion because the plaintiff was unable to present evidence that could prove that the bodyboard bag in which 4.1 kg of marijuana was found did not belong to the convict," he said as quoted by Reuters.

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If a small sample of the drugs in this case could be set aside for lab tests, why wasn't a sample of the marijuana preserved in Schapelle's case?

Lawyers of a woman alleged to be a member of an international drug syndicate said Monday they would report to the police that drugs to be used as evidence in the woman's trial had been tampered with.

Fieter Tarigan, one of the lawyers, said they believed that two packages of crystal methamphetamine had been switched with rock sugar.

Jeanne Wijaya, 24, is on trial at the North Jakarta District Court in connection to the smuggling of 200 kilograms of the drug into Indonesia in February, thought to be the work of a drug syndicate operating out of Hong Kong.

Of the 200 kilos, five were set aside to be used as evidence in the case, while another 11 kilos are still being looked at in the National Narcotics Agency (BNN)'s laboratory.

Fieter said he had suspected something was wrong while at court last Monday.

"The evidence was brought to the court table. Two of the opened samples had no smell and were dull white and tasted sweet," he said.

The lawyer said he asked the panel of judges for the evidence to be re-examined.

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Channel 7 [Australia TV] video aired on Australian weekend television - an australian pensioner, Marguerite Breach, arrived from Singapore to Melbourne airport only to find her luggage tampered with. Her baggage locks were broken off, the tape she wrapped around her bag cut open and the ocky straps she wrapped around her bag were missing. This all happened when she went to get her bag from the carousel at the Australian airport. She took it to customs and said that someone had tampered with her bag. The Australian customs officer scanned the bag and found traces of ecstasy. Marguerite Breach faced the prospect of jail if she couldn't prove her innocence. She requested the CCTV footage to support her claim of innocence. She begged the customs to accept her claim because after all, she could have just walked from the airport and never reported the incident.

Marguerite Breach agonised over the next two weeks thinking what her fate could have been if she had opted to stop over for the night in Singapore as she had contemplated. Marguerite Breach obvsiously now identifies with Schapelle Corby's plight and believes Schapelle is innocent.

Marguerite Breach is one courageous and one very lucky woman.
Copyright Channel 7 Sunrise program

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Indonesia has reduced the sentences of two high-profile Western prisoners to mark its independence day.

Both convicted Australian drug smuggler Schapelle Corby and Bali Nine member Renae Lawrence have had their sentences cut, but by only months.

Corby, who is serving a 20-year sentence for smuggling marijuana, will receive a two-month reduction.

Renae Lawrence, also serving 20 years for being part of an attempt to smuggle heroin to Australia, will have one month cut from her sentence.

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Schapelle Corby's legal team is ready to pitch a final appeal bid to the Indonesian Supreme Court against her drug smuggling conviction and 20-year prison sentence.