January 30, 2006
The family of convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby has fired
lawyers acting for her half brother in Queensland.
Solicitor Mark Howden of Howden Saggers Lawyers on Monday said
the firm was no longer representing Corby's half brother James
Sioeli Kisina, 18, of Loganlea, south of Brisbane, but would not
elaborate.
Kisina faced court earlier this month over his alleged
involvement in a violent home invasion during which a couple was
attacked with an iron bar and menaced with a machete before a large
quantity of cannabis and cash was stolen.
Police alleged the stolen drugs and money were later found at
the Loganlea home of his and Corby's mother Rosleigh Rose.
Mr Howden confirmed he had been sacked by the Corby family but
would not elaborate.
"That's right, we are no longer acting for him," Mr Howden
said.
"I can't make any further comment."
Kisina also rejected police allegations, outlined in an
affidavit, that he was involved in the exportation of cannabis.
His former lawyer Stefan Simms, also of Howden Saggers Lawyers,
said Kisina was not motivated by crime when he allegedly broke into
the Rochedale house, south of Brisbane.
He said Kisina had learned the property's occupants were
allegedly well known drug dealers and could have information
helpful to Corby's bid to have her drug smuggling conviction in
Bali quashed.
Kisina is due to face the Beenleigh Magistrates Court again on
March 8.
Corby is serving a 20-year jail term in Indonesia for smuggling
4.1kg of marijuana into Bali.
The 28-year-old Queensland woman was arrested on October 8,
2004, when customs officers at Bali's airport found the marijuana
in her bodyboard bag after she stepped off a flight from Australia,
accompanied by Kisina.
Schapelle Corby Homepage
SCHAPELLE Corby's diamond-wearing, gun-toting Jakarta lawyer has quit her no-fee case, saying he needs to make quick cash to buy a fast new Ferrari.
