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Corby team ready to file final appeal
July 26, 2006

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.

Her lawyers, Erwin Siregar and Haposan Sihombing, visited her at Bali's Kerobokan Prison today and got her approval for a 20-page dossier to be presented to the court.

"I think by next week we will already submit our extraordinary appeal to the district court in Denpasar to be sent to the Supreme Court," Mr Siregar said.

He also plans to send a letter to Justice Minister Chris Ellison requesting a detailed information about events at Australian airports the day Corby was arrested two years ago.

Corby has long said that the 4.1 kilograms of marijuana found in her boogie board bag at Bali Airport had been planted there by baggage handlers involved in moving drugs around in Australia.

"When Corby was arrested ... so many drugs were being smuggled in Australia. So I'd like to have all the document from Mr Ellison," Mr Siregar said after the meeting with Corby.

He said that he would wait for the minister to reply with the information and will attach it in the dossier.

"It is not impossible that, maybe, what was inside Corby's bag was the doing of the same syndicate that smuggled drugs on her day of her departure. So [his reply] is very important," Mr Siregar said.

The law regulates that there are three grounds for judicial review appeal: new evidence, disparity of the decision made by judges at one of the courts and negligence by the judges.

Mr Siregar was vague when asked about what arguments he would make to the Supreme Court.

"In general, people usually say the main point to make for an extraordinary appeal is new evidence, but I don't agree with that. There are other reasons to make appeal," he said.

Mr Siregar said one point he would raise would be the refusal by Corby's trial judges to hold a teleconference to her testimony from witnesses in Australia.

"We asked many times for the judges to hold a teleconference, but nothing happened," he said.

He cited as a precedent the use of a teleconference with a witness in Germany in the recent corruption trial of a high-profile Indonesian politician Akbar Tandjung.

Mr Siregar said if the Supreme Court judges agreed, he would be ready to present an Australian witness via a teleconference "who knows the drugs doesn't belong to Schapelle".

Meanwhile, he said that Corby had not pinned any hopes on a recent agreement between Australia and Indonesia to set up a prisoner exchange program.

"To be frank, Schapelle is not interested, because she said she is innocent, and to agree on an exchange program means she will have to admit that she is guilty," he said.

Meanwhile, Corby's mother Rosleigh Rose was to return to Australia today from Bali where she contracted dengue fever.

Schapelle Corby Case Information

AAP

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