Trial
The prosecution case was based on the customs official's testimony that Corby said the bag was hers, and that it was found to contain 4.2 kg of cannabis. Four customs officials present when her bag was first examined in Bali said she tried to stop the bag being opened, and that she had said "I have some..."
Three of Corby's travelling companions testified that they had seen her pack the bag before leaving for the airport and that only the flippers and yellow body board were inside it. In contrast to the testimony of the custom's officials, her companions said that Corby opened the bag herself at the customs counter. Despite repeated requests from Corby's companions and lawyers, the bag was not tested for fingerprints.
Corby's lawyers argued that she had no knowledge of the cannabis until customs officials at the airport found it. Her defence centred on the theory that she had become an unwitting drug courier for what was supposed to have been an interstate shipment of drugs between Brisbane and Sydney in Australia – a claim that was later supported when the former head of operations for the Australian Federal Police's internal investigation unit, Ray Cooper, claimed that it was well known within the AFP that some passengers were unwittingly being used to transfer drugs between domestic airports in Australia. According to her lawyers, the cannabis was meant to have been removed in Sydney. Corby's former lawyer, Robin Tampoe, later said that he made up the claim about the baggage handlers and apologised to them.
The Australian Government offered the services of two Queen's Counsel on a pro-bono basis. however, the offer was rejected. The Corby family subsequently took up the offer for the High Court appeal but after more allegations of bribery by the barristers, further assistance was refused.
Read more about this topic: Schapelle Corby
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—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
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“Every political system is an accumulation of habits, customs, prejudices, and principles that have survived a long process of trial and error and of ceaseless response to changing circumstances. If the system works well on the whole, it is a lucky accident—the luckiest, indeed, that can befall a society.”
—Edward C. Banfield (b. 1916)