Dear Brett, as you know, our local newspaper, The Beaudesert Times, published my "Letter to the Editor" re Schapelle Corby this week - as did (I assume), quite a few other local papers up and down the country.
Steve D'Arcy (the editor of the Beaudesert Times), rang me at home after I sent it, to express his concern over the issues.
Further, I'll also be liaising closely with The Albert & Logan News re these problems (which is located in Beenleigh).
I have some very direct and simple questions for you Brett. Please answer them ASAP. You can copy and paste each one (they're numbered), and post your response underneath. Our Federal Government has key responsibility for the safety of it's citizens abroad, so it's completely unthinkable to most reasonable Australians that you would either be unable (or unwilling), to respond to these core points . . . and if (eventually), I have to gather up my sleeping bag, candles and coffee mug, and set up camp outside your office steps to get answers, I will do so. I'll also have the local press with me. I want to make that clear from the outset.
1. Was Schapelle Corby's bag weighed in Bali, to compare that figure to it's departure weight from Brisbane? If not, why not?
2. Is it correct that the street value of the marijuna found in Schapelle's bag, was around $40,000 in Australia, but only around $5,000 in Bali?
3. Is it true that around the time of Schapelle's case, her trial judge, in trying over 500 drug cases, had never acquitted a single defendant?
4. Was the marijuana found in Corby's bag ever tested for it's country of origin?
5. Did Schapelle Corby ask for the marijuana to be tested for it's country of origin?
6. Was the marijuana in question burnt by the Indonesian authorities before it could ever be tested for it's country of origin?
7. Was the inner surface of the bag containing the marijuana, or the marijuana itself, ever tested for Schapelle Corby's finger prints or DNA?
8. Did Schapelle Corby ask for this fingerprint and DNA testing?
9. Was the bag in question burnt by the Indonesian authorities, before it could ever be screened for fingerprints and DNA?
Thankyou Brett. I'll be phoning your office before close of business on Friday 8th January 2010, to get some kind of indication of when I can some very direct answers, to these very direct and simple questions. I also suggest that you could, in the interim, take a look at this short film re these issues . . . if you're human, it should make your hair stand on. Mine did.
These are questions about a criminal case in Indonesia
ReplyDeleteFYI- your bag weight doesn't get recorded when you fly out internationally so what could they compare it to.
The Australian Government doesn't have jurisdiction to investigate criminal cases in Indonesia or any other country and vice versa. The Australian Government does have an obligation for citizens aboard- Schapelle is not the only one in that jail but if they have been convicted of crime in another country they do have to serve their time, exactly the same as if a foreign national committed a crime in Australia, unless there is a prisoner transfer program treaty with that country.
The Bali police not only failed to weigh the bag, they did not search Schapelle's companions, did not search her sister's home ( Mercedes would have been her contact had she been a real smuggler), and, incredibly, did not search the rest of Schapelle's luggage! Anything wrong here?
ReplyDeleteLack of a PTA treaty is a transparent excuse. Do you think my country (USA) has such a treaty with N. Korea? Did that stop us from bringing Laura Ling and Euna Lee home? Do you think they are serving part of their 12 year hard labor sentences in the US, because "we can't interfere with the legal system in another country?" A special arrangement can always be made.
Schapelle Corby is already an indelible part of Australian history whether your government likes it or not. There is still time left to decide exactly what mark her case will leave on that history, and on your national honor. Nellie, would you recognize that last word if I spelled it with a 'u?'
Nellie - of course your baggage gets weighed when you get on a plane. Further, the Australian Government has also "Convicted" Schapelle, because they confiscated the money from her book sales as the "Proceeds of Crime." Thus if they wish to "Convict" Schapelle in Australia too (by doing this), they damn well need to be sure that a "Crime" has been committed; thus they have a very grave responsibility to ensure that the "Case" against Schapelle, had it been conducted on Australian soil, would NOT have been thrown out, in other words, they need to ensure that it would have (also), stood the test of Australian justice. Surely that's just basic common sense? So I would suggest to you that if the Australian Government cannot answer these very BASIC questions (it's hardly rocket science), then they need a very hard boot up the backside, preferably delivered by the Australian people.
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