Corby witnesses may get immunity

14:20 AEST Tue Jul 5 2005

The federal government on Tuesday raised the possibility of granting immunity to anyone who admits they put drugs in Schapelle Corby's luggage.

Bali's High Court has agreed to hear new evidence backing the former Queensland beauty student' claims she did not know anything about 4.1kg of marijuana found in her luggage at Bali airport last October.

Corby's lawyers want at least a dozen witnesses to appear including Australian prisoners and Qantas baggage handlers and check-in staff.

Australian Justice Minister Chris Ellison described the re-opening of the case as a "significant development".

"Under the mutual assistance legislation and the agreement we have in place, there are provisions for immunity but that would need to be negotiated."

Senator Ellison rejected criticisms by Corby's lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea that the Australian government had not done enough to help his client.

He said the government's willingness to fly Australian prisoner John Ford to Bali to give evidence was an example of the help it had already provided.

Ford told the court he had overhead a jail conversation about Corby being used as an unwitting drug mule for a gang.

Senator Ellison said Australian Federal Police were now searching for two Australian prisoners that were mentioned by Ford during Corby's initial trial and who are wanted by Corby's lawyers to give evidence and that he had written to Qantas and Brisbane and Sydney airports passing on requests from Corby's lawyers in relation to the witnesses they are seeking to have come forward.

In May, Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon said he could not rule out a link between corrupt baggage handlers implicated in a cocaine smuggling racket and claims by Corby that handlers had planted drugs in her luggage.

Senator Ellison said Qantas did provide the names of some of the baggage handlers to Corby's lawyers and there was a meeting in March regarding the information.

He said Qantas recently indicated it was willing to speak directly to Corby's lawyers again.

Meanwhile, Corby's Indonesian lawyer says the success of the reopened drug trafficking trial will hinge on the cooperation of the Australian government.

Mr. Hutapea said he needed to present to the reopened trial the evidence of a customs officer but the federal government refused to forward the person's name.

Corby and her lawyers have repeatedly insisted she was the unwitting courier for a drug smuggling gang using Australia's airports and corrupt baggage handlers to shift drugs between Brisbane and Sydney using unlocked passenger luggage.

"I write three letters to Senator Chris Ellison the ministry of justice - he says that I have to do it by myself, he doesn't even give me the name - what's so difficult to give the name?"

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said that to provide the names of commonwealth employees to third parties on the basis of speculation would be unlawful.

"We will advise any staff who believes they have information and who are prepared to voluntarily give that information to the team to do so but we can't provide names in relation to people who work for particular organisations on a speculative basis, it would be in breach of our privacy laws and whatever we do has to be lawful."

But Mr. Hutapea rejected that rationale, saying he was not asking for the name of a guilty party but the shift supervisor on duty at the time Corby's luggage passed through the Australian airports.

"As a lawyer .. I don't really accept this because the question is - I only ask one - who is the official who is on duty at the time, it is nothing to do with privacy. It's just asking whether he's doing his job properly at the time. That's all."

Mr. Ruddock also said the Australian Federal Police had investigated comments made by prisoner John Ford, who claimed he overheard a jail cell conversation about Corby being an unsuspecting "mule" used by a drug smuggling gang.

"They were not in a position to charge any person in relation to a drug-related offence in Australia as a result of what he (Ford) had to say, we have cooperated fully in relation to what we can do," he said.

Earlier, the Brisbane Airport Corporation (BAC) doubted it can produce evidence to help in the appeal.

The BAC has pledged to fully cooperate with Corby's lawyers following the Bali High Court's decision to allow new witnesses to testify that she was an unwitting drug courier.

Justice and Customs Minister Chris Ellison said he had written to the BAC, Sydney Airport and Qantas about a request from Corby's legal team to boost her appeal.

BAC corporate relations manager Jim Carden said the corporation would be as cooperative as possible.