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 claimed in their testimony that they had seen her pack the bag before leaving for the airport and that only the flippers and yellow bodyboard were inside it. In contrast to the testimony of the customs officials, Corby said that she opened the bag herself at the customs counter. The Australian Government offered the services of two
Queen's Counsel on a pro-bono basis.
Alleged involvement of baggage handlers 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. Her legal defence suggested that airport
baggage handlers had put the drugs in Corby's bag, but they could not provide substantive probative evidence of this. According to her lawyers, the cannabis was meant to have been removed in Sydney. These claims were 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. In a June 2008 documentary,
Schapelle Corby: The Hidden Truth, Corby's former lawyer, Robin Tampoe, said that he fabricated the defence theory that Australian baggage handlers could have planted the drugs in Corby's luggage and apologised to them, and said that former Australian foreign minister
Alexander Downer told him he suspected Corby's brothers were behind the convicted drug smuggler's crime. Tampoe was subsequently struck off for misconduct. According to
The Sydney Morning Herald, Corby flew out of Sydney on the same day (8 October 2004) a large shipment of cocaine was shipped out of the airport by a drug ring involving corrupt baggage handlers. During the week of 9 May 2005, several arrests occurred in Australia related to cocaine smuggling through Sydney airport. Her defence claimed that the cannabis was planted in her bag by mistake by baggage handlers. However, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) commissioner,
Mick Keelty, stated that a key aspect of her defence was not supported by the available intelligence and that the cocaine-smuggling ring which had been discovered involved the reception of shipments of drugs from overseas, not the transportation of drugs domestically. John Patrick Ford, a prisoner at
Port Phillip Prison who was awaiting trial and was subsequently convicted on unrelated charges, was flown to Indonesia to give evidence in Corby's defence. Ford testified that he overheard a conversation in prison between two men and alleged that one of the men planted the marijuana in Corby's bodyboard bag in Brisbane with the intention of having another person remove it in Sydney. He stated that the drugs were owned by Ron Vigenser, who had been a prisoner at the same jail as Ford. He stated that a mix-up resulted in the marijuana not being removed and subsequently being transported to Indonesia, all without Corby's knowledge. He refused to name the man who he claimed planted the drugs. The prosecution pointed out that his evidence was entirely
hearsay and that he was facing trial for several serious offences in Australia. In the Australian media, Vigenser strongly denied any connection with the drugs and reportedly gave a statement to the
Australian Federal Police. A
$A1,000,000 reward was offered for information to substantiate claims made by Ford about baggage handlers with no result. Following his return from Bali, Ford was convicted of rape. Subsequently, in prison, he was beaten and stabbed and then held in solitary protective custody. Ford's wife stated that this was a consequence of evidence he gave at Corby's trial. CCTV cameras at the Bali airport could not corroborate or contradict Corby's account of what happened in customs. The prosecutor said the tapes were not checked. The defence requested to see them. Corby's mother claims that Corby requested the CCTV footage be shown in court, to which the judge replied, "We will use that if we need to". Corby's mother claims the footage was never shown. The four bags belonging to Corby and her companions were not weighed individually at
Brisbane Airport, with a total weight of 65 kg being taken instead. The Bali police and customs did not record the weight of the bags, On 30 June 2011, a woman came forward who had dated a Brisbane Airport baggage handler, a colleague of whom allegedly hid a large bag of marijuana in a traveller's bag in October 2004.
Forensic testing Tim Lindsay of the
University of Melbourne, an expert on Asian law, suggested that a greater focus on the forensic evidence might have helped Corby's case. The bag of cannabis was neither fingerprinted by the Indonesian custom officials or police nor analysed to determine its origin. The cannabis was contained in two bags, and although the outer bag had been handled by customs officers, Corby's defence argued that only the bottom of the inner bag had been contaminated. Therefore, it was claimed that fingerprinting of the inner bag could be of value to the defence if it was shown not to possess Corby's fingerprints. In spite of requests to have the bag tested, including at the time of her arrest, such had not occurred by the time of Corby's second court appearance on 3 February 2005. At that court appearance the bag was handled by court officials. A formal request for fingerprinting made after the court appearance was unsuccessful. In 2004, Alexander Downer, the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, announced that the Australian Government would be requesting permission from Indonesia to test the cannabis and help determine its point of origin. It was argued that testing of the cannabis would have strengthened Corby's defence if it could have been shown that the drugs were grown in Indonesia, or potentially weakened it if they were grown in southern Queensland or elsewhere in Australia. Downer acknowledged that Indonesia had denied the request, but clarified that as the case was in Indonesia, it was their
sovereign right to do so. This was similar to earlier claims by Mike Keelty, who in 2005 stated that Corby's legal team had advised the AFP that they did not wish to have the drugs tested when it became apparent that the results of the tests would be shared with Indonesia. In both cases these versions of events were disputed by Corby's family, who insisted that it was the Indonesian police who turned down the request, and that they wished to have the drugs examined by Australian authorities.
Verdict and sentence The verdict in the Corby trial was broadcast live on television in Australia and the
Nine Network's television coverage was also broadcast live in
New Zealand. The coverage included the 80-page trial outline, the verdict and sentencing. On 27 May 2005, Corby was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years. She was also fined 100,000,000
IDR (about A$12,663), with an additional six months if unpaid. The defence and prosecution appealed separately to the High Court with the defence appealing for a retrial and the prosecution appealing for life imprisonment. ==Appeals and clemency==