Alleged Aussie drug smuggler claims Indonesian customs lying

JAKARTA - Lawyers for an Australian woman facing the death penalty for allegedly attempting to smuggle drugs into Bali have accused Indonesian customs officers of lying to prosecutors ahead of her trial.

Gold Coast beauty school student Schapelle Corby will appear in court for the first time in Denpasar tomorrow.

Customs officers at Bali's Ngurah Rai airport claim they found a plastic zip-lock bag containing 4.1kg of cannabis leaf and heads in her unlocked boogie-board bag.

Corby, 27, has consistently maintained her innocence, claiming somebody must have planted the stash in her luggage between Brisbane and Denpasar airports before her arrest in October.

But according to the police indictment, Indonesian prosecutors will tell the court Corby admitted owning the marijuana and refused to open the bag when customs officers at an X-ray machine identified a suspicious package inside.

"After unpacking the boogie board bag contents, there was a large plastic bag containing dried flowers which, after questioning, the defendant said was her marijuana," the indictment said.

One of Corby's legal team, Vasu Rasiah, said the prosecution case was a fabrication based on false claims by customs officers.

"That's a lie. That's only according to customs," he told AAP.

"That's not according to Schapelle Corby or other witnesses, and not even once had Schapelle Corby admitted anything.

"It's their words and there are no witnesses to it, none."

Police and prosecutors have warned they will seek for the maximum penalty of death by firing squad if Corby is convicted.

Most legal experts believe a heavy jail sentence is more likely.

Rasiah said the defence team would call witnesses who saw Corby co-operate with customs officers and place the boogie-board bag on a table before opening it.

"She took the bag, put it on the table and opened it directly. She was shocked," he said.

"She knew it was marijuana, but she didn't own it."

Corby has been awaiting trial in the notorious Kerobokan prison, which houses several of the Bali bombers, including the so-called smiling assassin Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, Mukhlas and mastermind Imam Samudra.

- AAP