Corby spends final tearful hours with parents before verdict

DENPASAR, Bali - Schapelle Corby was granted two tearful hours with her mother and father on the eve of her judgment day, amid fears she won't be able to cope with a possible guilty verdict and long jail sentence.

Meanwhile, Bali police have responded to safety fears by pledging tight security around the island's main courthouse today when a three-judge panel hands down its verdict in Corby's drug smuggling trial.

Corby's mother Rosleigh Rose and her terminally ill father Michael Corby emerged stony-faced from a visit to their daughter in Bali's Kerobokan prison yesterday, pushing past waiting media.

When asked how her daughter was, Rose replied only: "Very stressed".

Later Rose issued a last appeal, telling reporters: "Let my daughter come home -- she's innocent, you know that."

Officially, Corby's defence team says it is expecting an acquittal on charges she tried to smuggle 4.1kg of marijuana into Denpasar Airport last October.

However, there is no escaping the sense of gloom that seems to have come over the lawyers in the past few days.

Defence lawyer Lily Lubis voiced fears about what would happen if Corby was convicted and jailed.

"She won't survive, she won't survive," she said.

"God, please no, because she is innocent."

Defence lawyer Erwin Siregar said if the judges' verdict was guilty: "We will not wait one day to appeal. Not one day, not one week."

Corby's financial backer Ron Bakir said little after visiting Corby separately yesterday.

Asked whether he thought the 27-year-old Gold Coast woman would be able to cope with a lengthy prison term, he said: "I don't think so."

In contrast, Indonesian prosecutors appear confident of securing a conviction.

They hope the judges will follow their recommendation that Corby be sentenced to life in prison although, on paper at least, the charges could still attract the death penalty.

"Let's just wait until the verdict," said a smiling junior prosecutor, Siti Sawiyah.

The trial's chief judge, Linton Sirait, claims to have never acquitted a drug case during his career of more than 500 criminal trials.

He has appeared unmoved by Corby's emotion-charged pleas of innocence.

Sirait said the Corby decision would be handed down on schedule from 9am local time (1.00pm NZT), with the three judges set to read a lengthy statement before announcing their verdict.

He said the court had conducted a fair and honest trial according to Indonesian legal standards and he was unconcerned by the controversy it has stirred in Australia.

He has also not reacted to Corby's request that Prime Minister John Howard and Indonesian President Bambang Yudhoyono intercede to save her.

The judge has expressed surprise at the saturation coverage of Corby's trial by the Australian media.

"Why are you all here?" he said. "Why are you making it into a big deal? "

Sirait said he was certain police would maintain security at court and that the verdict hearing would proceed smoothly.

Corby is said to be worried that an extremist might try to attack her at the hearing.

Bakir also voiced concerns about security, telling Network Ten: "If something does happen to the girl tomorrow no one would ever live with themselves."

Bali police spokesman A S Reniban said more than 100 officers would guard the court complex while members of the elite mobile brigade, sometimes used to quell rioting and unrest, would be on stand-by nearby.
Everyone attending, including Corby's family as well as supporters and Australian tourists, will pass through a metal detector, while there will also be weapon searches.

To maintain the dignity of the proceedings, to be televised live in Australia, there will be a ban on shorts and flimsy clothing. All mobile phones must be switched off.

"It will be safe. There will be nothing to worry about," said Reniban. "It is our duty to guard her."

Eight months of hell

2004 October 8 - Schapelle Corby is arrested at Denpasar Airport after a flight from Brisbane, via Sydney, to Bali. She is with two female friends and her younger brother. Customs officers find 4.1kg of marijuana in her boogie board bag. Corby says the drugs were planted.
October 13 - Corby protests her innocence as she is paraded in front of reporters at Bali police headquarters.
November 4 - Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says Australia would plead for Corby's life if she received the death penalty.
2005 February 24 - Paid by Gold Coast mobile phone entrepreneur Ron Bakir, an Australian legal team flies to Bali to help defend Corby.
March 4 - Prime Minister John Howard sympathises with Corby whether guilty or not.
April 14 - Corby collapses in court. Defence lawyers blame stress.
April 21 - Prosecution drops death penalty demand, instead calls for life in prison.
April 29 - John Patrick Ford, a Victorian prisoner, is flown to Bali under escort and testifies that he heard inmates in his cell laughing about how a stash of marijuana being smuggled by Australian airport baggage handlers went astray.
May 6 - Ford's ex-wife says he was stabbed in prison.
May 8 - Bali drug squad chief Colonel Bambang Sugiarto admits to gaps in the prosecution case, including a lack of fingerprinting and video footage of the arrest.
May 10 - Sydney airport baggage handlers accused of being key figures in a A$15 million cocaine-smuggling syndicate. Operation Mocha leads to the arrest of 15 people, but police commissioner Mick Keelty says there was no connection with the Corby case.
May 12 - Court hears Corby's boogie board bag was processed at Sydney Airport's international terminal on the same day a Qantas baggage handler allegedly smuggled 10kg of cocaine out of the airport from another plane.
May 12 - Indonesian judges retire to consider their verdict. They decline to hear new evidence about possible links between Corby's case and allegations of drug smuggling by Australian airport baggage handlers. They allow Corby's lawyers to provide a written submission.
May 16 - Judges receive letter from Australian Government outlining airport drug-smuggling allegations. Corby's lawyers say it's not enough.
May 22 - Corby calls on Indonesian President Bambang Susilo Yudhoyono to free her.
May 25 - Australian Government says it is considering a one-off prisoner exchange deal for Corby.

Today

Judges expected to hand down their verdict.

For and against

A carefree girl next door who enjoyed fashion, music and surfing. Now wrongfully accused, incarcerated, liberty torn from her.
- Schapelle Corby defence website.

I cannot admit to a crime I did not commit.
- Corby to Denpasar District Court.

When I opened [the bag] a bit she said, "No." I asked, "Why?" and she said, "I have some", and looked confused.
- Testimony by Denpasar Airport customs officer I. Gusti Nyoman Winata about discovery of marijuana in Corby's boogie board bag.

My life at the moment is in your hands. But I would prefer that my life was in your heart ... Saya tidak bersalah [I am not guilty].
- Corby's personal plea to the judges.

Every inmate would say, "I'm not guilty."
- Chief Judge Linton Sirait on Corby's emotional pleas of innocence.

This is the end of my life.
- Corby after prosecutors dropped their demand for the death penalty in favour of life imprisonment.

Mr Howard, as a father and as a leader, I plead for your help. I did not do this. I beg for justice.
- Corby's plea to Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

I feel for this girl very much. I know many Australians do as well. I can't interfere in any way with the justice system of Indonesia any more than I can interfere with the justice system of Australia, and I shouldn't.
- Howard.

The photographs of Schapelle Corby broke my heart. We just gave Indonesia how many hundreds of millions of dollars in tsunami relief? We're not disrespecting [Indonesia's] laws or anything, but in our minds we think there is a massive doubt here.
- Russell Crowe calling on Howard to act on Corby's behalf.

We state that the defendant, Schapelle Corby, is legally and convincingly guilty for having committed crimes ... importing narcotics.
- Prosecutor Ida Bagus Wiswantanu.

If Schapelle Corby is not released immediately, you will all receive one of these bullets in the brain."
- Death threat letter to Indonesian consulate staff in Perth, accompanied by two bullets.

Corby has been getting all this attention because she is young, white, pretty and has big boobs.
- Melbourne radio commentator Derryn Hinch.

There are tens of thousands of people who travel to Bali each and every year. The evidence and the intelligence of interference with those bags or drugs suddenly arriving in Bali just doesn't exist.
- Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty.

- AAP