Corby team like a soap opera says Downer

SYDNEY - Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer has likened those involved in the Corby case to characters in a soap opera.

Two days after she sacked her entire Indonesian legal team, Schapelle Corby yesterday re-hired all but two of them.

In the latest twist to her trouble-plagued appeal, Corby has reappointed Jakarta-based celebrity lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea, respected Bali-based criminal lawyer Erwin Siregar and junior counsel Hoposan Sihonding.

Corby also has terminated any future role in her appeal by Australian academic and entrepreneur Walter Tonetto who was only hired as a strategist on Friday -- hours before Corby sacked her legal team.

The 27-year-old dismissed the Indonesian lawyers after allegations by Perth QC Mark Trowell that her main Bali lawyer Lily Sri Rahayu Lubis and case coordinator Vasu Rasiah planned to bribe the judges considering her conviction and 20-year jail term for drug smuggling.

Today, Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said Corby's decision to fire and rehire the legal team was a "matter for Schapelle Corby" but likened those involved in the case to characters in a daytime television show.

"They're all becoming characters in a sort of soap opera aren't they?, Mr Downer told the Seven Network today.

"We're all watching closely and with a great deal of interest but of course in my position I'm not really prepared to comment publicly on what I think about it all."

Mr Downer said he hoped Corby had now settled on a legal team and could focus on putting forward a credible case in the appeals court.

"Obviously there have been differences of opinion between them all and that's been extremely public which is unusual but bearing all that in mind I hope that she's now settled on a team," he said.

The dramatic changes in Corby's legal team had not helped her case, he said.

"It's hard to believe that it's helpful. On the other hand, I suspect the appeals court judges will make a decision on the merits of the case put before them, rather than on these kinds of issues," he said.

The case would be best handled privately, rather than in the "full blaze of publicity", he said.

"The general advice that's given is to keep the whole process low profile if you possibly can which admittedly you can't always," he said.

- AAP