Corby the star in a soap opera that's lost the plot

CANBERRA - The high drama that has been the trial and upcoming appeal of 27-year-old convicted drug-smuggler Schapelle Corby continues to weave ever more complex plots as the former Gold Coast trainee beauty therapist struggles to convince an Indonesian court she is innocent.

In storylines more akin to the television soaps that Australia digests and exports with unremitting voracity, Corby and her family have fired and rehired her Indonesian legal team, split acrimoniously from her original Australian lawyer and her millionaire white knight, swapped angry accusations of profiteering, and seen her Australian QCs slug into their Indonesian counterparts with allegations of bribery.

Corby suffered enough from the tsunami of publicity that allowed the Indonesian justice system virtually no room for manoeuvre and turned her trial into a media frenzy.

Now, when her legal team needs to be focused on presenting a case strong enough to convince the appeal judges to overturn the conviction, it has degenerated into a shambles.

"They're all becoming characters in a sort of soap opera, aren't they," an exasperated Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told Channel Seven.

It has been a real-life soapie almost from the moment Corby was arrested with 4.1kg of cannabis in her boogie-board bag at Bali's Denpasar Airport late last year, unleashing a wave of sympathy in Australia and a harsh anti-drug backlash in Indonesia.

To update: Corby initially attracted the support and financial backing of millionaire Gold Coast businessman Ron Bakir, who collapsed in tears after her conviction.

But Bakir's businesses have been in trouble, it has now emerged that much of Corby's Indonesian legal bill was met by the Australian Government, and Bakir and the family have now split over the family's disputed claim that he presented Corby with a A$500,000 ($543,000) bill for his support.

Bakir's fellow high-profile supporter, Gold Coast lawyer Robin Tampoe, has also parted ways with the family after Corby's mother, Roseleigh Rose, claimed he had signed up to make a name for himself.

Meanwhile, the two Perth QCs who have offered their services free have stirred up another storm by alleging Corby's lawyers had planned to bribe the appeal judges - a claim not likely to help her case - and attacking the tactics of Corby's new Indonesian legal front man, celebrity Jakarta lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea.

Among Hutapea's early moves was to sign on local soapie star Anisa Hapsari to help swing public opinion Corby's way.

On Friday, alarmed by the QCs' claims that her legal team was planning bribery, Corby sacked Hatupea, Dr Walter Tonetto - hired earlier the same day as chief legal strategist - original Bali lawyer Lily Lubis, case co-ordinator Vasu Rasiah and two colleagues.

Yesterday, Hutapea and all but Lubis and Rasiah were re-hired.

Hutapea, who is also acting free of charge, wasted no time in leaping back into the fray, warning that Corby's appeal could fail and attacking the Australian Government for abandoning her.

He particularly lashed Justice Minister Chris Ellison, who had earlier intervened at a diplomatic level for Corby, helped to pave the way for a Victorian prisoner to be flown at taxpayers' expense to Bali to give evidence on her behalf, and arranged for the Perth QCs to work for her pro bono.

For Australia, it all makes compelling viewing and reading.

But for Corby there is no room for clowning; if her appeal is refused, the judges may not only uphold the original conviction, but agree to the prosecution's demands for a life sentence rather than the 20 years she is now serving.