Corby’s letter begs President to act

CANBERRA - Accused drug smuggler Schapelle Corby has taken the unusual step of begging for a pardon from the Indonesian President before her verdict has been handed down.

Lawyers for the Gold Coast beauty student will take delivery today of her letter begging President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to set her free.

Corby, 27, faces a life sentence if found guilty this Friday in the Denpasar District Court of trying to smuggle 4.1kg of marijuana into Bali. She claims the drugs were planted in her body board bag by baggage handlers.

Corby has made a desperate plea to Yudhoyono, vowing she is innocent and begging him to set her free.

"I cry myself to sleep each night wondering why this happened to me," Corby wrote in a letter published in yesterday's Sydney Sunday Telegraph.

"Dear President Yudhoyono, you hold the key. Please set me free.

"I have done enough time for this terrible crime that I promise you that I did not do. Please set me free. That's the truth."

Her Australian lawyer, Robin Tampoe, will meet Corby today to take delivery of the letter. Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd will raise the case with the Indonesian ambassador in Canberra this week.

Tampoe told ABC radio the letter was a plea from the heart.

"She just wants Australia to know and Indonesia to know that there's no criticisms of Indonesia or anyone for that matter," he said.

"It's she didn't do this and she knows she's in the system and she's got to work in that system.

"We're just hoping that the system will do the right thing by her."

Australia and Indonesia are in talks to set up a prisoner exchange system, under which Corby could serve part or most of any sentence in an Australian jail.

Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said Corby would be welcome in one of his state's jails.

He said he was not surprised at her last-minute appeal.

"I guess in these circumstances when you are facing this sort of problem you'll do whatever you can within the law to put your case," he said. "I think it's understandable."

Rudd said

his party was not " in the business of launching public fusillades against the Indonesian Government, as that would be completely counterproductive.

"If the interest here is to ensure the best outcome in terms of a fair trial for Schapelle Corby, our view is that is best advanced by diplomatic level communications with the Indonesian Government."

- AAP