No immunity plea received for Corby witnesses, Canberra says

CANBERRA - Schapelle Corby's Indonesian lawyer has not contacted federal authorities with a request for immunity for potential witnesses, the Australian government says.

Justice Minister Chris Ellison says the commonwealth director of public prosecutions (DPP) has received no approach from Hotman Paris Hutapea regarding immunity for witnesses who may back the beauty student's innocence claim.

Bali's High Court has agreed to hear testimony from new witnesses to testify about how 4.1kg of marijuana came to be in her luggage last October.

Corby was sentenced in May to 20 years in jail for attempting to smuggle the drugs into Indonesia.

Mr Hutapea has put in requests to both the NSW and Queensland DPPs for immunity for witnesses, but a report in News Ltd newspapers today said the NSW DPP had rejected the request, saying he did not have the power to grant it.

However, Senator Ellison said Mr Hutapea had not contacted the Commonwealth DPP.

"Mr Hutapea, as I understand it, has not contacted the commonwealth director of public prosecutions despite our advice to do so," he told the Seven network today.

"But I'll be contacting both the NSW and Queensland governments to ascertain exactly what communication they've had from Mr Hutapea, what their response is, and of course, if Mr Hutapea makes no approach to the Commonwealth director of prosecutions, there's nothing much we can do," he said.

Senator Ellison said if that approach was made the government would have no role in deciding how to respond to the request.

"Well, it's for the director of public prosecutions to determine immunity from prosecution.

"That is not a decision that politicians should be making in our criminal justice system," he said.

- AAP