Why the judges found Corby guilty

Not since Lindy Chamberlain was accused of murdering her baby daughter in a desert campsite near Uluru (Ayers Rock) 25 years ago has a criminal case so gripped Australia.

Schapelle Corby's conviction eight days ago for smuggling marijuana into Bali unleashed unprecedented anger, with Australians vowing to boycott the holiday island and demanding the return of donations they made to the Indonesian victims of the December 26 tsunami. The Indonesian embassy in Canberra has been the target of a purported biological attack.

But in all the public hysteria over the case, little attention has been given to the exact reasons given by the judges in the court in Denpasar for finding her guilty.

The three judges took more than two hours to read out their 80-page finding, culminating in a sentence of 20 years' imprisonment and a fine of $14, 837. In the words of chief judge Linton Sirait, the panel found Corby, 27, "convincingly guilty" of trying to smuggle into Bali 4.1kg of marijuana, which was found wrapped in clear plastic and hidden in her boogie board bag.

"We've found that drugs were imported into Indonesia. Importation is illegal in Indonesia and it occurred at Ngurah Rai Airport in Denpasar. It may not be done by anyone," Sirait said.

The judge said the beauty therapist student was clearly "unrepentant" about the crime.

"It is found the defendant is responsible for the narcotics and this should be considered when handing down the judgment," he said, before delivering the verdict which brought Corby to her knees and provoked uproar from her family.

Under Indonesia's legal system, the onus is on the defence to prove that their client is not guilty. After the verdict one of Corby's lawyers, Erwin Siregar, said: "The judge said to me 'if you want your client free, bring the guy'. How can I bring the guy? It's up to Australia to find him."

Corby's defence argued that the marijuana was not hers and might have been secreted by corrupt baggage handlers.

One of the witnesses they called was an Australian prisoner and accused rapist, John Ford, who testified that he had overheard two inmates discussing the Corby case and concluded that she was an unwitting drug mule. Unless Ford could come up with the name of the person who placed the drugs in Corby's luggage, however, he was never going to be of much use to the defence case.

The judges dismissed his evidence as unsubstantiated hearsay - as an Australian or New Zealand court would certainly have done.

Corby's defence lawyers argued that the case against their client was littered with mistakes, including the failure of Indonesian customs or police to test the plastic bags for fingerprints. Officials also failed to videotape their search of the luggage, and refused a request to have the marijuana tested to reveal where it came from.

In an Australian court a rigorous critique of such procedural irregularities might have had Corby acquitted; in Bali, the judges either ignored them or dismissed them out of hand, offering no explanation.

The judges talked openly of whether they believed Corby was innocent or guilty, which would not have happened in an Australian court nor would an Australian judge have been likely to have claimed proudly that of the 500 cases he had tried, he had never found a defendant innocent, as did Judge Sirait.

In the end the case came down to whose word the judges believed: that of the police and customs officers or that of Corby herself.

As in a Western-style court, the judges took into consideration ameliorating factors when deciding their sentence. "She was well behaved during the trial," said Judge I Gusti Lanang Dauh. "She has never been convicted before. She is still young and there is still a chance for her to redeem herself."

Tim Lindsey, professor of Asian law at Melbourne University and Australia's foremost expert on the Indonesian justice system, said Corby got a fair hearing and that the system handled her case reasonably well. Few Australians agree.

Meanwhile Corby's defence team has vowed to fight on and has launched an appeal against her sentence.