The new-found friendship between Australia and Indonesia goes on trial this week when a court in Bali gives its verdict in a drugs case that has gripped the nation.
Commercial channels will cross live to Denpasar this afternoon to see if 27-year-old Schapelle Corby beats a charge that she tried to smuggle in 4kg of marijuana.
"It's a hugely newsworthy story and lots and lots of people are very interested in it," Channel Seven boss Peter Meakin said of a decision to interrupt regular programming for the news break.
Those keenly interested include Prime Minister John Howard, who has written to the court suggesting ever-so-obliquely that Corby might be the dupe of a sophisticated drug syndicate rather than the hapless small-time smuggler that others make her out to be.
Howard is keenly aware that blanket media coverage has whipped up enormous public sympathy for the lachrymose Queenslander and support for her claims that the drugs were planted. But he has also spoken of the need for Australians to respect Indonesia's sovereignty and not imperil the good relationship he enjoys with Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the country's first democratically elected president. Relations with the giant neighbor, the best they have been in decades, are at risk from claims Australians can't expect a fair trial in Indonesia because its leaders are incompetent and its courts corrupt.
Hobart travel agent Tony Foster has threatened to stop selling Bali packages if the shapely Corby, as expected, is sentenced to a lengthy spell in Denpasar's Korobokan jail.
"If she is found guilty, I've just taken the stance, the personal stance, that I'm not going to sell Bali as a travel destination," he said.
Corby's supporters, some of whom have posted death threats to Indonesian diplomats, have been egged on by loudmouth talkshow hosts.
Condemnation of the neighbors has also come from Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe and other local celebrities.
The bile has been remarkable. The three Indonesian judges presiding over the court were called "monkeys" by a popular Sydney radio presenter. And Ron Bakir, the businessman bankrolling Corby's defense, was forced into a retraction by Jakarta after claiming he had been asked for bribes in return for Corby's freedom.
The controversy has even ensnared police chief Mick Keelty, who was traduced in the press for describing Corby's defense as "flimsy."
Yet Keelty, the policeman whose forensic work helped put away the Bali bombers that took the lives of 202 people four years ago, is in very good company: legal experts say privately that the prima-facie case against Corby is rock solid and that a conviction would be unsurprising in Australia or in any other jurisdiction.
According to Tim Lindsay, director of Melbourne University's Asian Law Center: "This case is not an unusual case. It's a standard case. Her defense team has been weak. It has not put a good case before the court. It's really nothing controversial."
Professor Lindsay argues that while there is corruption and incompetence in the Indonesian legal system, this does not mean that corruption and incompetence has tainted Corby's trial.
An opinion poll showed 93 per cent of Australians believe the innocence that Corby has protested since her arrest in October. But those with a deeper knowledge of the case are unconvinced.
The drugs were found in surfing gear she was taking for her holiday in Bali. Yet her brother-in-law in Denpasar runs a surf shop, from which she could easily have borrowed. The drugs she says were stuffed in her boogie board bag weighed more than the bag she says she packed.
Yet she seemingly failed to notice the increased size and weight of the bag when she hefted it off the arrivals hall carousel. The Corby case has highlighted a xenophobia that has disturbed some observers. There are support websites galore. There are "Free Schapelle" T-shirts and coffee mugs. Corby has been promised a lucrative book contract if she gets off.
The government has pandered to the public clamor for something to be done. Justice Minister Chris Ellison has pledged to expedite a proposed prisoner-exchange deal with Jakarta and "look at an interim arrangement for Schapelle Corby."
No minister had pledged to do anything special for the Vietnamese-born Australian given a death sentence in Singapore for a comparable drug offense. Howard did not write to the court in his favor. It was left to Derryn Hinch, a controversial radio talk show host, to state the obvious.
"Corby has been getting all this attention because she is young, white, pretty and has big boobs," Hinch said. "I haven't seen any TV network devoting prime time to some scrawny, male Vietnamese-Australian on death row in Singapore."
ROCKY RELATIONS: The figures on residents come as Chinese tourist numbers drop following Beijing’s warnings to avoid traveling to Japan The number of Chinese residents in Japan has continued to rise, even as ties between the two countries have become increasingly fractious, data released on Friday showed. As of the end of December last year, the number of Chinese residents had increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year to 930,428. Chinese people accounted for 22.6 percent of all foreign residents in Japan, making them by far the largest group, Japanese Ministry of Justice data showed. Beijing has criticized Tokyo in increasingly strident terms since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested that a military conflict around Taiwan could
A retired US colonel behind a privately financed rocket launch site in the Dominican Republic sees the project as a response to China’s dominance of the space race in Latin America. Florida-based Launch on Demand is slated to begin building a US$600 million facility in a remote region near the border with Haiti late this year. The project is designed to meet surging demand for the heavy-lift rockets needed to put clusters of satellites into orbit. It is also an answer to China’s growing presence in the region, said CEO Burton Catledge, a former commander of the US Air Force’s 45th Operations
Germany is considering Australia’s Ghost Bat robot fighter as it looks to select a combat drone to modernize its air force, German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius said yesterday. Germany has said it wants to field hundreds of uncrewed fighter jets by 2029, and would make a decision soon as it considers a range of German, European and US projects developing so-called “collaborative combat aircraft.” Australia has said it will integrate the Ghost Bat, jointly developed by Boeing Australia and the Royal Australian Air Force, into its military after a successful weapons test last year. After inspecting the Ghost Bat in Queensland yesterday,
A pro-Iran hacking group claimed to breach FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal e-mail inbox and posted some of the contents online. The e-mails provided by the hacking group include travel details, correspondence with leasing agents in Washington and global entry, and loyalty account numbers. The e-mail address the hackers claim to have compromised has been previously tied to Patel’s personal details, and the leaked e-mails contain photos of Patel and others, in addition to correspondence with family members and colleagues. “The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information,” the agency said in a statement on
RSS