Indonesia Seeks Death Sentence For Drugs Suspect

Indonesian police today vowed to make an example of an Australian woman who could face a firing squad for allegedly smuggling drugs into Bali.

Prosecutors have promised to seek the toughest possible sentence for Schapelle Leigh Corby, who could be put to death over a 4.1kg cannabis haul found in her luggage when she arrived on the resort island on October 8.

Police today handed to prosecutors a thick red file of evidence against Corby - a first step to trial.

The head of Bali's drug squad, Lieutenant-Colonel Bambang Sugiarto, said there would more talks between prosecutors and detectives before charges were finalised.

Authorities can hold Corby for up to 60 days before laying charges.

Sugiarto said police would push for the toughest possible charge slate against the 27-year-old Gold Coast woman, who says the cannabis was planted without her knowledge.

"It's a drug case and it must be the toughest so that it will intimidate others who try to copy her," Sugiarto said.

"There are warnings about the penalties at the airport in many areas, so we need to do this."

The beauty therapy school student from Tugan on the Gold Coast was arrested at Bali airport after an X-ray of her luggage revealed an unusual object in her unlocked bodyboard bag.

Customs officers found the cannabis when they inspected the bag.

Sugiarto said police were still running tests on the cannabis to see whether it came from Australia or was grown in Indonesia.

Corby's defence lawyer Lily Lubis said she was seeking information from Qantas on how much Corby's baggage weighed when she checked in for her Bali holiday.

The bag was unlocked and could easily have been opened by someone seeking to use Corby as an unwitting courier, she said.

But a police spokesman said there was no weight difference on record.

Lubis said police would be unable to use the draconian article 82 drugs laws providing for the death penalty unless they were able to prove the drugs were stashed by Corby.

"It's their job to prove where it came from, whether it came from Australia," she said.

Sugiarto denied a test result pointing to Indonesian-grown drugs would force police to free Corby.

"We don't want to dwell on where it came from. What is important is that we tested it and it was positive for marijuana," he said.

Corby herself has tested negative for drugs in blood and urine tests.

She has been been held in a cell at Denpasar police headquarters since her arrest on October 8 after flying from Brisbane via Sydney to Denpasar with two female friends and her younger brother for a two-week stay in Bali, where her sister Mercedes lives.

Indonesia has some of the world's toughest drug laws.

Two Thai nationals were executed by firing squad last month after being found guilty of smuggling heroin into Indonesia a decade ago, while a 65-year-old Indian was shot in August after Indonesia's president turned down an appeal for clemency.

An Italian caught last year in Bali with 2g of marijuana is serving two years in prison.

Australian Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said Corby's case required some careful diplomacy between Australian and Indonesia.

Source: http://www.theage.com.au