High-profile trial may have backfired on Corby, says lawyer
He was the man Schapelle Corby believed in. ‘‘Pak Erwin, you are a good man. I have faith in your ability as a lawyer and a trusted friend. If anyone is capable of bringing me home a free woman, it’s you. I know you always do your absolute best for me,’’ she wrote in her autobiography.
In an exclusive interview with Fairfax Media ahead of Corby’s scheduled deportation last night, Erwin Siregar said he still believed his former client was innocent, but admitted that there were only two people who knew for sure: ‘‘Schapelle Corby and God.’’
Siregar suggested Corby may have received a lighter sentence if the case had been less high-profile.
The Indonesian lawyer said he was shocked when judges imposed a 20-year jail sentence after Corby was arrested with 4.2 kilograms of cannabis in her boogie board bag on October 8, 2004.
Siregar said it was ‘‘possible’’ the sentence was so harsh because so many people were watching the case. ‘‘If the case is quiet, maybe only four years [jail],’’ he said.
Siregar said sentencing crimes in Indonesia was for not standardised, and someone else who imported more cannabis could receive a lesser sentence – or the death penalty.
He said that although the judge could have legally sentenced Corby to death, ‘‘thank God he did not do that’’. The prosecution had also not demanded that she be executed, instead recommending life imprisonment.
In My Story, co-written with Kathryn Bonella, Corby wrote that anti-drug protest group GRANAT attended her trial.
‘‘People were holding handmade posters with my name written on them, and instinctively I thought they were supporters,’’ she wrote.
‘‘But my translator, Eka, told me, ‘No, Schapelle, they’re here to support the death sentence . . . signs say kill you!’. I felt sick.
‘‘I swung around and saw a sign with blood dripping from an axe in the window behind me. It was chilling.’’
Siregar said he was sure at the time that the judge would not impose a death sentence: ‘‘Maybe because she is a woman, a student, this is ganja, not cocaine or heroin, but [it was] up to the judge.’’
He said he was impressed by the level of support provided by the Australian government to its citizens who faced the death penalty overseas. He said that during the court process, he wrote to thenprime minister John Howard to update him on the case and met with justice minister Chris Ellison at the Mandarin Hotel in Jakarta for discussions.
‘‘I say, ‘Wow, the attention of Australia is very good. The Australian government really take care of the people who is involved. They will pay for lawyer, everything, for the people who has been involved the in a death sentence. To protect.’’’
In My Story, Corby wrote that the Australian government paid all her Indonesian lawyers’ fees, and her family had given them more than $80,000 in operational costs. She said the government also paid for four witnesses to fly to Bali.
Siregar also represented Australian Sara Connor, who was sentenced to four years’ jail – increased to five years on appeal – for a fatal group assault on a Bali police officer.
He said the media frenzy surrounding Corby had been even greater than with the Connor case, more than a decade later.
‘‘Why [is] the media so crazy when there is Australian people involved with the legal [system] in Bali? Why? I don’t know why. Because only Australian media make it like that. France, America, other countries, no. Why?’’
Siregar said he was happy that Corby was finally going home. ‘‘At least for the rest of her life she can still continue.’’