Help for Corby

Millionaire sends help to Corby

By Phil Bartsch
February 24, 2005
From:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12354043-26618,00.html

A TEAM of lawyers from the Gold Coast has been engaged by a high-profile mobile telephone entrepreneur in a bid to ensure beauty therapy student and alleged drug smuggler Schapelle Corby gets a fair trial in Bali.
Ron Bakir - better known by his business name Mad Ron - has thrown the legal lifeline to Corby, who has steadfastly maintained her innocence.
Corby, 27, is facing the death penalty or life in jail if she is convicted. She was arrested after Customs officers found 4.1kg of marijuana in her unlocked bodyboard bag at Bali international airport last October.
Mr Bakir and Gold Coast lawyer Robin Tampoe will travel to Bali today to meet with Corby and her Indonesian legal team.
A spokeswoman for Mr Bakir yesterday said he had pledged an "open chequebook" to a team of three Gold Coast lawyers to work on the case.
She said Mr Bakir contacted Corby's family this week, concerned she was not getting a fair trial after reading newspaper reports about her case.
"He just thinks it's an outrageous situation," she said. "He just can't believe that there is somebody sitting in a jail over there that nobody from the Australian Government is willing to assist."
In December, Corby's defence lawyers in Indonesia accused Australian authorities of "playing games" with Corby's life by failing to provide them with information that could prove vital to her case.
"Ron is the first to say that if she's guilty she deserves to face all the penalties Indonesia puts on her," the spokeswoman said.
"However, everybody deserves a fair trial and he's convinced she's not getting one.
"He basically wants to give her the opportunity that we all deserve and that's a fair trial."
Mr Tampoe said he would be working with Corby's defence team to extract information from Australian authorities that had not been forthcoming.