Wednesday, 12 March 2008

Schapelle Corby denied allegations she and sister Mercedes were spotted eating at a Bali restaurant last month.

Indonesia authorities say they oppose transferring prisoners convicted of drug crimes or terrorism back to Australia, dealing a blow to the hopes of the Bali Nine and Schapelle Corby.
Australia and Indonesia have been negotiating a prisoner exchange deal for more than two years. Indonesia says there are still a number of sticking points between the two countries, including how long inmates must serve before being transferred.
Indonesian Justice and Human Rights Ministry spokesman Kolier Haryanto said Indonesian negotiators believed prisoners jailed for terrorism and drugs crimes would be left out of any deal. "What was agreed (between Indonesian negotiators) is that in the first place that terrorism and drugs was not in it," Mr Haryanto said.
"But we can still talk about it.
"It's still optional. I mean that's not the Indonesian fixed position."
He said most of the other issues related to "technical" matters, such as which authority was responsible for the transfer and who would pay.
An Australian embassy spokesman said Australia was committed to concluding a deal, but it was inappropriate to comment on how the treaty would be applied in particular cases. Earlier, Indonesia's prisons director general Untung Sugiyono said there was still disagreement about whether people convicted of drugs crimes could be transferred back to Australia. "What I know is there's still one thing not matched," he said. "We don't want to give (the transfer) to those who are involved in drugs."
Mr Sugiyono met Corby as he inspected Kerobokan Prison yesterday.
Corby used the meeting to reject reports she had been allowed to go on outings from the prison, saying she had been let of out her Bali prison home three times in the past four years - for medical reasons.
Corby denied allegations she and sister Mercedes were spotted eating at a Bali restaurant last month.
"I will have been here for four years in a little while,'' she said.
"I have been out three times to have my tooth taken out only, and that's all.
"Only for half an hour.''
Her comments followed claims reported in the Australian media that Corby had been photographed by an Australian tourist dining out on the Indonesian resort island.
Corby said the claims were an attempt to get money.
"That's just some people who want to eat some money,'' Corby Mr Sugiyono in Indonesian.
Corby is serving a 20-year prison term after her arrest at Bali airport in 2004 with 4.2kg of marijuana in her boogy board bag.
She has always said she is innocent.
Meanwhile, the former head of security at the prison was today found guilty of drugs and weapons charges. Mohammad Sudrajat was sentenced to four years' imprisonment after Denpasar District Court found him guilty of possessing crystal methamphetamine (ice) and illegally possessing ammunition for a firearm.
At the time of his arrest last year, Sudrajat was head of security at Kerobokan Prison, where the Bali Nine heroin smugglers and Corby are housed.

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