Schapelle Corby: A legal circus
June 26, 2005
Reporter : Ross Coulthart
Producer : Paul Steindl
Schapelle
Corby probably thought things couldn't get any worse after she'd been
sentenced to 20 years in an Indonesian jail. However, this week things
did get worse. Behind the scenes her defence team, including Gold Coast
lawyer Robin Tampoe and financial backer, Ron Bakir, fell out with her
family, in particular her mother Rosleigh Rose. Following the criticism,
Bakir severed all ties with the Corby family and said he was embittered
by the experience. Also, the Perth QC, Mark Trowell, enlisted by the
Australian Government to run the appeal upset the Indonesian legal
system by suggesting a bribe of $500,000 to the appeal judges was raised
by one of her Indonesian legal team. So Schapelle Corby sacked her
Indonesian lawyers via mobile phone in her jail cell. To make matters
even worse, the prosecution launched its appeal calling for her sentence
to be increased to life. And as
Sunday's Ross Coulthart
exclusively reveals, there's more bad news ... now her Australian
lawyer, Robin Tampoe, has decided to pull the plug and leave the Corby
defence team ...
TRANSCRIPT:
ROSS COULTHART:
"You're fired!" That's what Schapelle Corby said to her Indonesian legal
team this week when allegations emerged that they had suggested paying a
$500,000 bribe to her appeal court judges would be her best chance.
Whether true or not, the fact that such a slur on the Indonesian justice
system was made public is a major blow for her and her defence team.
ROBIN
TAMPOE, LAWYER: The Corby case, or Schapelle's case, has in effect gone
down the toilet and they are extremely concerned that on appeal now
that the Indonesian judiciary will be so upset about these comments that
Schapelle will end up in a worse situation than she is now.
ROSS COULTHART: What could possibly be worse than 20 years in jail?
ROBIN TAMPOE: Life, death.
ROSS
COULTHART: Corby rushed to do what she could to fix the damage, sacking
all of her Indonesian legal team, including Lily Lubis, Erwin Siregar,
the flamboyant bling-draped Jakarta lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea and the
defence team coordinator alleged to have asked for the bribe money, Vasu
Rasiah. As you'll see today, Corby's Australian lawyer, Robin Tampoe,
flatly denies knowing anything about a planned bribe and he is so
infuriated that the bribe plan claim was made public by the
Government-appointed Perth QC Mark Trowell that he has decided to quit
Team Corby.
ROBIN TAMPOE: In light of what has happened over the
last couple of days, in relation to comments being made, I no longer
want to be involved in this case.
ROSS COULTHART: You're quitting?
ROBIN TAMPOE: I'm out. I'm out.
ROSS
COULTHART: From this morning, both Tampoe and Corby's businessman
backer Ron Bakir are out of the case. But not without parting shots
responding to savage criticism they copped this week from Schapelle's
family. Can you rule out the possibility that whoever put those drugs
there was somebody much closer to the Corby family? ROBIN TAMPOE: I
think as a lawyer I would be stupid to rule anything out.
ROSS
COULTHART: Do you still believe that the most likely scenario for how
those drugs got into the boogy board bag is that it was somebody in the
airport?
RON BAKIR, BUSINESSMAN: Ross, what I believe is Schapelle Corby is innocent. That's what I believe.
ROSS
COULTHART: But do you think it could have been somebody in the family?
RON BAKIR: I believe Schapelle Corby's innocent, I really do.
TRANSLATOR: A prison sentence of 20 years is handed down with a fine of 100 million rupiah.
ROSS
COULTHART: For weeks now, since Schapelle Corby was sentenced to 20
years for drug smuggling, there's been open sniping between the two WA
QCs appointed by the Australian Government to help Schapelle's defence
and the Indonesian and Australian lawyers who worked on the case for
months before they were brought in.
MARK TROWELL QC, LAWYER: Everyone needs to calm down, focus on Schapelle Corby.
ROSS
COULTHART: This week, Perth QC Mark Trowell was calling for calm after
he revealed that a member of Corby's Bali defence team, Vasu Rasiah,
allegedly said that bribing judges may be her only hope. Isn't it proper
for him to point out the illegality of such a notion, as a QC?
ROBIN
TAMPOE: I think if that was the case, it's something that he should
have certainly discussed with the rest of the lawyers involved in this
case. I understand that he spoke to Paris Hotman about this and he was
told under no circumstances should you broadcast this because it will
cause damage, and severe damage. And despite what Mr Hotman said — who, I
should point out, was appointed and recommended by Mark Trowell — he
still went ahead and broadcast it. So he knew the damage that would be
done.
ROSS COULTHART: So you are suggesting the Perth QC has gone against the direct instructions of his solicitor?
ROBIN
TAMPOE: Absolutely. He has gone against the direct instructions of a
very, very senior Indonesian lawyer, who was appointed, recommended by,
this very QC.
ROSS COULTHART: Of course, it's the not first time
there's been a whiff of bribery in the Corby case. In April, comments
made by Gold Coast mobile phone businessman Ron Bakir were widely
interpreted as an accusation that Indonesian prosecutors offered to
receive bribes in return for a lighter sentence for Corby.
RON
BAKIR: I made an apology for what the media interpreted my discussion
with Mr Alan Jones. I made that apology and that's the end of the
matter.
ROSS COULTHART: Let's talk hypothetically here for a
moment. If it was true that a bribe was going to be offered, do you
think it would be a good idea to raise the fact publicly?
RON
BAKIR: No, I don't. Mr Trowell came out a number of weeks ago and said
publicly that Ron Bakir should "zip his lips". All I can say is, they
were your comments, Mr Trowell. What is good for the goose is good for
the gander.
ROSS COULTHART: Have you been involved in any discussions about a proposal to bribe the Indonesian judges?
RON BAKIR: No.
ROSS COULTHART: Do you think it would be a good idea to bribe the Indonesian judges?
RON BAKIR: No.
ROSS COULTHART: Why not? Isn't the Indonesian justice system corrupt?
RON BAKIR: Look, I won't go there, Ross.
ROSS
COULTHART: This week, Schapelle's mother, Ros, also weighed in with
criticisms of the Perth QC, Mark Trowell, for revealing the alleged
bribe plan. ROSLEIGH ROSE: This QC, I'd like to wring his bloody neck,
for sure, put a sock in his gob.
ROSS COULTHART: But Rosleigh
Rose also fired salvos of her own at Tampoe and Bakir. In this week's
'Bulletin' magazine she labelled Bakir "a black knight", claiming he'd
told her daughter in jail, in her presence, that Schapelle owed him
$500,000 for the help he had given her defence team. Then she went
further, on 'A Current Affair'. ROSLEIGH ROSE: And then I remember he
tapped Schapelle on the leg and said, "Don't worry, you'll have heaps of
time to pay it back."
RAY MARTIN: You got this fax from Bali,
from the legal team, and here is a series of questions and answers.
Questions I was supposed to ask you and answers you were supposed to
give.
ROSLEIGH ROSE: Yes.
RAY MARTIN: The questions are, for example, "Have the QCs assisted..." Let me ask you the question — Have the QCs assisted you?
ROSLEIGH ROSE: Yes.
RAY
MARTIN: But you're supposed to say, the answer they said, "To my
knowledge, no. They have done nothing but criticise our supporters and
legal team, and I don't know why." Is that true?
ROSLEIGH ROSE: I
know that's what it says. That's why I'm not using that paper. I looked
at it and I went, "That's totally wrong."
ROSS COULTHART: Did you have any role at all in the drafting of those questions and answers?
ROBIN TAMPOE: Absolutely none.
ROSS COULTHART: To your knowledge, has Ros Corby ever been present when Schapelle Corby has been talking to Mr Bakir?
ROBIN TAMPOE: Never. Never.
ROSS
COULTHART: Ros Corby's alleged this week that she was present with you
in the jail in Bali when you asked Schapelle Corby for $500,000.
RON
BAKIR: Let me say this very clearly — Ros Corby has never ever been in
the presence of me and Schapelle Corby at the same time. I have never
visited Schapelle Corby in jail while Ros Corby was there.
ROSS COULTHART: So you're saying she is lying?
RON
BAKIR: I'm saying she is a liar for saying that, and it disappoints me
and saddens me that she would say something like that.
ROSS COULTHART: Is there any truth in the suggestion that you have asked Schapelle Corby for money?
RON
BAKIR: Absolutely not. And not only do I deny it, Schapelle has simply
stated to her Indonesian lawyer that I have not asked her for $500,000
and I have not asked her for money.
ROSS COULTHART: What do you think is the public's perception of Ron Bakir right now?
RON
BAKIR: Ron Bakir's done the wrong thing by the family, that Ron Bakir's
ripped off the family that Ron Bakir had other motives than to help
Schapelle Corby.
ROSS COULTHART: Is that true?
RON BAKIR: Absolutely not.
ROSS
COULTHART: As we showed you in May, Ron Bakir has clearly enjoyed the
publicity gained from his public backing of Schapelle Corby. Here on the
Gold Coast, until recently, Bakir has been a popular local celebrity.
But he is now flinching from the heat of that same publicity flame —
adverse stories about his mobile phone business are just some of the
blowback that this week saw the embattled entrepreneur pull out from any
more support for Corby's defence.
RON BAKIR: Everything I have
done has been in the best interests of Schapelle Corby. All the money
that has been spent has been spent in the interests of Schapelle Corby.
Ron Bakir has not recouped one dollar, Ron Bakir has not put to the
family that it should pay him back. Ron Bakir has never demanded
$500,000. So all of that is untrue. What is true is that I have not
earned one dollar and the Corby family have. See, what people must
understand is this — is that Ros Corby is making statements that are not
coming from Schapelle Corby. That's what people must understand. Ros
Corby is not the one that's in jail, is not the one that's speaking for
Schapelle.
ROSS COULTHART: Bakir admits that after months of
growing legal bills, he did at one stage ask Schapelle to sign a
contract giving him half of everything she made for selling her story.
RON
BAKIR: I ripped the contract up four weeks later. I went into the jail
and I sat with Schapelle and I grabbed the contract and I said,
"Schapelle, I don't want this contract. I never wanted this contract. It
was never about me making money, never about me trying to recoup
money," and I went to rip the contract up and Schapelle grabbed my arm
and said, "I don't want you to rip it up. If anybody is entitled to
anything, that is you." And I said, "I don't want it." And I ripped the
contract up, and I stand by that.
ROSS COULTHART: So your position is there is not a contract in place?
RON BAKIR: Absolutely not. There is not a contract in place.
ROSS
COULTHART: Why did you ever sign such a contract? If you weren't
interested in making money why did you ever sign such a contract in the
first place?
RON BAKIR: Sure. When I first got involved in this I
thought it would be an easy task — I would spend $40,000 or $50,000,
and that's it. But it was much harder than that. I spent a lot of money.
When it got to a state where — a couple of months or three months into
it — I had spent $200,000 or $300,000, I then put a contract in place on
suggestions of Indonesian law team. Now, that's a mistake.
ROSS COULTHART: You admit that that was a really stupid thing to do?
RON BAKIR: Absolutely. That's why I ripped up the contract. Because my intention was never to make money out of this.
ROBIN
TAMPOE: I know this for a fact. I know that Ron Bakir did a number of
deals for the Corby family and the Corby family have made a substantial
amount of money from those deals, and I know for a fact that Ron Bakir
hasn't profited one cent from any of those moneys. So from where I'm
sitting, the only people that I've seen who are profiting from Schapelle
Corby being in jail is the Corby family.
ROSS COULTHART: Sunday
asked Schapelle's mother, Rosleigh Rose, for her side of the story, but
she refused to talk to us, saying she had said all she intended to say
about the matter. But as an angry Robin Tampoe walked away from the case
this week, he questioned the Corby family's failure to be honest about
far more serious issues, which he said had jeopardised Schapelle's
defence. When you started this case, the key issue, obviously, was to
ask whether there is anything in the family that might provide an
explanation.
ROBIN TAMPOE: Yep.
ROSS COULTHART: Did you ask the family if anyone had a criminal conviction or any connections at all with drugs?
ROBIN
TAMPOE: I remember the conversation well. I was at the villa in Bali,
and Mercedes was there and Jodie, a family friend, and Ron Bakir. It
wasn't me who asked the question. Ron Bakir asked that question. The
answer was no.
ROSS COULTHART: When it subsequently came out
that the father had a conviction years ago for a marijuana offence, a
very minor one...
ROBIN TAMPOE: Yep.
ROSS COULTHART:
..but that, more importantly, I think, her step-brother, Schapelle's
step-brother, Clinton, had quite a long series of criminal offences and
convictions and in fact is serving time in jail at the moment, were you
surprised?
ROBIN TAMPOE: I was surprised and I was very upset.
One of the comments — and I stand by this — I have said this and I've
said this publicly, I don't expect Michael Corby Senior to tell his
children about something that happened to him in the '70s. I am certain
if I was in his position I probably wouldn't tell my daughters about
that, something he'd want to bury from his family. I have no problem
with that. Certainly, Mercedes has said to me she didn't know about
this. But the issue of Clinton Rose is a different issue because it is
something that the media seized on and they seized on just before the
verdict. So it's been this situation where you wake up every morning,
open the paper, and it's damage control. Why weren't we told this? Why
didn't we know about this?
ROSS COULTHART: You were lied to?
ROBIN TAMPOE: Certainly on that point, absolutely, absolutely. Because it was known, it was not disclosed to us.
ROSS
COULTHART: Do you believe you were lied to by members of the Corby
family? RON BAKIR: I believe that certain members of the Corby family
have not done the right thing and have been unappreciative.
ROSS
COULTHART: The inevitable accusation is, "He's saying this now because
he's copped a bollocking from Ros Corby." What do you say?
RON BAKIR: Time tells the truth all the time. That's what I will say.
ROSS COULTHART: You're not saying this out of spite?
RON BAKIR: Absolutely not.
ROSS
COULTHART: When Indonesian prosecutors recommended a 20-year sentence
for Corby nearly two months ago, it was undoubtedly a terrible shock for
Schapelle. A time when she needed support from her family. But Robin
Tampoe also makes this serious accusation against Schapelle's sister
Mercedes about a conversation he had with her that day.
ROBIN
TAMPOE: This is one of the things which I think upset me greatly, was
the day the prosecution recommended a 20-year sentence and I had a
conversation with Mercedes before I went into court and she said to me,
"If the prosecutor asks for a hard sentence I won't be able to deal with
this, I'm going to run out of here. Will you see Schapelle in the
holding cell." I said, "Of course I will." The prosecutor asked for
life. I went to the holding cell amongst all the chaos to see Schapelle.
I was holding her hand while she was crying. I find out down the track
that she ran out of there to do a live interview for $30,000 with 'New
Idea'. So that is the situation I find myself in. I'm holding her
sister's hand while she's making $30,000 with 'New Idea' and that, from
my point of view, sickens me.
ROSS COULTHART: Mercedes Corby
told Sunday she did do the interview that day but she is adamant she was
in fact very upset for her sister, contrary to any impression Mr Tampoe
might have gained. How much money have they made?
ROBIN TAMPOE:
I don't know the exact figures. I know that, for example, in Ros's
case, I know she's under contract to 'A Current Affair', for example. I
know that, her personally, she's earned, this is before the verdict, in
excess of $100,000. Now, I sit here and I hear the comments, the spin
that has been made by the Government in relation to how much money they
funded the Indonesian lawyers. The fact of that matter is that an amount
of $46,000, a cheque was paid. It took some time to get that cheque.
The cheque was made out to the wrong person. The Indonesian lawyers to
this day have been unable to cash that cheque, have it replaced. But I
do know for a fact that in excess of $200,000 was sent by Ron Bakir to
Indonesia and I know a substantial amount of money has been used by the
Indonesian lawyers to fund this defence.
ROSS COULTHART: Ros Corby this week suggested her daughter had been kept in the dark by her defence team.
ROSLEIGH
ROSE: They've played mind games with that poor girl and she had to do
it. ROSS COULTHART: But as Schapelle languishes in her Kerebokam jail
cell, facing at least 20 years inside, the lawyer who's got to know her
possibly better than anyone outside the family offered this parting
comment.
ROBIN TAMPOE: What I would love is Schapelle to have
her say. It seems to me when I see her that so much of what is going on
outside that jail cell is not disclosed to her. ROSS COULTHART: How much
of the money that the family has earned do you think she knows about?
ROBIN TAMPOE: I think she probably knows very little about how much has been earned by the family.
ROSS
COULTHART: Is there any evidence that you've seen that much or any of
that money has been spent on Schapelle Corby's defence?
ROBIN
TAMPOE: From the money the family has made from their interviews, to my
knowledge — this has been confirmed — the Indonesian lawyers have not
received any money from the funds they've earned from interviews,
nothing at all.
ROSS COULTHART: Is that unusual to you? If you had a child who was in jail in Indonesia facing serious charges...
ROBIN TAMPOE: I'd... I'd... I'd sell my kidneys, whatever it takes.
ROSS
COULTHART: And this too from Ron Bakir. If somebody out there watching
this has evidence that could definitively solve this case once and for
all, whether it's good or bad for Schapelle Corby or any member of the
Corby family, what would you say to them?
RON BAKIR: You must
come forward, you MUST come forward. Without a doubt in the world, you
must come forward if you have any evidence, anything whatsoever, that
will help solve this case.
ROSS COULTHART: What are you going to do though if it proves that Schapelle Corby is guilty?
RON
BAKIR: I will be absolutely shocked and devastated if that was the
case. I would have to be one of the most dumbest people on the face of
this earth.
ROSS COULTHART: Because there is a possibility you have been had, isn't there?
RON BAKIR: I don't think by Schapelle Corby.
