Essay about Schapelle Corby

POLICE FIGHT TO KEEP CORBY SECRETS

Schapelle Corby … some records of her case have been blacked out. Photo: Jason South
The Australian Federal Police is trying to stop the release of damaging details of its dealings with the Indonesian government over the Schapelle Corby drug bust, arguing that they would damage international relations and expose crucial ways in which the organisation operates.
Schapelle's sister Mercedes has been locked in a battle with the federal police to release all communications relating to the case.
If, in the coming days, a court judge rules in her favour, previously hidden details about the case would emerge, including vital police intelligence that may have been shared with Indonesia - before and after Schapelle's arrest in 2004.
Using freedom-of-information laws, Mercedes has sought all emails, letters, files, documents and transcripts involving the then AFP commissioner, Mick Keelty, which relate to Schapelle, including full details of communications between him and Indonesian authorities.
There are almost 300 related documents but the AFP has refused to release many and redacted large parts of others on the grounds that they ''may cause damage to the international relations of the Commonwealth'' and would divulge information which was ''communicated in confidence by, or on behalf of, a foreign government to the Commonwealth''.
The Sun-Herald can reveal that in early July Mercedes Corby appealed against the AFP's decision in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in Brisbane, where both parties argued their case before the deputy president P.E. Hack. She told the tribunal she had been fighting on Schapelle's behalf for eight years.
But Mr Hack warned Mercedes that any intelligence the federal police handed over to her would also be publicly available. ''Once it's available to you, it's available to the world … including people who have an interest in knowing the way in which the AFP undertakes their task,'' he said. Mercedes responded: ''We have so many questions and no answers.''
While the Corby family once claimed they had no links to marijuana, Queensland Police Service archives confirm Schapelle's father Mick was arrested twice in 1973 for possessing and using cannabis. Fast forward to 2004 and three weeks before Schapelle's arrest, Mr Corby was implicated in a ''Queensland Police Crime Intelligence report'' as being part of a Gold Coast syndicate that was transporting drugs to Bali - using commercial passenger flights. In those statements a police informant, Kim Moore, claimed Tony Lewis - Mick Corby's best friend and next-door neighbour - was running a marijuana operation on his property.

When police raided him days later, they found 200 plants and stockpiles of vacuum-sealed cannabis stored in freezers, worth more than $600,000.
Ms Moore also made further allegations about drugs being shipped to Bali on passenger jets. On October 8 - 22 days later - Schapelle was arrested with 4.2 kilograms of cannabis at Denpasar Airport.
It remains unclear whether Ms Moore's statement, and other

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