Schapelle - UK Activity - Letter to Blair

"Hi Alan, Yes you have my permission to use my letter – I have added the letter I e mailed to Tony Blair regarding this case. I wish you every success in stopping the barbaric treatment of this young woman Ian Gregory"

To Tony Blair,
Prime Minister

Sir, I wish to bring to your attention the case of Chapelle Corby, an Australian student who has been detained in a Balinese prison and now awaits sentencing from a panel of judges on whether she will be committed to the death penalty, by a firing squad, for allegedly attempting to import four kilograms of cannibis into Indonesia. Having read the reports on the case, I feel it is highly unlikely that Chapelle is guilty of drug smuggling, since there are any number of plausible explanantions as to how the drugs came to be in her luggage; indeed, somebody has already come forward and admitted that HE planted the drugs and that Chapelle had no knowledge of this.

There is NO evidence linking Chapelle to the purchase or possession of the drugs, nor is there any evidence of a motive, since in Bali the drugs found are worth only a fraction of the price they would fetch in Australia. There is no evidence of a plan for disposal of the drugs in Bali, yet NONE of this matters in the context of Chapelle's Indonesian trial - according to the law in Indonesia, the onus of proof is on the defendant to prove her innocence.

As a lawyer, I am sure you can see that she is not being given the benefit of being held innocent until proven guilty, nor is she being afforded a fair trial.

I urge you to bring any pressure you can to bear on the Bali government to resolve this issue, in short to save the life of an innocent young woman. Thank you for your attention in this matter.

Ian Gregory
Accrington
Lancashire