Marijuana Destroyed

Bali police burn Corby's marijuana

Bali police have burned the stash of marijuana that sent Schapelle Corby to an Indonesian jail for 20 years.
The drugs were piled up on top of a metal drum in a backyard beside the Denpasar District Court where a distraught Corby was convicted on May 17 last year.
There was little fuss apart from some dizziness among some of the spectators after chief prosecutor I Ketut Arthana, who led the case against the Gold Coast woman, poured petrol on the pile and set it alight.
Watching on were Denpasar Mayor Anak Agung Puspa Yoga and local police chief Hari Dono Sukmanto, as well as a small crowd of journalists, who said they became giddy as pungent smoke wafted over the yard.
Her infamous zip-lock boogie board bag in which the drugs were found by Bali airport customs officers also went up in flames along with the board and even Corby's surf fins.
Other drugs from other criminal cases were also destroyed, including almost 10,000 ecstasy pills, 1.9 kg of heroin and 4.2 grams of hashish, as well as bottles of illegal home-made beer.
Corby, a former student beautician and shop assistant, wasn't there.
She remains locked up in Bali's Kerobokan Prison after the Supreme Court in Jakarta in January rejected her appeal and restated the 20-year term that had been cut by five years by a lower appeal court.
Her legal team has asked the Supreme Court - Indonesia's highest - to review its decision. But granting such a request would be an unusual move and is far from certain.
Corby defence lawyer Erwin Siregar, who watched the burning, said he was concerned the evidence had been destroyed.
"If we find new evidence and then reopen the case, and they want to check, the evidence is no longer there," he said.
Corby's defence rested on claims the cannabis was planted in her bag by mistake by baggage handlers at Australian airports working for drug traffickers.
Siregar said he failed to convince Arthana to delay Friday's bonfire and admitted that there was no obligation to stall the burning, because Corby's legal case had already been completed.
Still, he said, they should have waited in the interests of "finding the truth".
Arthana said the drugs had to be destroyed to prevent the stash being stolen from a police lockup.
"We didn't want to keep it for too long," he said. "Although (the evidence) is secured behind an iron door it is only guarded by one person."
He said 8kg of heroin smuggled by the Bali Nine could not be burned yet because the Australians were still appealing.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/Bali-police-burn-Corbys-marijuana/2006/03/17/1142098657670.html