Pubdate: Wed, 06 Dec 2006
Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Copyright: 2006 The Sydney Morning Herald
Contact:  http://www.smh.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/441

CORBY LAWYER THREATENS TO TELL ALL

One of Schapelle Corby's former lawyers says he will  reveal "the 
truth" about her drug smuggling conviction  unless she backs off 
criticising his reputation.

Vasu Rasiah says he is willing to reveal damaging  details about 
Corby's defence, and her plea of  innocence.

"If they push us to a corner then we have no option but  to reveal 
all the truth, and everything that took  place, we will. And that 
will be very detrimental to  her," Rasiah told ABC's 7.30 Report.

Mr Rasiah, among others, is blamed for Corby's  conviction in her 
book, My Story, which has sold more  than 17,000 copies since its 
release last month.

He was a member of Corby's Indonesian legal team after  her arrest in 
Bali in 2004 for smuggling 4.1kg of  cannabis inside a bodyboard bag.

Corby, 29, is serving a 20-year sentence in Bali's  Kerobokan Prison.

Mr Rasiah, who is described in the book as a money  hungry bully, 
said his team was happy to leave the  case, saying "everything was 
manipulated".

He said it was the Corby family that was focused on money.

Mr Rasiah also said the family knocked back an offer  from the 
Australian Federal Police to DNA test the  cannabis, to track its 
origin, when they learned the  results would be passed on to Indonesian police.

Corby's mother Rosleigh Rose has denied such an offer  was made.

But Mr Rasiah said: "We even got a couple of samples  from Bali 
police for this testing".

It would be a positive for the defence if the cannabis  was found to 
come from somewhere other than Corby's  home state of Queensland, he said.

"And they came and said 'No, (Corby's sister) Mercedes  feels, please 
don't push this angle because it is  detrimental to the case'," Mr Rasiah said.

Quoting sources close the family, the ABC also reported  it had new 
information about Corby's movements before  she entered Brisbane 
airport on October 8, 2004, the  day she left Australia for Bali.

She met an Adelaide man, in the pre-dawn darkness, on  her way to 
Brisbane's international airport that day,  causing her to almost 
miss her 6am flight, the report  said.

Mr Rasiah, who named Mercedes Corby as the key  organiser of 
Schapelle's defence, said he would have  more to say about the case 
if the attacks on his  reputation didn't stop.

"If they push us too hard, we will tell the whole world  what exactly 
took place and how it all went about," Mr  Rasiah said.
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