The
following breaches occurred with respect to general preliminary aspects:
Articles
54 and 56 (1) –
The right to legal aid lasts throughout
the whole proceedings whenever the defendant is interrogated, from the beginning
of the preliminary examination by the police interrogator to the trial, and at
every stage.
Schapelle
Corby did not have legal counsel at the preliminary interrogation at Denpasar
airport.
Article
177 (1)
– The right to the assistance of an
interpreter free of charge if one cannot understand or speak the language used
in court. The interpreter, to be appointed by the judge/chairman of the session,
must promise under oath or pledge to truly interpret all that has to be
interpreted.
Article
53 –
Extends the right outlined in Article 177
(1) to the preliminary examination.
Schapelle
Corby did not have an interpreter at the preliminary interrogation. She was
interrogated by airline staff whose English-language proficiency has never been
established and she does not understand Indonesian. For example, when Customs Officer Winata was
interviewed by Liz Hayes on '60 Minutes' in November 2004, her questions to Winata
were translated into Indonesian and Winata’s responses were in Indonesian and
translated by an interpreter into English. Would this be necessary if Winata had
good English speaking skills and good English listening skills?
Article
51
– The suspect or defendant has the
right to be clearly informed in a language he understands about what has been
presumed about him at the start of an examination or the charges brought against
him: a formulation which already implies the right to the assistance of an
interpreter. (see Article 53, above)
Articles
52 and 153 (2) -
When the suspect is interrogated he must
be in the condition to speak freely without pressure being brought to bear upon
him by anyone and in any form.
Best
calculations suggest that Schapelle Corby was interrogated for nine hours –
after 12 hours of travel. The drive to
Brisbane
Airport
began at
4.30am
, so Schapelle Corby must have awakened around
3.30 am
to prepare for the drive to the airport. How much sleep did she have that
night? How long had she been awake by the time the preliminary interrogation
started? She must have been suffering from travel fatigue, a recognized medical
condition, and would have been in no condition to be interrogated, especially
without the assistance of a lawyer and interpreter.
Articles
69 and 70 (1) –
If
the suspect has been arrested or detained, the legal adviser in turn has the
right to be present and to speak with his client whenever he is being
questioned, from the moment of arrest or detention and at all stages of the
proceedings.
Schapelle
Corby’s access to a lawyer appears to have been hampered or denied for many
hours. If “prima facie” evidence is all that the Indonesian justice needs to
convict a suspect, why did the airport authorities interrogate Schapelle Corby
for so long before allowing her to contact a lawyer?
Article
66 - The
suspect or defendant shall not be burdened with the duty of providing evidence.
The
following events resulted in the defendant being forced
to seek evidence of any kind in a desperate bid to prove her innocence:
·
The
outer plastic bag was handled by many people without protective gloves before
the bag could be tested for fingerprints.
·
The
total weight of the baggage was not compared with the total weight checked in at
Brisbane
airport.
·
Neither
an audio nor a visual recording was presented to the court of the initial
discovery of the drugs at the customs counter, nor of the initial interrogation
which took place in the interview room later
·
The
X-ray machine was not equipped to take photographs - so no image was available
to show the location of the marijuana in the boogie board bag before it got to
customs.
Article
72 –
The evidence collected by the
investigators is accessible to the suspect and his counsel. On their request,
the official concerned must provide them with a copy of the report of the
preliminary examination.
What
about access to the marijuana, which was refused throughout?
Breaches
of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR):
Article
14 (3)
(a):
To be informed promptly and in detail in a language which he understands of the
nature and cause of the charge against him.
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