Schapelle Corby May Come Home!

Corby may come home

SCHAPELLE Corby's chances of returning to Australia to serve out the rest of her 20-year sentence have been boosted following confidential negotiations.

Home Affairs minister Bob Debus has held high-level talks in Jakarta aimed at finalising a prisoner transfer treaty with Indonesia that could bring Corby home within a year.

Mr Debus met with Indonesia's Attorney-General and Foreign Minister a week ago to hammer out details of the proposed treaty, which has languished over the past 18 months after negotiations stalled on several crucial details.

A signed treaty would allow Corby and at least three members of the Bali Nine to serve out the remainder of their sentences in Australian jails, close to family and in more comfortable conditions than those in Bali's Kerobokan prison.

The government is committed to securing a workable and effective prisoner transfer agreement with Indonesia, Mr Debus said. "I raised the matter at the highest levels with the Attorney-General and the Foreign Minister – the talks were constructive and our two countries are making progress towards resolving some of the ongoing concerns," Mr Debus said.

Corby, arrested in 2004 at Bali's Denpasar airport after 4.2kg of marijuana was found in her body board bag, was jailed for 20 years but has maintained her innocence.

She was denied an expected reduction in her sentence at Christmas because she had been found in possession of a mobile phone several months earlier. Six weeks ago her father died in Queensland after a long battle with cancer.

In the past some members of her family have suggested she would prefer to remain in Kerobokan prison rather than return to Australia. But friends have since dismissed these claims, saying Schapelle would welcome any chance to be close to her Gold Coast family, possibly in a women's correctional centre near Brisbane.

Corby has described Kerobokan prison as a disgusting slum with no running water or power. A plan last year to move her to another jail in Java hundreds of kilometres away was shelved when authorities later declared that conditions at Kerobokan had improved.

It is believed Mr Debus is not the first cabinet minister to raise the possibility of signing off on a prisoner transfer deal since the government's election victory last November.

A succession of Government figures have visited Jakarta since Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has made it clear he wanted relations between Australia and Indonesia to improve during his three-year term. A prisoner transfer treaty is seen as a crucial plank in the new relationship. But several sticking points remain with the Indonesian government remain, including how to marry the Australian system of applying parole conditions with the Indonesia practice of handing out remissions for good behaviour.

While the new treaty is expected to be applied retrospectively, it will not provide any comfort for members of the Bali Nine heroin ring on death row. Six of the nine face death by firing squad, including ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, along with drug mule Scott Rush.

Mr Rudd told Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono shortly after the election that he would make a personal appeal for clemency for the six Australians on death row if their subsequent legal appeals fail.Indonesia has asserted that death row prisoners be excluded from any prisoner transfer treaty because Australia does not practice capital punishment.

The treaty could send three others, including convicted drug mule Renae Lawrence – the only female member of the Bali Nine – to Australia to complete their 20-year sentences.

Australia already has prisoner transfer treaties in place with Thailand, Vietnam and China.

The new treaty with Indonesia was first raised several years ago and former Attorney General Philip Ruddock had hoped to have it signed in 2006.

But negotiations stalled soon after following a deterioration in the relationship between the two countries. By the middle of last year an impasse had been reached that made it seem unlikely the deal would ever be finalised.

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