DENPASAR - Protesters stormed a Bali courtroom, demanding the execution of Australian Schapelle Corby as she faced trial on drug-smuggling charges.
About 10 protesters from an Indonesian anti-narcotics group, Granat, invaded Bali's Denpasar District Court, demanding Corby be put to death for the alleged crime.
The protest triggered a furious
reaction from Corby's mother Rosleigh, who hurled water at the placard-waving group.
"You have already found my daughter guilty and she is innocent," she shouted.
The Gold Coast beauty school student has denied trying to smuggle 4.1kg of cannabis leaf and heads into Bali's Denpasar airport last year, in her unlocked boogie-board bag.
Corby, 27, claims someone must have planted the pillow case-sized stash in her luggage between Brisbane and Denpasar airports, leading to her arrest last October.
At yesterday's hearing, one protester, Nur Azizah, shouted: "There is already one person executed in Bali for 2kg of marijuana. I don't want to see Corby go free for bringing 4.1kg."
Corby's mother shouted back: "Why can't you be saying try and find evidence?"
Last week a distraught Corby broke down in court, saying there must be some evidence, somewhere - such as security camera footage - to prove her innocence.
Indonesian prosecutors claim Corby admitted owning the marijuana, and that she refused to open her bag when customs officers at an airport X-ray machine identified a suspicious package inside.
Outside the court, Rosleigh Corby told the protesters they would be punished for seeking to punish her daughter. "Do you believe in karma?" she asked.
Police and prosecutors have said they will seek the maximum penalty of death by firing squad if Corby is convicted. Her lawyers have accused customs officers of lying.
- AAP
