http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,15302451-2,00.htmlKeep out of Corby's case: PMPRIME Minister John Howard has urged Australians to be careful in commenting on the Schapelle Corby case, saying once again that he cannot interfere in the Indonesian justice system.
But the Government would do everything it should to help provide information relevant to the case, he said.
Mr Howard said he could not push for an official pardon for Ms Corby.
"You don't ask for a pardon until there is something to be pardoned," he said on Sydney radio 2GB.
"It is tremendously important that people be circumspect in what they say. I do feel for her. The whole country feels for her. But she is in another country.
"We would rightly resent a foreign government telling the Supreme Court of New South Wales how to conduct the criminal trial of an American or an Englishman or an Indonesian if that person was charged with an offence in Australia."
Ms Corby, 27, is on trial in Bali accused of smuggling 4.1kg of marijuana in October. She has persistently declared her innocence.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) commissioner Mick Keelty, who was last week accused of acting dangerously in talking publicly about Ms Corby's defence case, has meanwhile defended his comments.
"I have never said publicly one way or the other about Schapelle Corby's innocence or guilt," Mr Keelty told Macquarie Radio.
But he said there was no evidence of bag tampering to transfer drugs from one Australian state to another.
"There are tens of thousands of people who travel to Bali each and every year," Mr Keelty said.
"The evidence and the intelligence of interference with those bags or drugs suddenly arriving in Bali just doesn't exist."
The Law Council of Australia and Ms Corby's lawyers said Mr Keelty's comments last week had potentially been harmful to her case, and could have been considered prejudicial if she was being tried in Australia.
In March, Mr Keelty also criticised evidence given by Victorian prisoner John Ford in a Bali court that another man owned the marijuana found in Ms Corby's luggage.
Today, he said Ms Corby's defence team had alleged the AFP refused to fingerprint Ms Corby's bag and take phone calls from Ms Corby's defence team.
"What I have done is be concerned about allegations ... made against the AFP, now it just happens that most of these allegations would be in support for Schapelle Corby.
"We were being criticised for things we didn't do and I saw it as my role when that criticism was addressed at the AFP that I should stand up for the 5000 people who hadn't done the things that were allegedly done.
"I don't have a vendetta against Schapelle Corby.
"I have not tried to discredit her evidence ... I'm defending my organisation, and the people in it are doing enormous work in terms of drug trafficking and arrests." While taking no direct action in the case, the Australian Government agreed last week to a request from Ms Corby's lawyers to write a letter explaining to the Bali court new information involving baggage handlers who have may helped smuggle cocaine through Sydney airport.
Mr Howard said the relevance of the letter - which made no mention of the Corby case - came in the last sentence, which said police believed these baggage handlers were on duty on October 8, 2004.
That was the day Ms Corby flew through Sydney en route to Bali.
"It is carefully worded, as it should be, because all we can do with a letter like this is provide information that might be relevant," Mr Howard said.
"The question of the relevance of this information is ultimately a matter for the Indonesian court to determine.
"I have been very circumspect, the Attorney-General has been very circumspect, and I believe everybody in any position of authority in Australia should be circumspect if we are really concerned that this girl receives a fair trial."
Ron Bakir, the Gold Coast businessman bankrolling Ms Corby's defence, said, however, the letter needed additional paragraphs.
The defence team would like the letter to be "more tailored" towards Ms Corby's case, Mr Bakir said.
"We are asking the Foreign Affairs Department and the Prime Minister's office to add a couple of paragraphs into that letter, which is going to be crucial," Mr Bakir said on Channel 9.
He would not say what he wanted included in the paragraphs.
"We need the letter to be a bit more tailored, so to speak, towards Schapelle Corby, and we'll be asking for specific things."
The Government's brief letter to the Bali court outlines allegations over the involvement of Australian baggage handlers in drug smuggling through airports.
Mr Bakir said: "Obviously we have a problem in Australia.
"We've been asking for corroboration from the federal police for a number of months.
"We asked the federal police to come and testify in Indonesia in relation to that problem and they said there isn't a problem.
"We now confirm from the foreign affairs department that there is a problem, and all of Australia knows there is a problem, so I guess the foreign affairs department need to tell us one or two more things, which I am confident they will this morning."
Mr Bakir said he could not say how much influence the letter would have on the Bali verdict.
"The judges are going to look at the letter, but how much is another story.
"The letter is better late than never and we thank them (the Government) very much.
"They could have not issued it at all." Mr Howard said he didn't know the full circumstances of the case and very few did.
He said he had expressed the hope that there would be a fair and true verdict.
"That is all we can ask for - that justice be truly done," he said.
"I will do everything, and the Government will do everything, that it is proper to do to help to help the defence in the preparation of this case."
Mr Howard later denied allegations from the chief prosecutor in the case, Ida Bagus Wiswantanu, that the Australian Government was trying to influence the case.
"The letter is not interference," Mr Howard said.
"The letter represents the provision of factual information that the defence lawyers are entitled to have, they asked for, and it has been made available to the court."
He said he had been told Ms Corby's defence wanted the court to see Channel 9 footage showing alleged involvement by Sydney airport drug smugglers, but the court had refused.
Instead, the court would accept a letter containing "certain facts" from the Australian Government relating to the smuggling allegations, he said.
"What that means for the consideration of the case by the Indonesian court is a matter for the court to determine," Mr Howard said.
"I hope that the verdict is fair and true and right and just."
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