Corby 'should return to Australia'

SUPPORT: One in three Australians would like Schapelle Corby to be freed.

Related Links

Corby 'hanging on by a thread'

Relevant offers

Australia

Jet could 'fall from sky' warning Gay couple lose child after Kiwi porn link Catalogue of errors put Kiwi in train's way Thief goes straight after finding child porn Floods rage through NSW, Queensland Stolen python gets its own back on thief Rupert Murdoch's mum turns 103 Aussies still searching for lost rocket launchers Queensland flood evacuees wait to return home Abbott says Gillard playing sexism card

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has backed a renewed bid by Schapelle Corby's family to have the convicted drug smuggler serve her jail time in Australia.

A top psychiatrist has warned Corby will not survive her sentence if she remains in Bali's Kerobokan Prison.

Associate Professor Jonathan Phillips visited Corby in prison earlier this month and says the 32-year-old former Gold Coast beauty student is "hanging on by a thread".

Dr Phillips, former president of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, says Corby will continue to deteriorate unless she is moved.

Ms Bligh and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd have been sent Dr Phillips' 20-page report on the matter.

The premier told reporters in Brisbane on Tuesday there was nothing she could do to ensure Corby returned to Australia, but she was sympathetic.

"These matters are quite appropriately dealt with on a federal level but I have to say I have always thought it would be better if Schapelle Corby served her time in Australia," Ms Bligh said.

"These latest incidents may be an opportunity for that to be reconsidered."

But she said any new efforts would have to be done carefully or they could have "an inadvertent damaging effect".

Corby's sister Mercedes said yesterday that Dr Phillips' report was "terrifying" for the family and she hoped it would spur the Australian government into action.

"We have to get proper treatment for Schapelle, outside a jail environment and preferably in Australia, or she will die," Mercedes Corby said.

Corby, 32, was sentenced to 20 years' jail after she was caught at Bali's airport in October 2004 with 4.1kg of marijuana in her boogie board bag.

She was last week given a four-month sentence cut as part of Indonesian Independence Day celebrations.

AAP

- AAP