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Corby Verdict - The Fall Out
CATHARINE MUNRO

RELATIVES of an Australian man jailed two years ago in South America are asking why the Federal Government is not trying to bring him home. Plans to speed up a prisoner-transfer treaty with Indonesia were being prepared last week in the days before Schapelle Corby was convicted of drug trafficking in Bali and sentenced to 20 years in jail. Only three Australian prisoners have been transferred home since a program started in 1997. Australian prisoners overseas, including Corby, are not eligible to be transferred back to Australia until they are sentenced and their appeals completed. But the family of Stephen John Sutton say that their brother must come home because he is in severe pain and there is no one on hand to take care of him.

Sutton, 41, of Lithgow, was arrested in Argentina in February 2003 in a joint operation with the Australian Federal Police to crack down on cocaine trading. Three other Australians have already been arrested and given jail terms of 10 to 13 years in the Australian courts. Meanwhile, Sutton is still awaiting trial in Argentina.

His brother, Allen, was bitter about the lack of government attention his brother had received compared with Corby.

"They are on about getting Schapelle back here. (Stephen) has been over there for over two years and hasn't even been to court."

A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said Mr Sutton's case had been delayed because he was arrested as part of a syndicate.

"We understand evidence is still being collected," the spokeswoman said.

Consular staff had visited him nine times. Mr Sutton, a pensioner, said he was concerned about his brother's health because few necessities were supplied by Argentinian authorities. Sutton had had a brain tumour when he was young and was still enduring the effects of a recent back injury, his brother said. There are 155 Australians in prisons overseas, but only those who are locked up in one of 56 countries that have signed an international convention for prisoner transfers may apply to be transferred home.

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