Now, first off, if nobody has heard of Schapelle Corby, she is an Australian woman who was found to have several kilograms of marijuana in a boogie board bag on a flight to Bali. Questions were immediately raised as to the circumstances, as presumably only a fool would try to fly this much marijuana so loosely concealed into a country which is well known to have the death penalty as a consequence of drug smuggling.
Now to the email specifically. The first comment is that this ‘thing’ could happen to any of us easily, which it could, but never has before, ever presumably. This just seems like your typical, ‘it could happen to you’ with something that would be very rare. That annoys me already, and shows the intelligence level of people who perpetuate these types of emails.
Secondly, these comments are total crap.
She is not awaiting sentencing, she’s going through a fair trial by a fair court system in a country we have, at times, a tentative relationship with. These comments come across as if the person is trying to claim she has not been through a fair trial and is awaiting sentencing even though it is alleged she smuggled drugs. It’s not alleged, she was caught red handed with the drugs in her bag, if there are extenuating circumstances they should be proven, and they may well be, but until then there’s no evidence to show she is not a drug smuggler. A lot of people have just assumed she isn’t because Indonesia are the ‘big baddy’s with a death penalty’.
Thirdly, this sentence is a shocker.
I bet whoever made the email never gave a crap about Indonesian people facing the death penalty. But now that an Australian is subject to it, how barbaric.
So, everytime drugs are smuggled anywhere, airlines used to facilitate this are responsible? Gun companies are responsible for murder? This is just a stupid comment altogether.
And this infuriates me. If she is found guilty by a fair trial she has to be punished by the country whose laws she has violated. We, as Australia, have no right to demand a prisoner back or subvert that country’s own passage of justice.
This whole article is rife with the attitude that Indonesia doesn’t know what it’s doing and what it does is unfair, and that’s ridiculous. And people actually sign on the end of this crap and email it to Alexander Downer. The government is already putting a lot of pressure on Indonesia and have recently had a witness from a Victorian prison testify in the court room in her defense. This email just got me in the wrong spot on the end of a bad day.
I’m with you on this one. “Other countries’ legal systems are barbaric… but only when they’re applied to us!”.
The problem of course, with any death penalty, is… what if the accused really didn’t do it? Yeh yeh, most of the time they’re as guilty as sin - but what if they’re one of the few who aren’t?
I wonder if any hostage… errr, I mean… prisoner exchanges have been discussed?
I doubt it, and nor should it. The Australian Government could assist in proving her innocence, or disproving her guilt, but shouldn’t try to circumvent Indonesia’s own judicial system just because it’s different to ours. Luckily, I think that’s the way they see it. Unfortunately, most other people don’t see it that way. I’m sure they wouldn’t appreciate Indonesia claiming our judicial system was inadequate and trying to bring home one of their citizens who’d committed a crime in Australia, but these people don’t use common sense in their thinking unfortunately.
Wait, so a moron tried to smuggle drugs into Indonesia, and now some other morons are mad that the first moron may face the death penalty? I think that death is a bit much for drug offenses, but hey, that’s the law there in Indonesia. You go to another country and you are subject to its laws–what’s so hard about that to understand?
“It could happen to you”? Yeah, if I’m a complete fucking drug-trafficking moron. Or the sender of a bullshit email petition.
Let’s not even get into the fact that an e-mail petition is not worth the weight of the electrons it’s printed on. Any bozo with a modicum of programming skills can write a routine to generate signatures. I’m sure the Balinese government knows this, and will give such a petition all the attention it deserves.
Do you think whoever sent that letter is going to ask for the bullets back before putting them through the brains of any Indonesians at the consulate, seeing as he’s mailed them to the potential victims? And what if there are more than two people working there? I don’t think this person has properly thought through his death threat.
In reply to asterion, whilst you are presuming her guilt before it has been conclusively proven, if she is found guilty, then yes, your comments do apply Though if these email petition idiots let justice take it’s course, which presumably it will, then from all reports there has been doubt cast upon her guilt and most people expect her to be found guilty. However, it doesn;t help when the media insit she’s been sentenced, when really the prosecutors are requesting a sentence should she be found guilty, that’s all. People just jump to so many conclusions based on misinformation and prejudice.
I recieved this one too. I didn’t know whether or not to point out to the friend that sent it to me that email petitions are useless.
I think the stuff about it being the airlines’ fault is because her lawyers believe the dope was put there by airline employees, not because the petitioners think that airlines should check outgoing baggage for drugs. If this is the case, then yeah, this situation could happen to anybody, but I don’t see what Downer is supposed to do about it other than give whatever assistance is requested by her legal team.
If she’s guilty after all - well, stupid her for trying to smuggle drugs through South-East Asia. It’s pretty well known that the death penalty applies in many places there, so you can’t really complain about it after you’re caught.
