Schapelle Corby is a Queensland woman, aged 27, who is currently on trial in Denpasar, Bali. She is charged with the importation of 4.1 kg of marijuana into Indonesia from Australia.
Couple of points:
The Indonesian legal system requires the accused to prove their innocence - so you are “innocent until proven guilty.” If these events had occurred at Sydney Airport instead of Denpasar Airport, the police wouldn’t have had enough evidence to even warrant charging her.
The maximum sentence she could recieve for this charge is death by firing squad. Today it has been reported by the Sydney Morning Herald[time-sensitive link] that the prosecution has decided, in its supreme magnanimousness, not to ask for the death penalty. So now life-imprisonment in a Denpasar jail is on the table.
The Australian government has done basically fuck-all to help this girl, who stoutly and vehemently maintains her innocence, claiming that someone must have tampered with her bags between check-in at Sydney and arrival at Denpasar. Foreign Minister Downer has been quoted as saying, “…in our system there’s a presumption of innocence but I think all of us in Australia should let the court case flow through in the normal way” (link) and that the living conditions in SE Asian jails are “not very good.”
Jeez, I know which passport I’ll be using the next time I go OS - my Pommy one. At least then I won’t rot away in some god-forsaken jail for a crime that I almost certainly didn’t commit.
So yeah, I pit the Australian Government for not getting off it’s collective arse to help out an Australian citizen in a desperate situation. And I also pit Schapelle Corby’s extreme bad luck. She went to Bali to see her sister and have a holiday. She is of good character and has never been charged or convicted of a criminal offense. According to her friends, she was vehemently anti-drugs. Her father is dying of prostate cancer, and she’ll probably never see him again. Her mental and physical health has broken down to the point where she has frequently collapsed in court, was taken to hospital earlier this week, and vomits most mornings on her way to court.
I think it’s a tragedy and a political farce.
I think you mean “guilty until proven innocent.” And yes, this is a gross situation.
Apologies for the spelling mistakes - I have imbibed 2 glasses of wine and a long Friday. :smack:
Eek, yes I did. See above post.
What would you suggest the Australian government do, exactly?
Intercede on her behalf, perhaps? Pull some diplomatic strings? Sign a treaty enabling her to at least serve out her sentence in an Australian jail? Make like they were the U.S. or Great Britain and actually do something to improve the situation?
I don’t mean the above to sound snarky btw Princhester. I just despair for her.
I agree with you completely. The Australian Government is gutless.
I personally don’t believe she’s guilty, (unlike the other bunch of morons who just got caught), but I don’t think the government should be intervening at this point.
She has been charged. She has lawyers. She is getting a trial. She can present her case to a judge.
You want the government to do what exactly? Intervene in the legal system of a neighbouring country? And if the situation was reversed? Are you happy to have Indonesia’s government interfering in our legal system?
And seriously… they didn’t do a damn thing when the US held one of our citizens for months and months with no charges. At least Ms Corby is getting a public trial.
Wait for the trial outcome. I bet she gets off very lightly (I’m predicting a fine, maybe less than a year of jail time). Indonesia can play their “tough on drugs” stance with the heroin smuggling morons they just caught and give Ms Corby the benefit of the doubt.
Well she would, wouldn’t she? :dubious:
What exactly are they supposed to do? As stated above, would you want the Indonesian govt. stepping in if this happened here?
Oh the glurge, she even has her own site.
Nobody disputes that the Australian Government are gutless, but:
- Of course she’s not going to say she’s guilty.
- I can’t help but feel that she’s getting preferential treatment from the media because she’s a pretty girl. If she were fat, unattractive or not playing the fragile femme role, would people automatically assume her innocence? I think not.
- 4kg? That’s a fuckload of dope. I’m not sure if that’s in her favour or against it, but having that much in your luggage you’d have to be doing some *very * creative packing. For a start, I can’t imagine there’d be much room for clothes.
The dope wasn’t in her suitcase, it was in a surfboard case i believe, just sitting there next to the surfboard. This is the one thing that really makes me dubious about her guilt. I mean, you’d have to be stupid beyond comprehension to travel to Indonesia with 4 kilos of dope just thrown casually in next to your surfboard where it could be found simply by opening a single zipper.
But i tend to agree that the Australian government needs to be careful about what it does to interfere. Sure, it should provide her with the help she needs to fight the charges, but attempting to subvert the legal system of another country by placing political pressure on the government is a little more problematic.
This is a sucky situation for the girl, but I think the best course for the Australian government at this point is wait to see the outcome of the trial. If she gets off, great, justice has been served and the Aussie government hasn’t had expend any of its political capital or strong-arm another nation. If she’s convicted, and it’s more than a slap on the wrist, then her government should intervene in some way.
Why would anyone bring marijuana from Australia where it is relativley expensive into Bali where it is as cheap as chips.
She not only puts her life at risk but loses money on the marijuana as well.
It just doesn’t make sense.
Perhaps an economic message to Indonesia might do something. I wonder how things might turn out if all Australian tourists simply stopped going to Bali?
You’re right. It makes absolutely no fucking sense. In Australia, 4.1kg is thousands of dollars worth of weed. Indonesia may have brutal drug laws, but they belie the insanely low marijuana prices there; a kilo can go for as little as 50,000 rupiah ($5.17 USD!), according to this (unrelated) article. Either Corby is innocent, or she’s the stupidest drug dealer in the history of the world.
One of the links in the OP notes that this is the largest attempted importatation of marijuana ever in Indonesia, which is understandable given the price, and laughable when compared to the U.S. Arrests at the U.S./Mexico border involving hundreds or thousands of kilos of pot are a very common thing - barely newsworthy.
Yeah, I’m actually inclined to believe her “it was a plant” story: who the hell smuggles dope into Bali? As for the Aussie govt trying to intervene, well, the Indonesians are pretty touchy about their judicial turf, and any perceived meddling now is likely to piss 'em off more. I’m inclined to agree with Miller: see how the trial pans out, and then have a quiet word - promise not to lick up stink about the others as a sweetener.
Yeah, you, you dumb fuckers. They can just shoot you lot. See those big signs in the airport announcing that if you’re caught with drugs you face the death penalty? Hard to miss, aren’t they? They ain’t kidding, boys and girls, and if you’re caught with 10 kilos of heroin strapped to you they don’t make the distinction between mules and Mr Big.
A message that Indonesia should do what, exactly? Shrug their shoulders when they find 4 kilos of pot and say “I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding, enjoy your visit.”? Hand over any foreign national arrested in Indonesia to their embassy so they can be tried in their home country, but without insisting that Indonesian citizens overseas be given the same privilege?
I agree that the Australian embassy should be providing her with legal assistance, but really, how is any of this the fault of Indonesia?
You know, i feel for her, and i tend to believe her story that the dope was planted.
But the fact is that it’s unreasonable to simply expect the Indonesian government to let her go because her story sounds vaguely plausible. They caught someone with 4 kilos of dope, and their law says that this is a crime*, so it’s hard to see what argument you could make that would induce them to let her go without even a trial.
Just out of interest, if an Indonesian citizen turned up at Sydney airport with 4 kilos of grass, and claimed that it had been planted, would you believe him or her? Because, in fact, that scenario is no less likely. And how would Australians feel if the Indonesian government started dictating how people arrested in Australia should be treated?
And i continue to wonder if we’d see all this gnashing of teeth over this incident if the person arrested hadn’t been an attractive young woman.
- Note: my argument here should in no way be construed as an endorsement of the death penalty or other harsh sentences for marijuana offences. Personally, i’m in favor of legalizing the drug. I’m just making an argument about the principle of interfering in another country’s legal system.
Others have responded, really, but all this is airy fairy stuff. None of it practical, none of it going to help, and none of it would we be happy about if it were done to us.
Actually, it’s far less likely that someone would take a saleable amount of marjuana from a place where it’s worth thousands to a place where it’s worth twenty bucks, than the other way around. It’s like trying to smuggle large amounts of pot from the U.S. to Mexico - it just doesn’t happen.