When the verdict was delivered Schapelle was told to stand and it was translated to her. Schapelle turned to her female translator and reacted in horror. I looked at the young female prosecutor, who had her hands over her mouth. Maybe she sensed the impact a 20 year prison sentence would have on another woman of similar age. As the verdict was delivered I heard some whooping and screaming from the back of the court and shouts of, “She is innocent, let her go home.” A brief moment of chaos reigned as people scuffled at the back. I could not understand what the judge was saying and asked someone else what the actual sentence was.
Soon after the sentence was read, the Keystone Cops assembled outside right next to where I was standing and formed a corridor for Schapelle to pass. Again chaos reigned with Australian women screaming. One shouted, “Stop bloody pushing you animals, bloody idiots.” The cops were linking arms and shoving people out of the way. Schapelle was led out past me to a waiting police vehicle out front, a stout policeman holding her by the arm and a posse of other police around her. This group was followed by the press corps with cameras held high and microphones on poles. One young Australian news cameraman was lying on the floor dazed and scratched, as he and a small tree were knocked over by the stampede.
On her way out various elements of the Corby supporters club screamed insults and proclamations that she is innocent. One Corby supporter read a pre-written message that said this was a travesty and Schapelle should be released. I saw a group of media hounds circling Schapelle’s sister, Mercedes. She read a message in Indonesian and screamed at the media when they asked for a translation. I must say the Corby clan carry with them the same degree of class as the Jerry Springer Show, and there was a circus-like atmosphere outside the court waiting for the next outburst. I saw Ron Bakir, Schapelle’s financial backer talking to the cameras and head off, still followed by them.
Wondering what people’s reaction was to the verdict I asked the young Australians who were next to me at the court window. They told me that 20 years was a sentence that was expected. Outside, close to the street large groups of police gathered and chatted amongst themselves. A lady from Ireland said “No comment,” when I asked her opinion of the verdict and sentence. Then she said, “I think she is guilty, although all of Australia thinks she is innocent.” Talking to a gentleman from Australian TV and his older Australian friend, they both agreed Schapelle is guilty and thought 20 years was a fair sentence. So I guess it depends on who you ask.
My feelings towards Schapelle while watching through the window were that I see someone suffering. Whether she knew about the drugs or not, I think it’s true to say she will never be caught doing the same again. I respect Indonesian law but at the same time do not see the point in locking her up for 20 years. The likely scenario is that after exhausting appeals Schapelle will be sent to Australia to serve her sentence.
Stepping out of the court compound onto the busy street I quickly caught a Bluebird taxi and sped off. How different my afternoon would be to Schapelle’s, I thought. At that moment in time my freedom seemed a gift, I could go where I wanted. Arriving at my house in Seminyak I asked Ika if she wanted to cool down in a swimming pool. The Cin Cin restaurant on Jl. Dhyana Pura has a nice pool and now that Ika is almost 8 months pregnant she gets hot. While Ika swam I typed this article, checked my photos and thought about the whole situation. Schapelle is young and cute, that is what saved her. If anyone else was caught in her situation they would probably do what they have always done, lock the door and throw away the key. Hopefully people will think twice before messing with drugs overseas from now on.
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The retardation of the boycotters is just rich. She would have gotten jail time anywhere, if not a bullet in the back of the head. Like them or not, Indonesia has drug laws. Corby was incapable of producing evidence that exonerated her of the charges she was accused of, and implicated herself with her words and actions. Given that the courts had the option of executing her, her sentence is lenient and in keeping with the sentence she would have gotten in many countries- including the US. Possession of 9lb of marijuana entering the states would probably be treated no more leniently than in Indonesia. Whether you agree in philosophy with the law is frankly irrelevant- I think drug laws are retarded too, but, bottom line, they exist.
To everyone who claims she’s innocent: prove it. I’m sure she’d appreciate the help, because she couldn’t.
To everyone not planning to go to Bali in retribution: grow up.
To everyone wringing their hands about how “this could happen to anyone”: yeah, anyone dumb enough to try to smuggle a huge load of ganja into a third-world country. If you’re that concerned about getting framed, lock your bags and keep them in sight all the time.
In any other normal country the evidence would have been chucked out because the cops just didn’t feel like taking fingerprints.
Also the lack of a before and after weight. A non farked country would have been forced to throw away the drugs as evidence because cops just didn’t feel like doing what they were supposed to do.
Remember Grace? Unmerited favor? All concerned, the convicted and the Indonesian government could use a little.
Quite a range of comments here. I must admit that I am completely non-plussed by the attitudes of those who applaud the verdict.On one site, I read the following from one of the judges who said that the testimony of the (other) witnesses must be disallowed because it is hearsay etc, but the statements of the police must be admitted BECAUSE THEY ARE SWORN OFFICERS OF THE LAW. Now, if you think about that for more than a millisecond or two, you can’t help but come to the conclusion that even holding a trial is not necessary. Just take the word of the cop and jail/execute the accused. Hitler would indeed be proud of that state of affairs. As for the argument put forward by some, and I think even Howard has alluded to this, that Indonesia is a new democracy and we therefore should make allowances for its simple but harsh judicial system: well that stinks. What??, are we supposed to just write Schapelle off as just a little “collateral” damage. Bullshit!!!. The fact is that the “trial” was nothing better than a kangeroo court. Anyone with just half a brain can see that she did not get a fair trial.No fingerprinting. Refusal to weigh her baggage. Refusal to supply examples of grass to AFP for analysis. and total disregard to ALL testimony except that of the customs/police.
What I’d like to see. Someone go to Bali and plant some grass (or heavier stuff) into those judges’ cars, offices, homes etc. But then again, what a waste of time… they’d be untouchable.
I gave to the Tsunami appeal. Never again. Oh!, and one last point about the beautiful people of Bali. Corby has been to Bali 5 or 6 times since she was 16. Spending her holiday money there and helping them keep their economy going. So, when a phone poll was conducted of some 400 local Balinese just before the verdict, asking what they thought, how did they respond??? 92% plus said Guilty. Give ‘em nothing: let ‘em rot in their own corruption.
Quite a range of comments here. I must admit that I am completely non-plussed by the attitudes of those who applaud the verdict.On one site, I read the following from one of the judges who said that the testimony of the (other) witnesses must be disallowed because it is hearsay etc, but the statements of the police must be admitted BECAUSE THEY ARE SWORN OFFICERS OF THE LAW. Now, if you think about that for more than a millisecond or two, you can’t help but come to the conclusion that even holding a trial is not necessary. Just take the word of the cop and jail/execute the accused. Hitler would indeed be proud of that state of affairs. As for the argument put forward by some, and I think even Howard has alluded to this, that Indonesia is a new democracy and we therefore should make allowances for its simple but harsh judicial system: well that stinks. What??, are we supposed to just write Schapelle off as just a little “collateral” damage. Bullshit!!!. The fact is that the “trial” was nothing better than a kangeroo court. Anyone with just half a brain can see that she did not get a fair trial.No fingerprinting. Refusal to weigh her baggage. Refusal to supply examples of grass to AFP for analysis. and total disregard to ALL testimony except that of the customs/police.
What I’d like to see. Someone go to Bali and plant some grass (or heavier stuff) into those judges’ cars, offices, homes etc. But then again, what a waste of time… they’d be untouchable.
I gave to the Tsunami appeal. Never again. Oh!, and one last point about the beautiful people of Bali. Corby has been to Bali 5 or 6 times since she was 16. Spending her holiday money there and helping them keep their economy going. So, when a phone poll was conducted of some 400 local Balinese just before the verdict, asking what they thought, how did they respond??? 92% plus said Guilty. Give ‘em nothing: let ‘em rot in their own corruption.
>police must be admitted BECAUSE THEY ARE SWORN
>OFFICERS OF THE LAW. Now, if you think about that
>for more than a millisecond or two, you can’t help
>but come to the conclusion that even holding a
>trial is not necessary. Just take the word of the
>cop and jail/execute the accused. Hitler would
>indeed be proud of that state of affairs. As for
>the argument put forward by some, and I think even
>Howard has alluded to
At this stage, I would like to invoke Godwin’s Law.
http://tinyurl.com/a2gza
>The fact is that the “trial” was nothing better
>than a kangeroo court. Anyone with just half a
>brain can see that she did not get a fair
>trial.No fingerprinting. Refusal to weigh her
>baggage. Refusal to supply examples of grass to
>AFP for analysis. and total disregard to ALL
>testimony except that of the customs/police.
The people that didn’t record the weights of the bags were in Brisbane.
And the “drugs were in the bag therefore is yours” argument was good enough for Australia in “The Melbourne Incident”.
http://tinyurl.com/76pvj
>As for the argument put forward by some, and I
>think even Howard has alluded to this, that
>Indonesia is a new democracy and we therefore
>should make allowances for its simple but harsh
>judicial system: well that stinks. What??, are we
>supposed to just write Schapelle off as just a
>little “collateral” damage. Bullshit!!!.
5 Japanese. 15 year sentences. 10 year jail terms. Were they “collateral damage”?
By the way, apparently Shapelle Corby’s legal team are preparing for an appeal. When anyone here writes a letter to SBY or to the Indonesians to lodge your protest, be sure to provide them with a URL for this page. I’m sure the rants and raves, threats and insults will help them see her case in a different light.
Or they can find these comments via Google themselves.
>police must be admitted BECAUSE THEY ARE SWORN
>OFFICERS OF THE LAW. Now, if you think about that
>for more than a millisecond or two, you can’t help
>but come to the conclusion that even holding a
>trial is not necessary. Just take the word of the
>cop and jail/execute the accused. Hitler would
>indeed be proud of that state of affairs. As for
>the argument put forward by some, and I think even
>Howard has alluded to
At this stage, I would like to invoke Godwin’s Law.
http://tinyurl.com/a2gza
>The fact is that the “trial” was nothing better
>than a kangeroo court. Anyone with just half a
>brain can see that she did not get a fair
>trial.No fingerprinting. Refusal to weigh her
>baggage. Refusal to supply examples of grass to
>AFP for analysis. and total disregard to ALL
>testimony except that of the customs/police.
The people that didn’t record the weights of the bags were in Brisbane.
And the “drugs were in the bag therefore is yours” argument was good enough for Australia in “The Melbourne Incident”.
http://tinyurl.com/76pvj
>As for the argument put forward by some, and I
>think even Howard has alluded to this, that
>Indonesia is a new democracy and we therefore
>should make allowances for its simple but harsh
>judicial system: well that stinks. What??, are we
>supposed to just write Schapelle off as just a
>little “collateral” damage. Bullshit!!!.
5 Japanese. 15 year sentences. 10 year jail terms. Were they “collateral damage”?
By the way, apparently Shapelle Corby’s legal team are preparing for an appeal. When anyone here writes a letter to SBY or to the Indonesians to lodge your protest, be sure to provide them with a URL for this page. I’m sure the rants and raves, threats and insults will help them see her case in a different light.
Or they can find these comments via Google themselves.
Anyone know the address of the Kerokoban Jail?
Nice comment AltOpt, you’re right, I wonder also the reaction of the higher court judges who will handle Corby’s appeal if they read some insulting comments here on them, their beloved country, and so on. You may say our judicial system is unjust if they make Corby’s sentence WORSE because of those insulting comments. But, what can I say? They are just human being with emotion as you’re. If I am in the same position as them I will react that result in lifetime sentence or at least 30 years sentence to give you a lesson learnt on respecting other people law. I bet you as an Indonesian I really love to write a letter informing them on CIVILIZED behaviour you showed, and I wonder if you think than that Judge Sirait is an honorable man allowing him to be insulted by CIVILIZED Corby’s family and supporters. IF YOU CAN INSULT US, IF YOU CAN BOYCOTT BALI, I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE YOU THAT WE CAN MAKE ALL MUCH WORSE FOR SCHAPELLE, JUST WAIT UNTIL MY LETTER IS READ BY JUDGES AND MANY INDONESIANS.
Of course, it’s a joke, I mean I’ll never write a letter as such, don’t worry, we’re not that horrible
Only stupid idots would say she is guilty.
Anyone who says she should stay there are probably involved themselves. Afterall your safe if she is behind bars. What i don’t understand is ‘there’ you can buy any drug if you have the cash or something to bribe with, seems its probably indonesians panting these drugs on innocent tourists, after all if they didnt have anything to hide they would access the evidence in detail, of course there not going to catch there own, the judge is probably paying them well, what a setup.
The truth cannot remain hidden forever. Why cant we go in and break her out. There going to kill australians, it should be an eye for an eye. WHen she one day is finally found innocent and she will be.. i hope she goes for gold and gets rich after all the misery she is and has been through.
Wheres another Tsunami when you need it!! Yes there were alot of innocent people suffer through the tsunami, but i don’t see many wanting to stand by us in a time of need. my your country struggle finacially and go to ruins. Wouldnt it be good to be able to put Bali legal system on trial here, we have always been a reasonably fair country but in this case, your country is going to collapse.
Skye, before you call anybody else idiot, please read this:
http://www.farisqc.observationdeck.org/?p=190
see as stated before people have short memories, she will be forgotten, its been 3 days now and no more comments, about time,
I for one will never travel to a country where your life is taken away for possessing a sack of dried leaves while leaders of organizations responsible for many deaths go free.
Seems a bit harsh to me, but it’s their country. As for me I’ll stay out of it.
… Somewhere in the U.S.A.
Corby and the mob
Andrew Bolt
01jun05
AND now to the verdict on the Schapelle Corby case. I find the defendant guilty of xenophobia, spite, boorishness and a self-righteous tribal hysteria.
No, I don’t mean Corby.
I’m referring to the weeping and bellowing mob that is demanding we do all it takes — even starve the poorest Indonesians — to free this convicted drug trafficker. “Our” Schapelle.
What a shock to see the beast of mob rule roar like this, and in support of a woman who seems on the evidence more likely to be guilty than she’s painted.
Yes, Corby may be as innocent as she says. But picture how she must look, and how we all now look, to an Indonesian, whether a judge or a citizen.
Here is a surfer girl who worked as a bar hostess in Tokyo’s nightclub area, flying into Bali for reportedly the fifth time in six years.
(Corby, a student beautician who’d scraped up cash from working at a fish-and-chip shop, told 60 Minutes she’d been to Bali “five or six times since I was 16”.)
Customs officials screen her bags and detect something suspicious. They watch her, and later tell a court she seems nervous. Her bodyboard bag is more than twice its usual weight, bulging with an extra something the size of a stuffed pillow.
Actually, she says later, she’d only dragged her bag, and had so much other luggage she couldn’t tell its weight was unusual, or that there was anything inside but a bodyboard and flippers. Yes, well.
Two police and two customs officials agree on what happened next. They say Corby’s brother James carried the bag for her to the customs area, where officer I Gusti Nyoman Winata asked her to open it.
Corby zipped open the front pocket. Now the main zip, demanded Winata.
“The suspect (seemed) to panic,” he later testified.
“When I opened the bag a little bit, she stopped me and said, ‘No!’
“I asked why. She answered, ‘I have some . . .’ She looked confused.”
ABC’s Lateline showed Winata re-enacting Corby’s lunge to stop him opening her bag. He seemed as honest as Corby does, and said he had no doubt of her guilt.
Winata looked inside and found 4.1kg of top-quality marijuana, stowed in two airlock plastic bags, one tucked inside the other.
What is it, he asked?
“It’s marijuana,” the officials heard Corby reply.
Keep thinking how this all must look to an Indonesian. Who would you believe?
Think how it seems when the marijuana turns out to be hydroponically grown, and worth anywhere up to $80,000 in Bali, where it is prized by expatriates who are sick of the weak local weed and feel safer buying from a tourist. Big profits.
Keep picturing. The Indonesians learn that Corby, although having no criminal record, comes from a wild and woolly family.
One of her brothers is in jail for burglary and stealing, her mother is on to her fourth partner after having six children by three men. Her father had a minor conviction some 30 years ago for possessing marijuana.
Sure, none of that makes her guilty, but how would all this make Corby seem to an Indonesian? Here’s a tip: Not like she came from the responsible land of the straight-and-narrow.
I T gets worse. Corby’s defence team is soon headed by a salesman who looks like a spiv and is a former bankrupt who still owes creditors plenty.
Her main defence witness becomes an alleged rapist flown in from a Melbourne jail to tell how he heard some crook who’d heard some other crook say Corby was unwittingly carrying drugs for crooks operating at the Brisbane and Sydney airport terminals.
With Australians like this behind Corby, it’s a wonder the whole country wasn’t tossed into the cell with her.
The judges are then asked to believe these unknown smugglers took the marijuana into a high-security area at Brisbane in easy-to-see-through plastic and popped it into a random bag to be flown to another high-security area in Sydney.
Why the smugglers would do that, rather than simply drive the drugs down to Sydney by car, all safe, no one can say. That they then let their valuable drugs fly off to Bali is another mystery.
No wonder our own Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty dismissed Corby’s theory as “flimsy”. Corby’s judges must have thought her team took them for idiots.
Idiots? They soon learned plenty of Australians took them for far worse. And now it was not Corby on trial, and losing, but Australia.
In one heady spasm, hundreds of thousands of Australians became certain that Corby the beautiful battler was in fact innocent.
Suddenly she was the star of a reality-TV Perils of Pauline — complete with cartoon-like big breasts, every-woman prettiness and more tears than a soapie. It helped the plot that she was repeatedly filmed hands bound and besieged, pale in a jabbering, jostling crowd of brown foreigners.
Damn those natives. “The judges don’t even speak English, mate, they’re straight out of the trees, if you excuse my expression,” raged 2GB Sydney fill-in host Malcolm T. Elliott.
“Whoa, give them a banana and away they go.”
Others screamed that the judges were lying Muslims out for revenge (in fact, the chief judge was a Christian, and the other two Hindus).
Newspapers attacked Indonesia’s courts as corrupt and their jails as temples of “gloating sadism” where there was “little sympathy of foreigners, for which you may perhaps read Christians”. Save “our” Schapelle from the demon heathen!
No surprise, then, that Indonesian officials here were bombarded with so many threats and insults that Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer had to plead for them to be left alone. What would we say of Indonesians if our own diplomats were monstered like this?
Now Corby’s defenders demand we boycott struggling Bali. Actor Russell Crowe, among others, even warned Indonesia to remember we gave money for its tsunami victims — as if we only gave charity in exchange for passes out of jail.
Sick, but the feeling has grown. The Salvation Army, out on its Red Shield appeal, had to promise not to send donations to Indonesia. Let their poor suffer for “our” Schapelle.
Meanwhile, radio hosts insisted the Prime Minister call the Indonesian President to fix things in court for Corby, as if such interference wasn’t plainly corrupt.
Worryingly, even senior politicians lost their heads in the hysteria, with Justice Minister Chris Ellison vowing to try bringing Corby home in a “one-off” prisoner exchange. The other 150 Australians in jail overseas should get breast implants.
HAVE we lost our heads? Are we really such a vile rabble?
What must Indonesians make of this hissing mob that threatens their diplomats, vilifies their country, blackmails them with aid and treats their judges as the corrupt playthings of our politicians? And all this for the sake of a convicted drug smuggler who seems quite probably guilty, and only possibly innocent.
Even our whinges about their drug laws must seem bizarre. Guess who truly has the worst laws — Indonesia, which gave Corby 20 years’ jail for having 4.1kg of marijuana; or Victoria, which meanwhile gave a mere 12-month community service order to a teacher found with 29kg — and let her keep her teaching licence?
So how must we seem to Indonesians? Like barbarians, or even terrorists, and it’s hard at the moment to think them very wrong.
bolta@heraldsun.com.au
I think she is innocent…unfortunately the political system does not agree…what kind of world do we live in and why do our laws change constantly?!???
Hi Nick, It is a very very sad story. Schapelle corby seems to me to be innocent. But the question i ask is she has been to Bali a handful of times, why on earth wasn’t her luggage locked? I really do feel for this girl but travelling to countries like this people must be aware that this is the risk u take.The laws in indonesia involving drugs are ridiculous but people all over the world are familiar with the consequences even if they are innocent. There is a simple solution DONT GO. This poor girl has paid the ultimate price.
Using her charm to cheat, Schapelle Corby deserves and fits perfect for capital punishment.
i have written 2 every local official there is in australia who can help her but it dosen’t seem to be enough.How can they do this to her she had 4.5 of marijuana i think she’s innocent but 4 the people that don’t no1 else in there court system has had a sentence longer than 5 years up 2 10km of marijuana so she gets 20 yrs reduced 2 15 they should have given her the death sentence how will this poor girl make it.We have 2 fight 4 her if we wont stand up 4 one of our own who will.
I think quite often aboutMs. Corby. My heart goes out to her and her family. I believe she is
innocent and wonder what steps, if any, are being
taken by the Australians to get her released.
Indonesia needed and still needs so much money to rebuild, one would think she could be traded.
At the beginning of this that was a point that was pondered; that Ms. Corby was being treated as she was because Australia hadn’t “gotten on board” in the relief effort as much as the
Indonesian govt. would have liked.
Why should the australian government do anything to help a convicted drug trafficker?? Remember the pedophile–a former australian diplomat (!!) in Karangasem, who was recently convicted then hanged himself? I dont see his case coming up on this blog that often!!!
Whoops..
Heres another one sitting in a ” Lucky Country”…
thinking that guilty drug smugglers can be traded with the poor countries for sacks of rice, trinkets and blankets.
God save Idiots from their profound ignorance…
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