Australian convicted drug-smuggler Schapelle Corby has been granted parole.
The 36-year-old Gold Coast shop assistant has been granted parole from Bali’s Kerobokan Prison. She had been due to be released in September 2016.
Authorities say she was given “no special treatment” and was given parole along with 1291 other prisoners today. The governor now has to spend the next few hours going through paperwork for Schapelle and the other prisoners so it is unlikely she will be released before Monday.
Corby was accused of importing 4.2kg of cannabis into Indonesia on a flight between Brisbane and Denpasar on October 8 2004 after customs discovered a package hidden in her body board case. She alleged that the cannabis had been placed in her luggage after check-in without her knowledge. However, as her bag was only weighed as part of the sum of her travel group’s luggage at Brisbane airport, and the same sum of luggage had not been weighed at Denpasar, this has been difficult to prove.
On 27 May 2005, Corby was sentenced to 20 years prison. During a series of appeals between 2005 and 2008, her sentence was reduced to 15 years, then reinstated to 20 years.
In 2008, Corby made headlines again after being diagnosed with depression and taken from her prison cell to a hospital for treatment. In July 2008, a trip to a beauty salon within the hospital resulted in Corby being bombarded with Australian and Indonesian reporters. After being moved back to prison, she returned to the hospital in 2009 for further mental health treatment.
In 2010, a clemency appeal for full remission on the grounds of Corby’s reportedly deteriorating mental health was made to the Indonesian President. In May 2012, the Indonesian President reduced Corby’s sentence by five years.
In addition, throughout her prison sentence Corby has received 27-and-a-half months remission on her original twenty-year term.
Corby will be required to stay in Indonesia until 2017, where she will live with her sister, Mercedes.
More to come.
Top Comments
The evidence speaks for itself. You tube: The expendable. The political sacrifice of Shapelle Corby http://www.youtube.com/watc...
I'm actually outraged that she's been released, especially with the way our government has treated Indonesia. She was only given that reduction in her sentence by the president as a favour to Australia, it was basically against his election promises etc. She's guilty and she should have to serve the time for the crime she has committed, I don't care if it wouldn't be 'fair' by Australian standards, she committed the crime in Indonesia.
I don't understand your outrage. She's not free, she's on parole. She can't come home. Lots of prisoners get parole in many countries and not all prisoners serve their entire sentences. Time is often taken off for a variety of reasons.
I can't see what this has to do with Australia, other than we're about to have wall to wall on our media.
What ????? on Earth are you talking about guesst.
You make no sense.
The case against her would not stand under Australian laws. The courts would have dismissed it out of hand. She should not have been in prison at all.