Tag: Schapelle Corby (page 2)

Paris Hilton is tweeting up a storm about how much she loves Bali. It's her first visit. She tweeted a few hours ago, "Make a wish. 11.1l.11"

Since I've stood up for Paris on TalkLeft so many times during her various legal difficulties, I thought I'd ask her a favor. I tweeted her in reply:

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Don't fall for the new book on Australian Schapelle Corby, sentenced to 20 years in an Indonesian prison for bringing 4 kilos of pot into Bali. The book claims Schapelle's now deceased father put the pot in her boogie board .

While the book doesn't go so far as to claim there is evidence that Schapelle knew the pot was in her board (its premise seems merely to be that after she was busted, she took the fall for her father, who died in 2008,) multiple media outlets are leading with incendiary headlines that Schapelle's guilt is now established. The author, Journalist Eamonn Duff, who works for the Sydney Morning Herald, has been coming up with these Corby family guilt scenarios for years. [More...]

The Expendable Project has released "The Transit Report" with previously unreleased documents and new evidence, about Schapelle Corby, who continues to languish in an Indonesian prison due to a 20 year sentence for importing 4.2 kilos of marijuana into Bali, a charge she has always vehemently denied.

The movie and project, a global effort by Hidden World Research Group and Hidden World Films, was originally scheduled for release six months from now. On September 7, it announced it would start publishing now, because of credible information that Schapelle tried to commit suicide via a drug overdose just before her birthday in July. News reports say she's rapidly deteriorating. [More...]

Schapelle Corby turned 34 today at the Kerokoban Jail in Bali, Indonesia, where's she serving a 20 year sentence for importing 4 kilos of marijuana to Bali, a charge she has always denied. There's new evidence it may have been planted by an airport baggage handler. More here.

Schapelle has served 6 1/2 years. She is under consideration for clemency, as are two of the defendants in the Bali 9 case whose death sentences have been upheld, one just last week. Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd was in Indonesia this week and urged clemency for all of them. [More...]

Six years ago today, Schapelle Corby was arrested at the airport in Bali when authorities found 4 kilos of marijuana in her boogie board case. She was en route from her home in Australia to visit her sister Mercedes, who lives in Bali with her husband and children.

I've been writing about her case since the news of her arrest first surfaced here in 2005. She has always maintained her innocence, and believes that a ring of corrupt airport baggage handlers put the pot in her suitcase.

The day police allege a Sydney drug ring brought almost 10 kilograms of cocaine through Sydney Airport with the help of corrupt baggage handlers is the same day Schapelle Corby flew to Bali from the same airport.

Schapelle is serving a 20 year sentence in Kerobokan Prison, widely known as a hellhole. Doctors say she has become mentally ill -- childlike -- during her six years in prison. She's being treated with anti-psychotic medication. [More...]

Schapelle Corby, imprisoned in Indonesia for 20 years after being convicted of smuggling 4 kilos of marijuana into Bali, has filed a clemency petition with the Indonesian Government which alleges, as has been reported many times the past few years, she has gone insane.

Finally, the Australian Government is supporting her:

A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith said yesterday that Canberra would support "any application by Ms Corby for clemency".

"I have made that clear to Ms Corby's family," he said. "[However] it is important to bear in mind that the decision to grant clemency is for the President of Indonesia."

It's long past time to send Shapelle home. Our prior coverage since the time of her arrest in 2005 is assembled here.

During her tour of Indonesia yesterday, Hillary Clinton told the Indonesians why she accepted the Secretary of State's job:

It was not anything I had any reason to expect or had even thought about,” Mrs. Clinton said of President Obama’s offer to her to be the nation’s chief diplomat. “I had to make a hard decision.”

Mrs. Clinton said she put aside the disappointment of the election to take Mr. Obama’s job offer because, she said, “We have so many of the same views of what we should do in the world.”

Asked who her favorite musical groups are, she quickly answered the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. I know another of her favorite groups is Jon Bon Jovi. I'm sure it was a great trip, and had I known in advance where she was headed, I would have sent her a message asking her to make one more stop on her trip.[More...]

Since 2005, I've been following the case of Australian Schapelle Corby, sentenced to 20 years in an Indonesian hellhole of a prison for allegedly smuggling 10 pounds of pot into Bali in a boogie board on a vacation, despite some evidence the pot was planted, possibly by a ring of airline baggage handlers, although that theory has since been discredited.

Her story will be told in Ganja Queen, airing on HBO on Monday, June 30.

Ganja Queen is the harrowing story of Schapelle Corby, a young Australian woman who is accused of international drug trafficking after ten pounds of marijuana are found in one of her bags while on holiday in Bali. Proclaiming her innocence, she finds herself locked in a life-and-death courtroom battle. The film is a chilling reminder of the risks all travelers take when visiting countries with vastly different criminal justice systems and cultural mores.

On Friday, Schappelle was taken from the prison to an Indonesian hospital where she is on a suicide watch. Her last appeal was denied in March. [More...]

Australian Prime Minister John Howard is out, suffering a humiliating re-election defeat after four terms in office.

I only wish his refusal to support Schapelle Corby as she rots in an Indonesian prison for 20 years following her conviction for importing 4 kilos of pot in a boogie board played a part.

During the trial, Corby wrote to Prime Minister of Australia John Howard, saying in part:

“ As a father and as a leader, I plead for your help. I did not do this. I beg for justice. I don't know how much longer I can do this. Please bring me home. ”

Howard was quoted as saying in response:

“ I feel for her. I understand why there's a lot of public sympathy for her; I would simply say that I hope justice is done and it's a fair and true verdict...I would ask the rhetorical question: My fellow Australians, if a foreigner were to come to Australia and a foreign government were to start telling us how we should handle (it), we would react very angrily to that."

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Every few weeks since 2005, I've been checking the Australian news for updates on Schapelle Corby, a 29 year old Australian who is serving 20 years in a hellhole of an Indonesian prison for smuggling 4 kilos of pot into Bali in her boogie board, a crime of which she has always maintained her innocence.. I only post updates here when there's been some actual news. (All TalkLeft coverage is accessible here.)

Schapelle's sister, Mercedes Corby, and her Balinese husband were spending five months in Bali when Schapelle was arrested. Mercedes'poignant, very moving account of how all their lives have changed is in last Sunday's Telegraph.

Thursday, there was a news article saying Australia and Indonesia are still haggling over words in the draft of their prisoner exchange treaty, which would allow Schapelle to return to Australia to finish serving her sentence.

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This being the new year, it's time to check in on Schapelle Corby who is serving 20 years in a hellhole of a Bali prison following her conviction for smuggling four kilos of pot into Bali. (Full coverage here.)

The news isn't good. Despite the fact that conditions at Kerobokan prison are disgusting, she has made friends there, is able to visit with her sister who resides in Bali and receive visits from her parents.

That is about to end. She is expecting to be moved to a prison on the remote side of the island:

Indonesian authorities are set to transfer the 29-year-old Brisbane woman to a prison in the East Java city of Malang, hundreds of kilometres from Kerobokan.....Papers authorising the transfer were sent weeks ago from Jakarta authorities to the warden of Kerobokan, Ilham Djaya, who says the transfer must go ahead because the prison is overcrowded.

It's been a while since we checked in with Schapelle Corby who is doing 20 years in a hellhole of an Indonesian prison.

Schapelle describes her conditions in a new book to be published in two weeks. Australia's Women's Weekly pubished an excerpt today. The article is not online, but quotes from it appear in the news.