Posted on 05/29/2005 1:03:37 PM PDT by wagglebee
CHAPELLE Corby is suffering cruel abuse and racial taunts in jail as Indonesian authorities move to keep her in prison for life.
The Indonesian Government yesterday backed the prosecution bid to toughen Corby's 20-year jail sentence for smuggling 4.1 kilograms of marijuana into Bali's airport last October.
"The 20 years in jail handed down by the Denpasar District Court is too light," Indonesian Attorney-General Abdul Rahman Sale told the Bali Post newspaper.
"She deserves to be sentenced to life."
As the reality of the marathon jail term sank in, Corby, 27, issued a heartfelt thank you to the nation.
"Thank you Australia. Thank you for standing by me," she said through her lawyers.
"Thank you for being there with me."
In other developments:
IT emerged long-term inmates of the dirty and overcrowded prison where she is being held have life expectancies of only 10 years.
THE trial judge defended his verdict as just.
HER family fears she may take her life if she is left to rot in prison.
MEMBERS of the Bali 9 were left dispirited after hearing for the first time that Corby had been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
THE Federal Government is offering to pay for the services of two top QCs with expertise in appeals in Indonesian law.
Corby's Indonesian lawyer, Vasu Rasiah, said she was struggling inside the notorious Kerobokan prison.
"Schapelle is very emotional - sometimes she is smiling, sometimes she is crying," he said.
"She's undergoing deep shock."
"Five or 10 years maybe you can understand, but 20 years - she just can't comprehend the time frame."
Ms Corby's cousin, who gave her name only as Nina, described the Australian's jail cell as a "disgusting, dirty and overcrowded place".
"She says the Indonesians inside are giving her hell because she wears western clothes and she can't speak Indonesian," she said.
The jail, near the Balinese capital Denpasar, was built for 366 prisoners, but holds 525. Among them are the Bali bombers.
The "Smiling Assassin" Amrozi - so-called because he laughed when punished for his role in killing 88 Australians - has yelled abuse at Corby as she tried to exercise.
Kerobokan prison doctor Anak Agung Gede Hartawan said common diseases included respiratory ailments and skin conditions, while many prisoners complained of headaches.
AIDS/HIV was rife, because corrupt officials turned a blind eye to drug abuse - indeed they are implicated in supplying them.
Dr Hartawan said 11 prisoners were confirmed carriers of HIV/AIDS, but dozens more were thought to have the virus.
Corby shares her 5m-wide cell with seven other women.
She will be forced to wash with a small bucket of untreated water and a ladle.
The squat toilet is near the food preparation area and the risk of contracting gastric disease is high.
For up to 20 hours a day she will be confined to her cell, where she will sleep on a mat on a tiled floor under a fluorescent light that is never switched off.
Chief judge Linton Sirait defended the guilty verdict, dismissing public angst the decision has caused.
"I am responsible for my verdict to the God, not to the people."
Corby's mother Rosleigh had screamed after the verdict that the judges would lose sleep over their decision, but yesterday Judge Sirait said he had slept "very well last night".
He said had not let Corby's emotion influence the decision.
"A judge is not allowed to bring his emotion to the case, so the judge decides in accordance to the law," he said.
Corby's family last night issued a statement appealing to Australians to continue visiting Bali.
"Do not boycott Bali. We don't want the Balinese people to hurt any more," it said.
"We just want the Australian people to boycott Qantas flights and direct your anger at Jakarta.
"Thank you to all the Australian people for their support. We are not finished yet."
Corby's brother Michael feared his sister might try to take her own life.
"She'd be thinking of killing herself," he said.
"She's been strong up until now, believing justice will prevail. But now . . . she's not going to cope."
Corby's Australian lawyer said it was likely they would accept the Australian Government's offer of legal assistance.
Solicitor Robin Tampoe said any assistance from Perth QCs Tom Percy and Mark Trowell, experts in appeals and Indonesian law, would be welcome.
The Australian Government had urged the Corby defence team to accept the pro bono offer.
Mr Percy yesterday warned that Corby risked having her jail term extended to life if the defence team appealed.
But criminologist Professor Paul Wilson, who testified in favour of Corby during the trial, said a win was not out of the question.
"It will be extremely difficult, but not impossible," he said.
One of the brats on my round the world cruise in 1970 got 25 years in a Dutch prison for trafficking in LSD. He and his wealthy Daddy were horrified to find out that there is NO BAIL in Dutch prisons, or was not back then anyway. We were all told before we landed in every country that we were subject to the laws of the country we were going to and the American Embassy could only call our parents and get us a lawyer. That was IT.
But of course all teenagers and college kids think The Man is only trying to spoil their fun ...
It was hydroponic?I couldn't understand why anyone would risk smuggling 9lbs of M into Indonesia.Probably a very substantial profit involved if the customers are expats and tourists.
You seem to have far more appreciation than I do for the idea of sending a young woman to her death - which is exactly what will happen the first time this girl gets raped by some HIV-bearing inmate - in a pesthole for possessing pot.
I'm hoping that if the Diggers conduct a rescue raid to free Corby, they will also take the time to kill the Bali bombers, also incarcerated there and due to be released in three years.
Maybe she's too stupid to know that.
Yes. She knew what she was doing.
This was a long thread by the time I got here, so if I'm repeating someone else I apologize in advance.
Apparently, her claim that the drugs were planted is bolstered by the fact that it is a known tactic of drug traffickers in Bali to plant drugs in someone else's luggage.
Also, the Bali bombers were sentenced to two and one half years for murdering people. Of course, they were Muslims acting according to her faith.
I agree it is absurd considering one of indonesia's own citizens bombed a building there killing many many people and he ONLY got a two year sentence. I think it's a politcal shot from Indonesia to Australia. Is there an epidemic of Aussie's smuggling dope to and from indonesia?
It wasn't. Those wrist-slap sentences for the Bali bombers had already done it.
An earlier post mentioned two others were beheaded previous to this?They may be serious about the 20yrs.I assumed the 2 governments would work this out diplomaticaly.She won't last.
Goodness, didn't this woman ever see "Midnight Express"? These foreign countries don't fool around with drug smugglers, esp. dumb Westerners who may or may not have been set up.
This is why I don't ever care to travel to third world countries. Shoot, if I want to see rural or inner city squalor(sp?) I can go in any direction in America.
As Confucius say... "Young woman with many years of always getting what she wants and manipulating situations around her for her own advantage, and who also is charming may have overreached this time."
It's a fairly common tactic by drug smugglers. You plant the dope on an innocent traveler, and if it's not found, it's retrieved. If it is found, the traveler is charged and not the smuggler. That's the gain.
Yes, I am aware of that.
However, the mule scenario is far more likely and more common.
BTW, that is NOT the innocent traveler mule scenario either.
We don't know if this woman was set up or not; maybe her traveling companions set her up and she was naive and in over her head.
From another website...
"On Schapelle Corby - One piece of information which has not got into the media is that Miss Corby was under surveillance by Australian Customs for a considerable time before being arrested in Bali.
Her mum "talks the talk" of crims, and it would be interesting to know, but for Privacy Laws, what mum's past is, too. Suggestions that the drug smuggling ring among airline baggage handlers had anything to do with the marijuana found on Corby are ludicrous. First, it has not been suggested that they ever trafficked in marijuana.
Second, it is well known that the locally grown marijuana in Bali, fine for hippies in the 70s, is now very inferior to the hybrid forms - skunk - growing under lights in double garages all around Australia, where it is being used by many to pay off mortgages.
Consequently, there really IS a demand up there in Bali, among Australians, for some "decent grass".
Which puts paid to the lie we are asked to believe by those who ask the "why would Schapelle risk all taking coal to Newcastle" argument.
She was carrying a very superior "coal" you cannot obtain up there, but which she could have sold up there for a handsome profit.
Lastly, after watching a couple of local TV shows painting Miss Corby as a modern day Joan of Arc, I noticed that not one of these shows addressed the critical evidence against her, which, to my mind, is that when she produced the bag to the Customs Officer, and he made to open it, she placed her hands on his, as if to prevent her bag being inspected, and said "No". This is on videotape. This is potent evidence that she knew there was contraband in that bag, and therefore evidence of mens rea, & all but conclusive. Notwithstanding that I believe she is guilty as sin, I hope she gets acquitted. But that is not going to happen anyway. regards, HH"
Yes it is going down.
Also we are self destructing from WITHIN - people in DC and out lovely activist judges.
I don't understand it.
It's crazy out there.
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