NEWS: Australian Woman Gets 20 Years for Marijuana Smuggling

CULTURE: Australian Woman Gets 20 Years for Marijuana Smuggling

Schapelle Corby, an Australian beauty therapist, was found guilty of smuggling 9 pounds of marijuana into Bali. The Indonesian judges dispensed a severe penalty to Corby, sentencing her to 20 years in jail and fining her 100 million rupiah ($10,700).

Airport officials discovered the marijuana in Corby's boogy-board bag upon her arrival in Bali. She maintains, however, that the marijuana was planted by Australian baggage handlers. The defense cited an ongoing investigation by Qantas Airways of baggage handlers' roles in cocaine smuggling.

The story has gained a great deal of exposure in Australia:

After the verdict was read, the supporters shouted "Schapelle is innocent."

I was wondering if this was going to make the Newswire. The Shapelle Corby case has dominated the media here for the last few months. Whilst I'm not sure whether or not she's innocent, I feel I should point out that smuggling four kilograms of Cannabis has earned her twenty years in prison.

Conversly, the mastermind of a terrorist attack that killed scores of people, both Australian and Balinese, has received four years in prison.

Stories like this are the main reason why I'm never going to Bali, or any other country with such draconian drug laws.

broke down palace anyone?

I agree. I don't do drugs, but you never know what might happen...

20 years, thats just insane.

Twenty years may be a little much but on the other hand I heard she acted nervous and tried to keep customs officals from going through her bag. If this is true she is most likely guilty. Also she was smuggling in weed for clearly other than personal use (nine pounds) she should serve a long prison sentence there, not back in Austraila. But maybe 10-15

P.S. People need to pratice the trait of integrity more often. If you are guilty admit it quit trying to get out of taking responsibility for your actions (DAMN IT!)... ok the ranting is over

Wow, so America's not the only country portrayed in the news as "evil & must be destroyed"?
Sorry for the sarcasm (in Eu too long)
Just one of those items that makes you think about how fucked up the world is, leading your thoughts to worse and worse things.......blah!
Damn! When’s it all going to END!!!!

The sentence is being appealed as too light, the assumption being it was reduced because she's a pretty white girl. If it was a smelly 40 yro Indonesian guy he would have got a death penalty.

this is a remarkably light sentence in fact - apparently the minimum she could have got was 20 years, which is amazing considering from what i've heard about acting nervous and trying to keep the customs officials from looking in her bag, she seems guilty.

the thing that disturbs me the most is that there are alot of other australians in asian jails on drug traffiking charges - some on death row - and the reason there's no media frenzy about them is that they're not white:

46 aussies in asian jails

Twenty years is light....

Considering she was about to face a firing squad for the shit. (I promise, I saw it this morning).

She actually had her sentence REDUCED to twenty years.

Hopefully it won't be too hard explaining "what she's in for" to the rest of the inmates.

That ain't no woman!
Tis a zombie!

That's the oldest trick in the book.

9 pounds? Greedy.

And any jetsetting dope enthusiast knows better than to mess with Indonesia.

It's difficult to feel sympathy for her.

On evidence, which, had it gone to court in most Western Countires, would have never been admitted in the first place

Seems some people here think Miss Corby got off too easily. That's disturbing.

Even one year in prison is one year too long, no matter the amount of marijuana involved.

Legalize it!!!!!

National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws

her best hope is having some anonymous people hire a private commando team to raid the prison and break her out. Similar private commando raids have worked before, notably when a child is abducted to a Middle Eastern Nation and the mother wants to regain custody.

Immoral laws should...MUST be opposed at every opportunity. Earlier, I sent a letter of protest to the Bali embassy. If you believe it to be an oppressive sentence, please drop a note to an embassy near you.

List of embassies worldwide

And how many people can your commandoes kill before before your use of violence is unreasonable as far as your concerned, or does the fact that they would only be shooting muslims mean that dosen't matter.



[Edited on May 29, 2005 3:18PM]

Yeah, I'm sure that writing to the Indonesian embassy is gonna help.

She got what she deserved. If you break laws in another country, you're subject to that country's legal system, whether you agree with them or not. And it's not like she just had some for personal use. She was smuggling it in to distribute, most likely.

Yes, by the standards of most western countries, it's a harsh sentence, but that's not the issue.

Except for the part where it's highly likely she was set up by baggage handlers who probably planted the weed in her bag. And that smuggling weed into Bali from Australia to sell is like smuggling weed from the US into Mexico to sell. But other than that, fuck the bitch, right?

I also suppose you agree with the laws in certain foreign countries that dictate a woman should be executed for having been raped, or for allowing their skin to show in public. Because if you break the laws in another country, you're subject to that country's legal system, whether you like it or not.

from cnn:

-"Already the case has triggered a series of threats against Indonesian diplomatic missions in Australia and Indonesia."

-"Even before the sentence, there were calls for Australians to boycott the popular holiday destination of Bali and to ban Indonesian products."

-"Many callers to radio talk shows in Australia were incensed, and some said they regretted making donations to Indonesian tsunami victims."

and here i thought americans were stupid.

There are a few disturbing things about this article:

They're going to appeal the sentence because they think it's too lenient; There doesn't seem to be any uproar from the baggage handlers - who are being investigated for coke smuggling; Why are we still locking people up for cannabis?


Many countries have extreme sentencing for larger quantities (anything over a strictly personal use amount) of drugs; the UK has a theoretical 14 year prison sentence for dealing cannabis. I have no idea how long someone who had 9 pounds would get.

Maybe I'm alone in the opinion that the minute the Australian media got involved they basically condemned Schapelle to this verdict.
I mean, is a country that is so radically determined to stamp out drugs going to miss the chance to make an example of this girl?
Innocent or not, the Indonesian judicial system could never 'back-down' and release Schapelle in a case this high-profile.
One more example of how the ratings monster killed any chance of of a fair trial... (fuckers)

Show me where I said I agree with any of this. My point is, if you don't like the laws/judicial system in the country, either a) don't go there, or b) don't break laws there. If I were female, I certainly wouldn't want to go to any of those middle eastern countries (for that matter, I don't want to go being male either).

Nice straw man.

apparently the life expectancy of the prison she is going to is about 10yrs. Or so i read in the paper today(not to sure how true that is)
Hopefully Australia can get the prison relocation agreement going so she can serve out her sentence here.

Why don't people just sell salvia? Easy to get.
Legal. Potent. Profit. Why not? Discuss....

Salvia is illegal down here.

Watching this whole thing unfold, I honestly believe that Corby didn't do this.

Why?

Because there is no way anyone could be that stupid to think they could sneak four kilos of pot in a boogie board bag. Also, demetrius_z was right in that there is no point in smuggling pot from here to Bali.

And, again, it's pot for chrissake.

thrash242, I think you're missing the point in that there are some laws in some countries that are wrong (and yes I know that what is and isn't wrong is subjective, but refusing basic human rights is wrong). Why shouldn't we strive to enact change for the sake of betterment?