Her sister Mercedes, who lived in Bali throughout the controversial and high-profile case, supporting her, is also back in Queensland, now working in aged care. On May 27, 2005 she was found guilty and jailed for 20 years, subsequently losing two appeals. She was then released. Since her arrest Corby has publicly maintained that the drugs were planted in her bodyboard bag and that she did not know about them. Is climate change killing Australian wine? Some questioned why Australia handed Indonesia a A$1bn (577m; $750m) relief package following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami if this how a "young, innocent" Aussie girl was treated. Actor Russell Crowe stepped into Corby's corner. "Schapelle Corby's name has been famous for 12 or 13 years, she's a brand, there's no doubt about it," he said last week. It's never been proven that drugs were planted on her," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp this week. [38], CCTV cameras at the Bali airport could not corroborate or contradict Corby's account of what happened in customs. No! [3] Corby was released on parole on 10 February 2014 after serving nine years in prison. I don't know how much longer I can do this. [1] Her trial and conviction were a major focus of attention for the Australian media. Ahmad Yani, a member of the minority Islamic United Development Party said that "Corby deserves the death penalty" and "We lose 50 children to drugs every day." "When there is such doubt, how can we, as a country, stand by and let a young lady, as an Australian, rot away in a foreign prison? [43] The cannabis was contained in two bags, and although the outer bag had been handled by customs officers, Corby's defence argued that only the bottom of the inner bag had been contaminated. , updated Kisina's lawyer denied this contention and claimed his client broke into the home believing its occupants may have had information that could assist in Corby's sentence appeal. Four customs officials present when her bag was first examined in Bali said she tried to stop the bag being opened, and that she had said "I have some"[14] This provided a prima facie case for the prosecution. She was also fined 100,000,000 IDR (about A$12,663), with an additional six months if unpaid. Jodi Power, a long-time family friend, speaks to Today Tonight, claiming Corbys sister, Mercedes, previously asked her to transport drugs to Bali and had confessed to transporting drugs concealed inside her body. To the horror of many Australians, the former beauty school student who worked in her parents' fish and chip shop was sentenced to 20 years' jail in Bali's Kerobokan prison. The prosecution team and the Indonesian government vehemently denied that this occurred. Prosecutors said she admitted her guilt on the night of her arrest, and had yelled No! He was sentenced on 16 October 2006 to four years' imprisonment, to be suspended after 10 months. [92], For many months, every minor development in the case was highlighted on prime time TV. Corby was convicted on 27 May 2005 for the importation of 4.2 kg (9.3 lb) of cannabis into Bali. On Saturday, 12 years to the day after she was sentenced, Corby will be deported from Bali to start a new life at home on Queensland's Gold Coast. It was later found to be non-toxic and was considered a hoax. Other claims surfaced that Corby's father, Michael, had alleged dealings with the drugs trade. [68] In addition, she was granted an additional 45 days off her sentence at Christmas in 2010. Staff at the unit complex, where the man lived, found his body during a welfare check and called police. [135] Power also alleged that Mercedes had confessed to smuggling compressed cannabis concealed inside her body into Indonesia. Several days after the trial verdict, a letter was delivered to the Indonesian embassy in Canberra containing an unknown substance on 31 May 2005. [119] Corby's father and the neighbour had also lived in adjacent properties in Middlemount, Queensland, while both worked at the German Creek Mine during the 1990s. In spite of requests to have the bag tested, including at the time of her arrest, such had not occurred by the time of Corby's second court appearance on 3 February 2005. [69], Jail Governor, I Gusti Ngurah Wiratna, said Corby's remission had now been green-lit by Jakarta and the new date for expiry of her sentence would be 25 September 2016. [49], Corby also wrote to the case's prosecutor, Ida Bagus Wiswantanu, and judges with a request for leniency.[50]. [98][114] The Premier of Queensland, Anna Bligh, supported Corby serving her time in Australia. Despite claims that the photos had been taken prior to Corby's arrest, McCauley said the photos were taken at an empty fish pond at the prison where the two were permitted by prison guards to sit and talk.[83]. With negotiations on a prisoner exchange agreement between Australia and Indonesia about to begin, the Australian Government condemned the actions saying if they were related to the Corby case they would not help. In October 2004, Schapelle became a household name when she was arrested at Bali airport with 4.2kg of cannabis wrapped in plastic inside her boogie board bag. A series of appeals between July 2005 and March 2008 ultimately failed to improve Corby's situation. [16], Corby's older sister, Mercedes, was previously married to a Balinese man (who was Corby's parole guarantor) and lives in Bali. It was believed she would stay with her sister in Kuta to serve her parole period. [107] Visiting rules were tightened in 2007 after an apparent hoax when a bogus tour operator advertised that tourists could have their photo taken with Corby in exchange for money. Philip Ruddock, who was Australia's attorney-general when Corby was arrested, has said claims of a set-up lack evidence. She said that her daughter was telling the truth and then suggested that Mercedes Corby also take a polygraph test, expressing her belief that she would fail it. At the time, Sydney radio shock jock Malcolm T. Elliott described the judges in Corby's case and then-Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as "monkeys". Schapelle Corby became one of Australia's most infamous names back in 2005, after she was convicted of drug smuggling charges in Bali. It looked like the same bag. She attempted to hide her face as she left the salon and her doctor stated that her condition was "back to zero" and that additional treatment for depression would be needed. [56] Shortly afterwards, Corby noted the physical differences between herself and the people in the photo,[58] while telling the Chief of Prisons that she had not been at the restaurant and had only left the prison on prior occasions to visit a dentist. The defence requested to see them. For example, a minor "collapse" in the court engendered much erroneous speculation that she was pregnant by her former financial backer, Ron Bakir. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. [88], The Australian Government had talks with the Indonesian Government about a prisoner exchange program, which might have included Corby. At 21, Corby marries a Japanese surfer she met while he was on a working holiday in Australia. 1991: At the age of 14, Corby tries drugs for the first time. [125] Kisina, along with two friends, invaded the home of a well-known drug dealer, tied up the occupants and assaulted a male occupant before fleeing with a quantity of cannabis and cash. Reality TV and invitations to big events like the Melbourne Cup beckon, he says. That is ridiculous," he said in April 2005. [45] However, shortly thereafter the Australian Consul General in Indonesia informed Corby that the AFP had no jurisdiction in the case, and in early 2005 the AFP was advised that the Bali police would not be providing a sample. [4] The ruling however meant that Corby had to live in Bali and follow other rules set by the correction bureau and check in with the Bali corrections bureau monthly until her final release in May 2017.[71][72]. On 17 January 2006, Queensland Police found cannabis in the home of Corby's mother and half-brother. Her defence centred on the theory that she had become an unwitting drug courier for what was supposed to have been an interstate shipment of drugs between Brisbane and Sydney in Australia. [115][116] Corby has been medicated for both depression and bouts of psychosis. It left her feeling paranoid and depressed, she said in her autobiography. She was sentenced to 20 years by the Denpasar District Court and imprisoned in Kerobokan Prison. Find out more about our policy and your choices, including how to opt-out. It's not life. Her Indonesian boyfriend remains in Bali, although the pair have met up elsewhere in Asia. McCauley said he first met Corby at her court hearing in May 2005. She alleged that the photographs were taken with Corby in prison in Bali. [20] No CCTV footage of this interaction was retrieved or preserved. "They were provoked sufficiently that they could have given her a very severe sentence," he says. In 2005, before her sentence, Queensland businessman Ron Bakir announced he would fund Corby's defence and had retained a law firm to investigate the source of the marijuana in Corby's bag. In the Australian media, Vigenser strongly denied any connection with the drugs and reportedly gave a statement to the Australian Federal Police. Schapelle currently lives in her hometown of Brisbane and is officially a free woman. She spent nine years imprisoned on the Indonesian island of Bali in Kerobokan Prison. A 2014 editorial in Media Indonesia said that "Corby's freeing is highly offensive to society's sense of justice" and the Metro TV channel said "Is not that the same as rewarding an enemy who has killed our children? 09:26 BST 08 May 2022 The world watched in May 2005 as she broke down in the Denpasar courtroom after being sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment in Kerobokan Prison. The couple separated and Corby returned to Australia in July 2000. News_Rich_Media: Mercedes Corby storms through a waiting media pack on her way to hear news of Schapelle Corby's parole. John Patrick Ford, a prisoner at Port Phillip Prison who was awaiting trial and was subsequently convicted on unrelated charges, was flown to Indonesia to give evidence in Corby's defence. He says the judges knew the world was watching and "seemed to manage this case pretty much straight down the line". Schapelle Corby, Australia's most notorious drug smuggler, has arrived back in her home country for the first time in 13 years after leaving her Bali home amid intense media scrutiny. [55] Just prior to the decision of the Supreme Court, photographs of what were said to be Corby and her sister Mercedes were shown on A Current Affair, taken after tourists noticed two women having dinner at a bar at Kuta, a town near the Bali airport. Following a series of sentence reductions, Schapelle was released on parole in February 2014, having served nine years behind bars. In 2008, Channel 7 are found to have defamed Mercedes for implying she was a drug dealer and smuggler. 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. One appeal opened in August 2006, with Corby's defence saying CCTV footage from Sydney Airport the day she travelled to Bali would clear her. Her defence team made little effort to displace the prosecution's case, Prof Lindsey says. But Prof Lindsey says despite Indonesia's notoriously clunky legal system, Corby was treated fairly. Corby was arrested at Bali airport on October 8, 2004 after arriving on a flight from Australia. It is October 8, 2004.News_Image_File: The marijuana found in the body board bag. "Forensic drug test refused: Corby mother", (31 January 2006). Read this next Schapelle Corby breaks down in emotional interview on Studio 10 and insists she is still innocent After the divorce, she takes her first trip to Bali in four years. "Like other countries in South East Asia, in Indonesia trafficking drugs is seen as a form of mass murder [because of the deaths caused by drugs].". At the beginning of 2014 she was released on parole from jail but had to stay an extra three years in Indonesia before her term officially expired. Many Australians were angry at Corby's 20-year jail term, comparing it to the much lighter terms given to some of the minor players in the deadly 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people including 88 Australians. She then worked in her family's fish and chip shop and at a Coles supermarket. [109] In July 2008, she was permitted to leave her hospital ward under armed guard to visit a beauty salon located within the hospital grounds to have her hair done and for a pedicure. [39], The four bags belonging to Corby and her companions were not weighed individually at Brisbane Airport, with a total weight of 65kg being taken instead. He refused to name the man who he claimed planted the drugs. [128], A senior Queensland Police detective raised a link between Kisina and Corby's arrest in Bali, but later admitted his claims did not meet the "standard of proof" required to take action against Kisina. I did not do this. [12] The prosecution argued that fingerprinting was unnecessary, as Corby was found with the drugs in her possession. May 27 was the day, 15 years ago, that Judge Sirait told Corby to stand and, after hours of reading the verdict, pronounced her guilty of importing marijuana to Bali and sentenced her to 20 years in jail. Power's mother, Margaret Power, was interviewed on 13 February 2007 edition of Today Tonight. "A circus was whipped up around the case, with crowds of people pushing into proceedings, people yelling and screaming at judges, people abusing judges, people giving press conferences in which judges and the system were abused and attacked," he says. Corby then left the prosecutor's office in the prison van, which drove towards the Bali Correction Centre. 1979: Corby's parents divorce and her father leaves the family home. Speaking on The Kyle and Jackie O Show on 30 October 2019, she discussed her struggle with mental illness while in prison and how she became catatonic after her father died in 2008. Now, Corby is back living in Queensland, making, eco epoxy resin art wall clocks.