Schapelle Corby could be freed from jail within days.
The long-suffering 36 year old anti-smuggling parable convicted of importing cannabis into Indonesia almost a decade ago, a charge she has always maintained her innocence against, may soon walk free from the Kerobokan prison facility after Indonesian Justice Minister Amir Syamsuddin said today at a press conference that he intends to read and sign her parole papers by the weekend.
If signed, the recommendation for early release on parole would then have to be approved by the Kerobokan prison governor.
“Her application has been [processed] at the Corrections department, and what’s left to do is my assessment, which I promise will be done in three days time, God willing,” Mr Amir said. “There are 1700 cases and Corby is included within those cases. Corby doesn’t get special treatment. As long as she follows the rules and it’s in accordance with the Corrections recommendation, she will get her rights.”
“I will finish doing the assessment, and, again, there is no special treatment for Corby…everybody should have justice. So I promise, God willing, that it will be done before the end of this week.”
In October 2004, customs officers at Denpasar’s Ngurah Rai International Airport apprehended Corby with a stash of marijuana she claimed to have had no knowledge of hidden in her bodyboard bag. After a protracted media circus played out at home and in Indonesia, she was convicted of drug smuggling in Denpasar District Court the following May and sentenced to 20 years in prison, since reduced to fifteen.
An Australian telemovie based on her arrest, trial and conviction as documented in the contentious Eamon Duff book, Sins of the Father: The untold story behind Schapelle Corby’s ill-fated drug run, is scheduled to air later this year on Channel Nine.
I think they’ve just found a new ending.
