Australian girl unjustly sentenced to 20 years in filthy Indonesian cell

[browneyes575]

Schapelle Corby dying in Indonesian jail

You may or may not have heard the story of Schapelle. She went to Bali on a vacation with two of her friends. When she got there, the authorities of Indonesia found 4.1 kg of marijuana in her bags… even though a Brisbane airport senior security officer says there is no way she could have smuggled it in from her departure point in Australia without that amount of drugs being detected through all the security checks.

This leaves the very ugly possibility that someone in Indonesia planted this upon her arrival. The court trial she was given was a kangaroo court for show only in the opinion of many.

1) There was NO DNA testing for her fingerprints on the drugs…
2) NO testing of the marijuana to find out what country it came from…
3) NO weighing of baggage to compare before and after weights. Any of this would have acquitted her but NOTHING WAS DONE. And not only this…
4) they BURNED THE EVIDENCE.

To a normal person, this smacks of injustice, politics and hidden affairs. She is paying the price of something bigger going on. She has asked them repeatedly to check the evidence! What criminal does that? Yet no one shows her fairness and her government does nothing.

Now she is dying in a terrible, tiny Indonesian jail cell and tries to kill herself constantly. She has been sentenced to 20 years in this place where toilets back up continually into her cell and not cleaned... full of rats, etc... and her mental stability has begun to detoriorate from that of a normal woman. She has tried to kill herself repeatedly. She has already served 6 years here... we must do everything we can to at least get her brought to her home country of Australia. We cannot idly stand by, doing nothing.

For more information, go here: http://www.freeschapelle.com.au/
There are several videos that show the story much better than I can tell it, as well as letters you can print and send, and a petition you can sign. (http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/help-bring-schapelle-corby-home-a-free-woman)

I keep thinking... what if this were me? Or someone I loved? What if all you did was go on a vacation holiday… and found yourself in a situation like this? Apparently it could happen to anyone. We must stand up for her and anyone in the future this might happen to! We must send the message that we are all of the same human family no matter who our relatives are or where we live… we will not tolerate this treatment of others.

Please blog it... twitter it... myspace and facebook it... anything we can do to make more people aware. She has been in there six years and last week was the first I had ever heard of it. Thank you for anything you can do to help get the word out.


(edit to check my subscribe option to instant notification)

[TimH]

Her government isn't interfering because they know she is probably guilty of the crime she committed and they aren't going to interfere. It was looked into. This happened a number of years ago and had wide press coverage at the time.

See, here's the thing. Don't go to foreign countries, commit crimes and expect your own government to bail you out when you get caught.

Is that link to her family website? If so, you need to do extensive research in the Australian google archives.

Loads of Americans have learned the hard lesson that when you commit crimes, get caught and expect your government to step in and on foreign judicial systems and bring you home, it won't be done. I believe Amanda Knox (American in Italy) will be the next one we hear screaming about the crooked police/judicial system.

[nsm]

Her government isn't interfering because they know she is probably guilty of the crime she committed and they aren't going to interfere. It was looked into. This happened a number of years ago and had wide press coverage at the time.

See, here's the thing. Don't go to foreign countries, commit crimes and expect your own government to bail you out when you get caught.

Is that link to her family website? If so, you need to do extensive research in the Australian google archives.

Loads of Americans have learned the hard lesson that when you commit crimes, get caught and expect your government to step in and on foreign judicial systems and bring you home, it won't be done. I believe Amanda Knox (American in Italy) will be the next one we hear screaming about the crooked police/judicial system.

Did you see the hbo documentary on this called Ganga Queen? It was very obvious that she was innocent. With as much as they found in her boogy board, which was sealed in a clear see through bag, it would have been detected in austrailai when she checked it in.

[gnm109]

I saw the documentary but I didn't think it was necessarily obvious that she was innocent. It's certainly possible that someone planted the marijuana in her bag, however. She has my deepest sympathy in any case.

The whole incident is a great argument for never ever going to a place like that, or if you happen to, travel light and never take your eyes off of your bags.

[nsm]

I saw the documentary but I didn't think it was necessarily obvious that she was innocent. It's certainly possible that someone planted the marijuana in her bag, however. She has my deepest sympathy in any case.

The whole incident is a great argument for never ever going to a place like that, or if you happen to, travel light and never take your eyes off of your bags.
I know what you mean. But she checked her bag in and she had no control over her bag at that point. The bagage handlers could do what ever they wanted. They have been known for doing just that, she was taken advantage of.

[gnm109]

I know what you mean. But she checked her bag in and she had no control over her bag at that point. The bagage handlers could do what ever they wanted. They have been known for doing just that, she was taken advantage of.

As you suggest, I think it's very likely that the drugs were planted. As I said, with things as they now are in the world, anything can happen in a foreign country. I've been most everywhere in Europe I ever wanted to see quite some time ago. The way things are now, I'll pass. It's stories like that that are quite chilling.

Besides, flying isn't much fun anymore in any case.

[Xainia]

Point of interest. James Kisina is Schappelles half brother.

Kisina was traveling with Corby when she was arrested in Bali. He had also been carrying the body board bag before the arrest and had appeared in the media to support his sister.

On the same day as the reinstatement of Corby's original sentence, Kisina appeared in a Brisbane magistrates court on drug possession and assault charges.

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.

[Details]

Schapelle Corby dying in Indonesian jail
...
This leaves the very ugly possibility that someone in Indonesia planted this upon her arrival. The court trial she was given was a kangaroo court for show only in the opinion of many.

1) There was NO DNA testing for her fingerprints on the drugs…
2) NO testing of the marijuana to find out what country it came from…
3) NO weighing of baggage to compare before and after weights. Any of this would have acquitted her but NOTHING WAS DONE. And not only this…
4) they BURNED THE EVIDENCE.
....She may have been framed - but a few points for your argument:

1) You don't DNA test fingerprints. Do you mean no DNA (which wouldn't likely be there) nor fingerprints? Neither of those might be there - fingerprints do not stick well to all substances.
2) Marijuana could have been bought anywhere - it seems irrelevant where it was grown - if they can even conclusively discover that.
3) We don't know that it would have acquitted her - at what point in time were the drugs planted? Could have been long before the suitcase was weighed.
4) That's the norm - they don't keep drugs around - we burn them here too.


There's no reason for someone to simply donate a bunch of drugs to a random girl, if the drugs were already in Indonesia - they'd gain nothing. If they were planted by baggage handlers - it'd be baggage handlers in one country or region doing so to transport them to baggage handlers in Indonesia. Thus - the weights again may not have helped her case at all. I don't buy that the drugs would have been detected before - even the best airport security in the world doesn't detect bombs going through paranoid post-9/11 baggage screening. Drugs - all it requires is a baggage screener to have blinked, baggage to have been a bit stacked, etc.

The relative who had drug convictions does look a much better suspect - in which case, he's the scum keeping her in jail - if he did it, and if he cares at all - he should confess.

But when a bunch of drugs are found in your possessions, that you have packed - you'd be in trouble in any country in the world. And a lack of fingerprints or DNA would be meaningless, as would the country of origin of the drugs (since this cannot be determined for sure), as would any conspiracy theory without evidence.

[Emerald]

Saw a documentary about this case a while back. On HBO maybe

Ganja Queen

Don't remember a lot of hte details. Seems they were trying to point the finger at her brother(?) or something like that.

[gnm109]

She may have been framed - but a few points for your argument:

1) You don't DNA test fingerprints. Do you mean no DNA (which wouldn't likely be there) nor fingerprints? Neither of those might be there - fingerprints do not stick well to all substances.
2) Marijuana could have been bought anywhere - it seems irrelevant where it was grown - if they can even conclusively discover that.
3) We don't know that it would have acquitted her - at what point in time were the drugs planted? Could have been long before the suitcase was weighed.
4) That's the norm - they don't keep drugs around - we burn them here too.


There's no reason for someone to simply donate a bunch of drugs to a random girl, if the drugs were already in Indonesia - they'd gain nothing. If they were planted by baggage handlers - it'd be baggage handlers in one country or region doing so to transport them to baggage handlers in Indonesia. Thus - the weights again may not have helped her case at all. I don't buy that the drugs would have been detected before - even the best airport security in the world doesn't detect bombs going through paranoid post-9/11 baggage screening. Drugs - all it requires is a baggage screener to have blinked, baggage to have been a bit stacked, etc.

The relative who had drug convictions does look a much better suspect - in which case, he's the scum keeping her in jail - if he did it, and if he cares at all - he should confess.

But when a bunch of drugs are found in your possessions, that you have packed - you'd be in trouble in any country in the world. And a lack of fingerprints or DNA would be meaningless, as would the country of origin of the drugs (since this cannot be determined for sure), as would any conspiracy theory without evidence.

Yes, it's certainly true that drugs found in luggage are trouble for the owner of the bag. It's probably true that no fingerprint or DNA testing was done and obviously thay burned the stuff after the trial.

Just thinking about it - we're talking about Indonesia. They have a problem with people coming in and going out with drugs. It probably happens every day in some port or airport there.

In any case, how much testing would you expect a third-world country to do? They have the drugs, they have the alleged perperator and there's no other plausible explanation or proof of somone having planted it. In Indonesia, it's case closed. Not every case everywhere in the world gets the T.V. CSI treatment.

It's too bad but I really can't understand why anyone would want to go there in the first place. Oh yeah, I know, to take a vacation. Well, apparently it's just too dangerous whether you are innocent or guilty.

[Details]

Some people go for an inexpensive vacation of a type they could not afford elsewhere. Some go to see and maybe be a part of a life and culture they do not know.

My uncle has that type of wanderlust - he goes to China, and goes to the small villages, the places where no one speaks English, without guides, likewise for Thailand (he had a girlfriend from there who escorted him to her ancestral villages), many other countries. He likes the uncertainty, to see something new.

Reality is that most people who do so have no trouble unless they violate local laws for real.

[gnm109]

Some people go for an inexpensive vacation of a type they could not afford elsewhere. Some go to see and maybe be a part of a life and culture they do not know.

My uncle has that type of wanderlust - he goes to China, and goes to the small villages, the places where no one speaks English, without guides, likewise for Thailand (he had a girlfriend from there who escorted him to her ancestral villages), many other countries. He likes the uncertainty, to see something new.

Reality is that most people who do so have no trouble unless they violate local laws for real.

It's good that you said "most people"........ "have no trouble". That's not good enough for me. I'm glad to hear that it's inexpensive to go to Indonesia. I didn't know that.

[Details]

It's good that you said "most people"........ "have no trouble". That's not good enough for me. I'm glad to hear that it's inexpensive to go to Indonesia. I didn't know that.Everyone makes their own choices.

From Australia, Indonesia no doubt is a relatively cheap flight.

[IaNsSyAlNuE]

Wow, an incredible story. I have never heard of her before. Thanks for the link.

[nsm]

Wow, an incredible story. I have never heard of her before. Thanks for the link.

there is also a lot of links on the facebook page set up by her supporters. This is so sad. It could happen to any of us traveling to countries who do not have rules and standards that we have in the USA. Once your bags leave for check in, anything could happen. I did hear that she could have been possibly released or get a much less sentence if she admitted quilt but from what I understand, she will not do this because she knows she is innocent. She seems to have alot of scruples and would not admit something she did not do. There is a petition there for anyone to sign if they wanted to.