Victorian prisoner John Patrick Ford -- the man with the best chance of helping Schapelle Corby beat deadly drug smuggling charges -- arrived in Bali yesterday amid tight security. The handcuffed 40-year-old was met by Bali's drug squad chief Lieutenant-Colonel Bam Bang Sugiarto and six drug squad officers. He was taken in a prison truck to the jail at Denpasar police headquarters where he will be held until he takes the stand tomorrow to give evidence in the Gold Coast woman's trial. [continues 426 words]
Baggage handlers could have put marijuana into the luggage of an Australian woman on trial for importing marijuana into Indonesia, it has been suggested. Callers to ABC youth network Triple J's Hack program, who included drug traffickers, drug users and baggage handlers, said they believed Gold Coast woman Schapelle Corby, 27, was innocent. One person who emailed the show initially raised the theory, which then received a flood of talkback calls backing up the suggestion. Several people who worked as baggage handlers told the program that trafficking drugs between states was widespread among their colleagues. [continues 366 words]
The case against young Australian Schapelle Corby in Bali raises more questions than answers. Philip Cornford examines the evidence. There is a moment in Schapelle Corby's life, before it plunged into chaos, when the world seemed wonderful, an exciting adventure. It is a moment when what was to come was just not conceivable, beyond the imagination of any traveller. It is a moment caught in a photograph, and it was the last time a camera was kind to her. The photograph was taken by her mother, Ros, after Corby, 27, and her three companions had been cleared to board QF50, the first of two flights that would take them from a crisp, mid-spring Brisbane dawn to the sultry humidity of Bali. [continues 2247 words]
PROTESTERS stormed a Bali courtroom today, demanding the execution of Australian Schapelle Corby as she faced trial on drug smuggling charges. About 10 protesters from an Indonesian anti-narcotics group, GRANAT, invaded Denpasar District Court, demanding Ms Corby be put to death for the alleged crime. The protest triggered a furious reaction from Ms Corby's mother, Rosleigh, who hurled water at the placard-waving group. "You have already found my daughter guilty and she is innocent," Mrs Corby said. The Gold Coast beauty school student has denied trying to smuggle 4.1kg of cannabis leaf and heads into Bali's Denpasar Airport last year, in her unlocked boogieboard bag. [continues 220 words]
DENPASAR, Indonesia: An Australian student accused of smuggling a large bag of cannabis into Indonesia's Bali resort island went on trial yesterday on charges for which she could face the death penalty. Schapelle Leigh Corby, 27, was arrested at the island's main airport in Denpasar last October after police said she was found with 4.2kg of the drug concealed inside a surfer's bodyboard bag. Authorities have said it was the largest quantity of cannabis ever seized being taken into Bali. [continues 166 words]
AUSTRALIAN Schapelle Corby wept today when she appeared in a Bali court for the first time on drug smuggling charges, saying she was glad she now had the chance to fight allegations that could lead to the death penalty. Ms Corby, 27, arrived at the Denpasar District Court in a caged police bus. She was handcuffed to a female prisoner and was led to a barred holding cell along with 20 other prisoners. Dressed neatly in a blue shirt and brown skirt, and with her hair tied in a bun, the Gold Coast beauty student told journalists in a quaking voice that she was pleased that her almost four-month wait for the trial to start was over. [continues 518 words]
Schapelle Leigh Corby's first day in court was, in her words, "daunting" -- and it looked it. Yesterday, on day one of her Indonesian trial on drug-smuggling charges, she sat in front of the three solemn judges who will decide her fate, her chin trembling as she desperately tried to hold back the tears. At one stage she looked over to her mother Ros, who blew her a kiss. Her sister held up both hands, fingers crossed, as the family silently willed the case to go her way. [continues 516 words]
The trial of an Australian woman facing drug charges in Bali has been adjourned until next week. Schapelle Corby, 27, from the Gold Coast was arrested last year after Indonesian customs officials discovered more than four kilograms of marijuana in her bodyboard bag at Bali's international airport. Ms Corby has denied allegations made by customs officials. Customs officials, according to the indictment, say she admitted to owning the bag in which the drugs were found - that is the actual bag of drugs, not the bodyboard bag - when presented with it by them. [continues 85 words]
Dear Mum, I'm So Sorry AUSTRALIAN woman Schapelle Corby has written an emotion-filled letter to her mother from her Bali jail cell, saying she is determined to beat drug smuggling charges. Ms Corby, 27, has been held in the Indonesian island's notorious Kerobokan prison since October when she was arrested with 4kg of marijuana in her bodyboard cover on arrival in Bali. Her mother, Ros, released a private letter from Ms Corby through the Sunday Herald Sun to show the public how strongly she maintained her innocence. [continues 199 words]
I couldn't stomach watching my own sweet husband destroy his life, his brilliant mind, his talents, his reputation, his business, his marriage. I just didn't want to know any more. I felt sick, as if all my insides were turning to lead. My legs now felt as empty as my arms had earlier and I sat down next to Anton, held his hand in mine, but couldn't look him in the eyes. I begged the police not to torture him -- but to scare the crap out of him was fine by me. Now what? [continues 1376 words]
Darkness falls quickly in Indonesia. Crisp cerulean skies turn grey, then green. The green lingers for a bit, turns the color of aged bronze, then the blackness drops in, enveloping everything. The sky was just turning green on Thursday june 10th when the phone rang. It was Agus. "Laine, Gus here. How are things?" "Good, what's up? Have you delivered the computer to the studio yet?" "No. I tried to earlier but something was going on." "Oh yeah? what?" [continues 1284 words]
JAKARTA: The City Commission for AIDS Control (KPAD) revealed on Monday that around 62 percent of the 25,293 AIDS/HIV patients in the city are drug abusers who use hypodermic needles. KPAD secretary Syafi'i Dahlan told the City Council's Commission E for health, education, and people's welfare that his office was powerless to curb HIV spread as long as the city failed to curb the distribution of narcotics in society. Dahlan said the number of HIV positive people was increasing in tandem with the rampant use of narcotics. [continues 117 words]
With the threat of a death sentence hovering over her head, Australian Schapelle Corby forgot her fears for a few moments when she sang Christmas carols with some of her family in a vermin-infested prison in Bali. On a hot day of steaming humidity, it was the most stressful Christmas Day in Ms Corby's 27 years. Neither she nor her sister, Mercedes, will want to spent another yuletide in Bali's notorious Kerobokan prison for convicted terrorists, murderers and drug pedlars. [continues 292 words]
IT was a worrying Christmas weekend for three Australians behind bars in Bali. One man's drugs trial begins today and another prisoner is waiting for independent drug tests to be conducted. Schapelle Corby, who was visited on Christmas Day by her lawyers and two of her siblings, still has no idea when the 4kg of marijuana found in her luggage will be tested by the Australian Federal Police. Ms Corby and her lawyers fear that if tests to determine the origin of the drugs are not done soon, it will too late. [continues 146 words]
THE father of a Gold Coast woman accused of smuggling drugs into Bali plans to spend time with his daughter in prison this Christmas. Schapelle Corby is awaiting trial in Bali's Kerobokan Prison after more than 4kg of marijuana was found in a bodyboard bag as she arrived in Denpasar Airport in October. The 27-year-old former Gold Coast beauty student said the drugs were planted in her luggage between Brisbane and Denpasar airports. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has found the case so curious he offered the assistance of Australian Federal Police to test the cannabis to find out where it was grown. [continues 118 words]
The principal of Bina Nusantara School, Gregory C. Mowday, proudly explains how the school has integrated its anti-drug program into the students' daily subjects. "A chemistry teacher, for example, will touch upon drugs and their dangers to the body when he or she is explaining related topics. We may be the only school that has integrated an anti-drug campaign into our daily curriculum," he told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the World AIDS Day Fund-Raising Charity Dinner hosted by Rotary Club Jakarta Sentral on Tuesday evening. [continues 350 words]
Three Australians May Face the Death Penalty in Indonesia As Authorities Try to Curb the Drug Trade, Report Sian Powell and Olivia Rondonuwu INDONESIA'S bitter war on drugs has roared unchecked across a nation where civil liberties, due process and merciful sentencing are luxuries enjoyed only by the elite. A few brave voices have spoken out against capital punishment for drug crimes and a few others have lamented the sledgehammer approach of the police. But, for the most part, Indonesians are happy to see drug dealers and users sentenced to death. [continues 1271 words]
Australia would seek clemency if an Australian woman facing drugs trafficking charges in Indonesia's tourist island of Bali should be sentenced to death, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on Thursday. Schapelle Leigh Corby, 27, was arrested at Denpasar airport on Oct. 9 with 4.2 kilograms of high-grade cannabis in a bodyboard bag after arriving on a flight from Sydney. Indonesian police have said it was the largest quantity of cannabis ever seized being taken into Bali. The beauty therapy student, from the touristic Gold Coast in Queensland state, is facing prosecution under Indonesian legislation that orders death as the maximum penalty for importing drugs. [continues 146 words]
BALI police will charge Australian student Schapelle Corby with drug smuggling under legislation that carries the death penalty. Ms Corby, 27, has repeatedly denied the 4.1kg of high quality marijuana found in her luggage three weeks ago at Bali's international airport belonged to her, claiming it was planted there. The beauty therapy student is held in a tiny cell in the Denpassar Police Headquarters lock-up. Yesterday, one of her legal team said Ms Corby cried frequently when they visited her, saying, "I don't know why this is happening to me, I can't understand why it is happening". [continues 193 words]
DENPASAR - A Gold Coast student who could face the death penalty for allegedly attempting to smuggle drugs into Indonesia from Australia, has pleaded for help, Australian media reported. As Schapelle Leigh Corby, 27, of Tugun, in Queensland, was taken back to her cell after interrogation by Bali police, she pleaded with reporters, "I'm petrified, I'm scared - help me. Tell Mum and Dad I love them," say reports in the Daily Telegraph and Sydney Morning Herald. Customs officers at Bali Airport allegedly found a package of 4.2kg of high-grade cannabis in her bodyboard bag. [continues 140 words]
Inside Indonesia
