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FREEDOM'S JUST
ANOTHER WORD
Now paroled,
Schapelle Corby
may well find
crowded Kuta
is merely a
bigger prison
DEBORAH CASSRELS
PE lER ALFORD
MICHAEL OWEN
SOON after Schapelle Corby's
conviction in May 2005, the most
scandalously convicted woman of
her time, Lindy Chamberlain,
and help Schapelle uphold them.
She has to prove her innocence to
an Indonesian court - not you by law."
"Michelle and her lawyers
worked with the Indonesian system; basically, Schapelle Corby's
family and lawyers and team denouncedthe Indonesian system as
Australians, just assumed her
Alexander Downer, foreign
minister at the time of Corby's
arrest, trial and conviction, said
crown of thorns.
"Seeing your verdict and reac-
intensity campaign for her release,
an Australian citizen -the people
focused heavily on the incompetence or worse of Indonesian
they neededto get on side were the
police and judiciary, made no difference to the Australian government's response.
"But it did make a difference to
the attitude of the Indonesians, in-
before, and they just abused them.
wrote to the 27- year -old who had,
in the minds of many thousands of
tion to it made me feel like I had
been kicked all over again. My
heart bleeds for you."
Following the 1980 death of her
infant daughter at the Uluru
camping ground, Chamberlain -
Creighton, as she became, endured hellish years of judicial and
media inquisition, jailing for
Azaria's killing and, only in 1988,
exoneration.
Chamberlain -Creighton's let-
ter was wise counsel, harshly
learned: "How you face your
ordeal is up to you . .. (don't)
choose to be a victim ...keep quiet
... never lose your faith in God,
yourself or the good people who
really care about you. The public
will get over its frenzy and you will
soon settle into a lonely and
boring routine with self -doubt
and questions of `Why ?' that will
plague you."
Separately, she also wrote: "It is
important (Australians) all understand the rules of Indonesian law
the almost immediate, high -
cluding the Indonesian government, to the case," he tells Inquirer.
"They were hugely offended by the
language used to denounce them
and it was very unwise." Downer
contrasted Corby's case with that
of Michelle Leslie, the Sydney
model Bali police caught with two
ecstasy tablets on her way to a
dance party. She kept out of the
media spotlight, spent three
months in prison, was convicted
and released in 2005.
"Her mother came to see me
and she cried in my office; I com-
forted her, but we didn't do any
more for her than we did for Scha-
pelle Corby - but then it wasn't
just a question of getting the Australian government on side.
would always do the right thing by
Indonesian judges who she was
It made her life more difficult she ended up with 20 years."
Arguably also because Corby's
family and her legion of supporters shunned Chamberlain Creighton's advice about victim hood and silence, the media frenzy
abated but was never really
extinguished. And now, on the eve
of her release on parole, still earn-
estly claiming her innocence but
still a convicted drug smuggler un-
der Indonesian law, 36- year -old
Corby confronts another feverish
media ordeal, another outburst of
controversy, commiseration and
still some accusations.
Especially back home, but to a
surprising extent in Indonesia,
sentiment is no less impassioned
than in the first months following
her arrest at Ngurah Rai Airport
on October 8, 2004, her body board bag containing 4.2kg of
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corrupt and unfair. Forget the
Australian government, who
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high -grade "hydro" cannabis.
hoyono for a merciful easing of her
and access. Few others know anything real about her beyond those
visitors vetted by the family, her
jailers, cellmates and occasional
physicians and lawyers.
The causes of Corby's reclusive
behaviour have long been argued
even among the good Samaritans
The three Australian prime
ministers who have been and gone
while she languished in Kerobo-
kan jail - John Howard, Kevin
Rudd and Julia Gillard - have
pressed Susilo Bambang Yudsentence, though none has dis-
who visit Kerobokan bringing
puted her conviction. The fourth,
Tony Abbott, has been extremely
cautious this week talking about
tation programs and jail staff
including the two most recent
the case: "My reaction to that is
that this is ultimately a matter for
governors. The most recent, Gusti
material assistance and rehabili-
burned down a large section of the
severely overcrowded prison, built
for 300 inmates but now holding
more than 1000. He describes
Corby as essentially a "good
person ", careful in her friendships
and traumatised by fear of media
intrusion.
His predecessor, Siswanto, had
a different view. "She thought that
she is always right and she always
wanted to win her stance. She
really hated me because I don't like
an inmate who wants to rule
the Indonesian justice system."
The balance of Australian public opinion about Corby's guilt has
prison guards."
shifted against her across time,
passed her time doing handicraft
though not about the harshness of
her sentence. The overwhelming
view is she has done enough time.
But there are still those who find it
galling she has attained a form of
celebrity- through- suffering and
such as jewellery, beading and
Corby, who once aspired to
open a beauty salon at the jail, has
painting, not often leaving her cell
in Block W, the women's unit.
There was a boyfriend, a former
Kerobokan inmate, who continued to visit after being released.
But he hasn't been seen in months.
that the Corby family has prospered financially from her crime
`It is important
(Australians) all
understand the rules
of Indonesian law
and help Schapelle
uphold them'
and punishment.
Sydney expat Paula Gillham, a
Kerobokan volunteer visitor, says
disdainfully: "She and her family
give the rest of the Australians
here (in Bali) such a bad name. I'm
not against her getting out early,
but I am against the family benefit ing from her crime."
LINDY
CHAMBERLAIN -CREIG HTON
While almost every Australian
seems to have an opinion on
"Schapelle ", she remains enigmatic and inaccessible, despite
intense media coverage of every
nuance of her situation during
nine years and three months since
her arrest. Carefully managed by
Ngurah Wiratna, who approved
Corby's application to seek parole
before he retired in November,
says that, initially, in his term she
was difficult and introverted.
But her attitude and behaviour
"She goes to the visiting room,
then back to her cell," says Iranian
inmate Rahol, 29. "She's very
quiet. She's nice."
Gillham, who visits Kerobokan
as a Bali International Women's
Association visitor, claims, however, that Corby hid from visitors
"because she was told not to talk to
anyone because she has exclusive
magazine and TV contracts ".
Counters BIWA past president
Melly St Ange: "What do you
expect? She gets trauma, stress.
Schapelle doesn't want to mingle
with the crowd. I'm not surprised.
Visitors, press, stare at her like
improved "after I opened com-
she's in the circus, people calling
her family, Corby has always
munications ... I advised her to be
out `Schapelle, Schapelle'."
maintained a distance. Sharing a
more patient and pray, she become more communicative and
The campaigning for Corby's
exoneration, particularly online
these days, is well -drilled and
intense: those who challenge her
innocence can expect swift and
10 -bed cell in an overcrowded
block with 120 women, she has
locked herself in the bathroom -
from which she has thrown
buckets of water - to escape visiting media.
Her Bali resident sister, Merce-
des, has been throughout a stern
gatekeeper of Schapelle's image
not that exclusive. I was thinking
maybe it's because she hopes for
processing of her parole, so she is
changed, but we cannot have bad
thought like that."
Kerobokan in February 2012,
fierce rebuttal.
When Patrick Scott, a New Zealand expat, met Corby in 2007 during a Rotary visit to improve sani-
immediately after rioting inmates
tation in Block W, Mercedes -
Wiratna was appointed to
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whom Scott had never met phoned to ask if he believed Corby
was innocent or guilty. "I said: `I
don't know,' " Scott recalls. "It was
irrelevant to me." But Mercedes
seemed satisfied. "She may well
have rung to see if I had another
agenda, if I was going to go to the
papers."
Scott was "pleasantly surprised"
by the encounter: "(Corby) was
caring of the other female inmates.
She looked well groomed, clean
and well dressed. I liked her personality." If she was depressed, it
wasn't obvious: "She was bright,
she was very together. I thought
Setyawati.
However, Lely said, after a con-
not, as is the requirement, admit-
sultation 16 months ago, that
(The Bali Nine heroin -smuggling
Corby suffered "mixed schizo-
ringleaders under sentence of
phrenia and affective disorders or
bipolar disorder" and might be unable to cope in the glare of public
and media attention outside jail.
During the parole preparations,
Sanglah Hospital psychiatrist Sri
Diniari assessed Corby and diag-
death, Andrew Chan and Myuran
nosed mild depression. She was
law demands both an admission
and `justice collaboration" - that
is, implicating others involved in
the crime. Justice Minister Amir
not psychotic, Diniari said re-
she was brave."
cently: "She has normal behaviour
...but she is irritable."
In granting her five years' clemency on humanitarian grounds in
May 2012, President Yudhoyono's
A year later, Corby was hospitalised for severe depression and
office had cited deteriorating
again in 2009, after which the
family arranged, with the backing
of New Idea, for an assessment by
psychiatrist Jonathan Phillips.
The former president of the Royal
Australian and New Zealand Col-
mental health. And with accumuconsideration. But that triggered a
barrage of local condemnation.
Granat, the National Movement Against Narcotics, tried but
Corby psychotic and insane, urg-
grant. Granat's leader, Henry
tralia, prime minister Rudd corning under heavy pressure to somehow arrange her repatriation. But
Kerobokan guards were sceptical,
according to Bali psychiatrist Lely
failed to overturn the clemency
Yosodiningrat, claimed Australian political pressure, citing then prime minister Gillard's campaign
promise to seek Corby's freedom
while in office.
What further raised Indonesian
eyebrows was that in obtaining
presidential clemency Corby had
their culpability in 2010. They still
wait after 18 months for a result
from their clemency appeals.)
Nor did Corby concede guilt in
her parole application, though the
justified this apparent partiality by
saying the current law was not in
place when Corby was convicted
and therefore did not apply to her.
Frenchman Michael Blanc also
obtained a presidential reduction
smuggled hashish in 1999.
Blanc walked out of Jakarta's
Cipinang jail on January 20, the
first foreign drug criminal paroled
by Indonesia. As with Corby, his
case was a cause celebre at home
and French governments and
ministers made repeated representations on his behalf.
One who doesn't question
Corby's innocence is Balinese lawyer Erwin Siregar. Though one of
the parade of local lawyers hired
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Sukumaran, belatedly admitted
lated remissions the sentence of his original life sentence, and
reduction qualified her for parole parole, without admitting he
lege of Psychiatrists declared
ing she be transferred as a prisoner
to Australia.
The effect was explosive in Aus-
ted responsibility for the crime.
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provoking what turned out to be
baseless speculation the Indoneterms with Corby, Mercedes and sian government would slow her
and fired by the family through the
years, he remains on amicable
mother Rosleigh Rose.
"If Schapelle contacts me anytime, if she needs my help, I have to
help her because Schapelle is
korban (victim). I still believe she is
innocent . .. there are so many
reasonable doubts."
Corby's current lawyer, Iskan-
dor Nawing, prepared her clemency and parole applications but
tells Inquirer he has never met his
client or her mother, dealing only
with Mercedes.
As the parole process has
Corby come in here ?" an Australian tourist recently queried a local
hairdresser.
And as an Australian consular
hopes up," a jail insider said
recently. "She's nervous. She says, official muttered: watch the local
`Until I walk out of here I don't media turn paparazzi when Corby
is out. What sort of freedom? Cerbelieve it will happen.' "
As to how Corby will adjust to tainly not free range.
parole as part of its retaliation.
"She (Corby) is afraid to get her
life surrounded by media and
detection of a drugs party in Octoscandal that erupted in November,
Other Australian drug of-
tourist gawkers in the Kuta gold-
fenders have tumbled into
fish bowl, Siregar says: "Wherever
she is released it will be difficult."
Kerobokan jail since Corby, most
notably the Bali Nine, but none of
their stories has her cachet.
Australian tourists frequently
add a Kerobokan jail visit to their
list of Bali attractions and Corby
was fair game before the Australian consulate in Denpasar asked
moved forward, Corby has been
on tenterhooks, especially during
negative jail incidents such as the prison authorities to curtail the
ber and the Australian spying
rumoured day outings from
Kerobokan. "Does Schapelle
spectacle.
More recently, tourists hoped
for a glimpse of Corby during her
Freed from Kerobokan to be
media -stalked and tourist gawked, she may find crowded
Kuta and the rest of southern Bali
become just a larger, though far
more comfortable, prison.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING:
BEN PACKHAM
Schapelle
Corby bursts
into tears as
prosecutors
argue for a
life sentence,
2005; in the
holding cells
at Denpasar
district court
prison; and
being led
back to the
cells to await
her defence
team's
sentencing
submissions
PICTURES:
ARDILES RANTE
SAP
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