Take a good look at her face... this beautiful girl. She could be you.
Schapelle Corby is 27 years old, from Queensland, Australia. In October of 2004, She and her 17 year old brother were traveling with two of Schapelle's girlfriends to have a fun and cheap vacation for a week in Bali, Indonesia.
Indonesia is a place were Australians routinely go on holiday. This destination is very similar to flying to Florida from the North East. Upon arrival in the Bali airport, a security guard searched her boogie board bag, which she did not have with her the whole time and only just moments before picked up off the baggage belt, and found 4.1 KC of marijuana.
Drug traffickers smuggle drugs out of Indonesia, not into Indonesia. The 4.1kg of marijuana found in Schapelle's bag could have been bought for less than $100 in Bali, but is worth much more in Australia.
Schapelle was immediately arrested.
No evidence or witnesses have been presented who can connect Schapelle with the drug trade. She is a hairdresser in Australia and it has been proven that she does not know anyone who has any illegal ties to drug trafficking.In Bali, there have been numerous incidents where baggage handlers have tampered with bags. They have been accused of using baggage to transport drugs between Australian capital cities. When the alleged criminals at the receiving airport fail to find the bag where the drugs are hidden, it continues onto another connecting flight, putting the bag's owner at great risk. Bags containing drugs are often marked with chalk so that they will be easily spotted by the intended recipient.
Because Australian Federal Police drug specialists were denied the right to test the drugs to determine their real origin, such tests that could have allowed Australian authorities to find the real dealers, there is no 'concrete' proof that the drugs are not Schapelles. In Indonesia a trial has no jury and fates are decided by three panel judges that are often brutal and corrupt. On
May 27, 2005, Schapelle was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison. She has been sharing a 3 meter x 3 meter prison cell with 8 other women.
Yesterday, July 20, 2005 Schapelle began her appeal to the Indonesia authorities. If her appeal fails (the Indonesian authorities have also launched an appeal, pushing for a tougher sentence), she could be sentenced to a more severe penalty, including `execution by firing squad'.
The odds are stacked against her. The Indonesian authorities do not want to look as if they were wrong.
Bali's airlines and the airport has continually failed to identify any staff members who may have been involved in handling Schapelle's baggage. In Australia, Schapelle's legal team is not funded by the Australian Government, who should have stepped in based on human rights, rather a millionaire Ron Bakir realized in February that the Government was doing nothing and put his own money on the line to make sure Schapelle was properly represented. Between October and February Schapelle had no legal assistance from Australia. Many countries in the far east impose the death penalty on anyone found in possession of commercial quantities of drugs.
Please take a few minutes out of your blogging or surfing to Google as much as you can about Schapelle. Her case is awful and disgusting. What the Bali and Australian Governments have done to her can be called a crime. I am so angry and so incredibly overwhelmed.
When you see her beautiful face and read her story you will be too.
You can send letters to:
Schapelle Corby C/O- LPM Kerobokan Jl.
Tangkuban Perahu Kerobokan
Denpasar 80117 Bali, INDONESIA
And packages to:
Schapelle Corby
PO Box 1250
Cleveland QLD 4163
Australia
