REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Friday February 18, 2005

PROTESTERS stormed a Bali courtroom to demand the execution of Gold Coaster Schapelle Corby as she faced a trial over drug smuggling charges.

About a dozen protesters from an Indonesian antinarcotics group, GRANAT, invaded Bali’s Denpasar District Court, shouting that Corby be put to death for the alleged crime.

One placard read “Execute as soon as possible Corby, the 4.1kg marijuana distributor”.

Another, carrying a picture of an axe dripping with blood, was stuck on a window directly behind Ms Corby’s head, where it stayed for most of the hearing.

The protest triggered a furious reaction from Ms Corby’s mother Rosleigh Rose, who hurled water at the group after security officers forced them outside.

“You have already found my daughter guilty and she is innocent,’’ Mrs Rose said.

Ms Corby, who was later found guilty, denied trying to smuggle 4.1kg of cannabis leaf and heads into Bali’s Denpasar airport in October 2004 in her unlocked boogieboard bag.

The Gold Coast beauty school student claimed that someone must have planted the pillow case-sized stash in her luggage between Brisbane and Denpasar, leading to her arrest.

Mrs Rose became incensed as she listened to the protesters, shouting: “Your country is full of drugs.

“Why can’t you be saying try and find evidence? No one seems to be trying to find who put the bloody stuff in the bag. They don’t care,” she said.