THE CORBY STORY Schapelle’s final steps to freedom
One last act in lengthy soap opera
THE day Schapelle Corby was arrested at Bali airport, my local fixer Komang called me from Bali. I was in Jakarta.
The conversation went something like this:
Fixer: “An Australian woman has been arrested in Bali, her name is Scapel ... Shapellie, Sarpel something.”
Me: “Are you sure, can you spell it for me? So, what, she was arrested for bringing drugs to Australia? How much?”
Fixer: “No, no, she was coming to Bali from Australia. It’s 4.2kg (of marijuana).”
Me: “Her name is Schapelle and she was caught bringing marijuana from Brisbane to Bali? Are you sure? That can’t possibly be right. Are you having a joke with me?”
So I caught a flight from Jakarta to Bali, still pondering if any of this was right. Someone bringing marijuana into Bali, a tourist haven where you can buy the local “ganja’’ on any street corner for a comparative pittance.
Now, 12 years and eight months later, this chapter of the Schapelle soap opera draws to a close. The pronunciation of Schapelle is now a household name. In the Indonesian press she has long been known as the “Ganja Queen”.
At the height of her trial, up to 90 per cent of Australians polled were on her side. They thought she was innocent.
But now more people than not think she was probably guilty all along, but that she’s done her time.
There’s one question that I still get asked on a regular basis: Did she do it? Many Indonesians involved in the case said this to me when I recently revisited them: “Only God and her know the truth.” SCHAPELLE Corby spent her final day in Bali yesterday holed up inside her Kuta home, as a jail doctor declared her healthy and well ahead of today’s deportation back to Australia.
Corby showed no outward emotion as a parole officer asked if she was excited to be finally going home, the doctor said afterwards.
Corby is due to fly out of Indonesia tonight, with her parole period now at an end after she spent nine years behind bars in Bali’s Kerobokan prison for smuggling cannabis. The former beauty student was caught with 4.2kg of the drug in her bodyboard bag when she arrived at Denpasar airport in October 2004.
As parole officers visited Corby yesterday, Kuta police chief Wayan Sumara and officers checked security in the lane where she has lived since her release.
Police will be involved in providing escorts for Corby when when her deportation process begins.
Never before has a criminal’s deportation from Bali prompted so many meetings of officials and caused so much drama – or, as senior officials describe it, a headache.
Kerobokan jail doctor Agung Hartawan, together with the jail clinic nurse Rusmawati and parole officer Ketut Sukiati spent about 30 minutes inside the Corby home, emerging to say that Schapelle was healthy and well.
She did not want a full medical check, telling them she was healthy. Corby is required, under regulations, to undergo a medical check before she leaves Bali.
Dr Hartawan said that Corby’s expression was “flat” and she made no response when a parole officer asked if she was happy about going home.
“When the parole officer said, ‘You must be happy about going home tomorrow’ Corby didn’t give any response. Only (her sister) Mercedes was smiling. Corby kept a flat expression,” Dr Hartawan said.
“She is fine. healthy. she is well. She said to us, ‘You can