Schapelle Corby – Image, www.usp.com.au
Schapelle Corby is innocent. Ms Corby has been let down by the Indonesian legal system, by the Australian Government, by the Australian Federal Police and by Australia’s Customs Service. During the last few years it became my personal witness how broken justice is in this nation when I came across Indonesian children in Australian adult jails. In campaigning for the freedom of these children I went to every agency in Australia and ultimately to the Prime Minister. No-one wanted to know, and everyone was prepared to pass the buck.
I confronted Prime Minister Julia Gillard about the fact that there were Indonesian children in our adult prisons. She froze – in silence, maintaining that attrition.
Gillard criticised for wrist x-rays – read here:
People should never be considered as expendable. Only those who have something to hide run from the truth.
Ms Corby has been treated by the Australian Government as if she is expendable, just as were the Indonesian children I came across, many of whom we have since freed.
It is time the Australian Government began in sincerity its duty to Schapelle Corby – in that they commit to her release from prison, even if it means owning up to their own horrid mistakes, to shameful conduct, to various complicity, to the fact that the 4.1 kilos of marijuana were probably planted in Ms Corby’s luggage by corrupted individuals – within transit – within Customs. In recent times, Australian Customs officers have been exposed as the middlepersons in drugs trafficking.
Earlier this year, I went on air and exposed the conversations I know from various sources at both ends – Indonesian and Australian – in that Australia’s Foreign Affairs department was trying to engineer a deal with Indonesia that the Indonesian minors languishing in our adult prisons could be released if Ms Corby is released. Tit for tat, but tit-for-tat is a dangerous game. I know that there are Government officials who believe without reservation that Ms Corby is innocent. In believing this they have a duty to do more than the next to nothing they have embarrassed themselves with so far having smashed their moral compass. They should stand up in the best interests of an Australian citizen overseas. The Indonesian Government was working vehemently behind the scenes in advocating for the release of their children from Australia’s adult prisons. I know this because I was helping them.
Just prior to Christmas, Ms Corby’s sentence was reduced by two months as part of Indonesia’s annual remissions charter.
Indonesian Justice spokesperson, Ika Yusanti said that the remission was as a result of Ms Corby’s “good behaviour.”
In August, an Indonesian Corrections Board recommended Ms Corby for early release from Kerobokan prison, but the process has since been mired in bureaucratic ramblings.
Ms Corby’s fateful trip was on 8th October 2004. Had all the available evidence been presented in Court, Ms Corby should not have been found guilty of trafficking. But what is most shocking is that it has now been shown that the Australian Government withheld crucial evidence from the Indonesian legal system, and that the Australian Government compounded this by misleading Parliament and the media which has also failed to support the natural and other rights of Ms Corby.
Ms Corby’s luggage was checked in underweight but was later recorded as nearly 5kg overweight and the boogie board was the only item not scanned at Sydney airport.
In the days and weeks ahead I will bring you a suite of articles on our Government’s failure to fairly and rightly support Ms Corby, and that inactions and omissions in the public release of information led to Ms Corby’s predicament. I will also cast aspersion upon other Australian agencies and hopefully they will respond to these instead of threats and banal statements. I will bring to you more on what did happen – what the majority of Australians do not know.
Read this 84 page report – The Transit Report – to understand more:
The Wheeler Report – 2005 – an independent review of airport security found that Australia’s airports, including Sydney, were “seriously flawed”, lacking in a number of systemic controls. The report found an array of crimes occurring within airports including the movement of cannabis.
The story of Ms Corby threatens to draw attention to myriad layers of corruption – corruption of process, Government corruption, corruption within our airports and within Customs. A Royal Commission should be held into the Australian Government’s conduct in all matters relating to Schapelle Corby.
Schapelle is innocent there is no doubt about that. Expendable Project has published all the freedom of information documents that prove it. Thanks for helping Schapelle and informing the people to what went on. Nothing was ever as it seemed. Our corrupt government and it’s agencies need to be brought to account.
Please keep fighting to get Schapelle out of that squalor, the evidence of her innocence is all out there & the corrupt can’t hide forever, Thank-you….
In 2004 my first instincts were.. No way! No way would anyone knowingly take drugs to Bali where there is absolutely no benefit to anyone…
This poor woman is obviously innocent. We should all hang our heads in shame that we allow our govt flunkeys to continually get away with their lies, deceptions and abuses of power.
Gerry assigns blame to Govt (Indonesian and Australian) for Schapelle’s predicament – but that doesn’t tell the full story on why she has been so easily written off. She may have had more success in her appeals had she the general support of the Australian people.
Unfortunately for Schapelle, she looks like a bogan. There is class warfare in Australia – if you look/act/speak like Schapelle, the filters go up and judgements are made. To them, she represents the ugly Australian. Boofy, stupid, uneducated, ignorant, white – and tack on whatever else a bogan supposedly represents. They (those in judgement) are of course ‘elevated’, educated, thinking people of good taste and virtue (perhaps much of the readership at Stringer). She represents the ‘other’ and as such wore the cost of prejudice and pre-judgement.
It didn’t help her cause that her family have shady elements and there were surely ‘aha’ moments of those convinced of her guilt learned of bad choices made by other family members. I still don’t know if she’s guilty… she looks like a bogan.
Wow!! I thought a bogan was someone who looked something like this… Lots of Tattoos, unemployed, dirty, uncombed hair, kind of ruff looking, someone who swears left right and centre, someone that bludges of others, dress like they have no nice cloths and like they haven’t any clean cloths to wear are either on drugs or alcohol. Schapelle looks and sounds nothing like that so what is a bogan really? Well if you bother at all to look it up you might be surprised how little you know Mr or Mrs or Miss who ever you are you sound like one yourself using an unidentified name which implies your a big gutless and like to judge people you know nothing about you just like to stick your nose into other people’s business where it most likey doesn’t belong! Schapelle is innocent if you could be bothered to do the research instead of listening to gossip you might surprise yourself but I doubt you would be interested in doing so, and so passing on the link to http://www.expenable.tv would be useless because you think you already know everything there is to know without taking some time to doing the research.
I disagree with ‘Burning Chrome’ above that only ‘educated’ ppl looked down on/judged Schapelle guilty. MOST? ‘Strayuns’ in my experience are great ‘Fingerpointers’/Judgementalists/witch-burners – too quick by far to think the worst of ppl. EG1 MOST pre-judged Lindy Chamberlain Guilty – took LC 30 yrs to clear her name – MANY STILL think she’s guilty. But at the time anyone who knew any biology would have known that HUNGRY PREDATORS eg dingos ALWAYS go for the old, the sick, the young – they don’t try to pull down grown adults at the campfire or would get a damn good kicking. But Strayuns KNOW LITTLE – they can RARELY put 1 & 1 together to make 2 because they aren’t even AWARE of the 1’s! Also they ‘do wanna know’ much. EG2 Crown-of-Thorns Starfish eat Great Barrier Reef because their Natural Predators the Fur Seals are SHOT by Fishermen and ‘Hunters’=Gun Zombies. BUT U can’t tell a Strayun that Sacred Cow Fishermen shoot seals! Oh nooo! Eg3 George Brandis our supposed Attorney General showed re the Craig Thomson HSU case that he [Brandis] had no idea re “innocent til proven guilty’, though there was an obvious CRIM group at HSU [Willaimson, Bolano, Jackson & her BF Lawler at FWA]. ETC Anyway, Strayuns are HOPELESS at making IGNORANT misjudgements re people’s guilt or innocence. Duplicitous lying Shock Jocks aka Shite-Jerks like Alan Jones whose job is to chumpise the Masses for the Greedy End of Town don’t help.
Sadly the Indonesian Courts would rather publicly scapegoat young foreigners than set the Police on and try their own Drug Mr Bigs, as otherwise Judges get gunned down by motorcycle assassins. Also the Indonesian Police & Army are in Drug Trafficking up to their totally corrupt necks. BUT Oz has to GROVEL to/APPEASE Indonesia or they won’t take our ‘Live Cattle’ [Nazist cruelty] etc.
Is Indonesia EVEN a ‘Democracy’ or just a facade democracy to con the World Bank for Aid, and run in reality by brutal Generals for the futher enrichment of the Post-Soeharto Cronies?
I feel most sorry for Schapelle. Have written many letters to try and help her cause. Trouble is, you travel to Bali/Indonesia at your own risk. Similarly if you are foolish enough to be Religious in some Country violently divided by Religion, you ASK for trouble.
My only advice to Schapelle is “STAY ALIVE!” Hang in there. Don’t give up. TRY and retain your sanity. Our corrupt Customs, Plod AFP and Lapdog Governments have inflicted upon you HUGE INJUSTICE. Strayuns will continue to Fingerpoint and Misjudge/Prejudge because IGNORANCE BREEDS PREJUDICE, and we are a truly BOOFHEAD NATION at this stage of our SLOW intellectual development/SLOW progress re maturity as a Nation.
All these words and talk of “evidence” yet no sign of any. If you have evidence… would you mind providing the rest of us with links and references so we can be as “enlightened” as Schapelle supporters suggest they are?
Let’s play a little exercise… If you were caught red-handed… what is the best possible excuse you could think up. Take your time and actually imagine the situation. First of all you would say “It wasn’t me”. Then you would think of the “did you pack you own bags” question. Between the check-in counter and boarding that leaves you with… “must have been the baggage handlers or customs agents”. THAT IS THE ONLY REALISTIC EXCUSE/DEFENSE YOU WOULD HAVE.
Why is it that so many people take Schapelle’s side? Is it because she slapped her forehead? She looked visibly distraught? Was it her bogan weed-smoking criminally conspicuous family spitting at the media perhaps?
For the love of god present these facts. If they are so god-damned convincing. Stop trying to make the Indonesian legal system and Indonesians in general the bad guy. If the family weren’t so stupid to call Today Tonight and make it an international incident, making diplomatic negotiations impossible… she would have been home by now.
I am disappointed with myself… because right now I feel like I am responding to those inflammatory “letters to the editor” they print in newspapers. They are written by ignorant readers and printed only to inflame opinion and incite responses, but for once… this is an issue that needs to be addressed. This is about more than the Schapelle ordeal. This is about a broader ignorance found in people that are avoid having to think about something… I mean really. It’s a disgraceful level of ignorance.
Jack, there is so much evidence. Begin with the assertion that Australians are taking marijuana to Bali to sell while not a single foreigner has ever been arrested in Indonesia selling marijuana. Think about it. Matthew Moore claimed that because the local drug dealers were watched and controlled by the police, tourists preferred to buy their marijuana from Australian dealers. It’s laughable to think that Australian drug dealers would risk plane flights and expenses to sell marijuana for 10 times less than they could sell it for in Australia in competition with dealers and the police that the buyers are afraid of and NEVER GET CAUGHT? LMAO. Moore made all these unsupported claims and because the rest of the media never questioned it or put it to the test you all simply accepted it as fact. But if that was a deliberate lie as I know it is then the idea that Schapelle knowingly took 4Kg to Bali without any motive and without even hiding it (even a chimpanzee will hide his bananas) belongs with those who believe the earth is flat.
The fact you are missing is that the marijuana was scanned at Sydney and was cleared which means that the marijuana was planted in Bali. That is why the Australian Government and every media organisation banded together to make a family struggling in a housing commissioned home in a working class suburb that has never been visited by any police and is of no interest to the ATO, the “Corby drug cartel” of Australia. The evidence is there; you just have to open your eyes.
Les Hutchinson seems on the money here. Seriously though, even if she was guilty, she just got caught with a big bag of weed. We’re talking about a ‘drug’ that has been proven countless times to have lower addiction potential, and less negative effects – both psychological and physiological in relation to alcohol – which is legal and consumed by many regularly. I have nothing against people having a drink, but if you are okay with that and think weed is a problem then you’re not just hypocritical but also clueless. I don’t think anyone deserves to go to jail for a year for this, let alone 20. Even a year out of a relatively young person’s life would be a fairly solid slap on the wrist, 10 years is destroying someone’s life. THAT to me is criminal.
Schapelle is a Patsy like Lee Harvey Oswald was in the JF Kennedy assassination. Corruption sewer is about to be exposed… Royal Commission into those that framed Schappelle
Australia need to show that Schapelle Corby is innocent and was carrying drugs that were supposed to be taken off from Sydney but failed to.
I hope the culprits for this rot in hell big time. You are nothing but the scum of the earth!!!
How can any of you sleep knowing that you have robbed Schapelle 9 years of her life and had to live in a sewer pit. You are filthy pigs to let this happen as is our government!!!
I will try to make this as simple as possible.
Expendable were right. Schapelle’s luggage was tagged at Sydney Airport as having been scanned. We know this because the tag is clearly visible in photos taken in Bali. This can only mean that either the luggage was manipulated in some way as to avoid the scan OR the body board bag was scanned and was clear of contraband.
Because it serves their beliefs, Expendable have chosen the conclusion that the body board bag was deliberately manipulated to avoid the scan but none of them have reasoned it out. If someone in Sydney merely wanted to get rid of the marijuana by placing it in a random piece of luggage why subvert the scanning? After all, had the marijuana been discovered in Schapelle’s luggage in Sydney she would have found herself explaining it in a Sydney court with little to no fanfare. The assertion that the scanning was avoided makes the case that the perpetrators wanted the marijuana to go to Bali and wanted the media fanfare that would put its focus on them.
The obvious conclusion is that the bag was scanned and nothing out of the ordinary was detected because there was no marijuana in it until it reached Bali. In all these years I’ve never understood why the marijuana had to have come from Australia.
A week before Schapelle’s arrest Andrew Downer was demanding that Indonesia outlaw Jamaah Islamiah. He demanded that they arrest Abu Bakr Bashir while John Howard was crowing over the anti-terror work of the AFP in Indonesia in his ‘joint Australian/Indonesian task force but all of that stopped when Schapelle was arrested. Suddenly both Howard and Downer were humbled and claimed that we could not interfere in the justice system of a sovereign nation. Professor Lindsay who had referred to Indonesia as a “struggling democracy” often now referred to them as a “vibrant democracy”.
And this also explains why the AFP never visited the Corby home, didn’t investigate ‘the alleged source’ in the first few hours because they knew the Indonesian court would not be asking for it. This is why the CCTV for Brisbane and Sydney as well as the SACL computer entry for the tag went missing. This is why the Corby support movement that could never accept the mainstream media propaganda that she was guilty were fed the cocaine story and tales of corruption at our airports. This alienated Corby support from the mainstream and gave them another expendable target – blue collar airport workers. This course of action was chosen because the truth that Indonesia had deliberately framed a random tourist was so explosive that it gave the Australian government a kind of Sophie’s Choice: either show their support for Schapelle which would result in an escalation of Indonesian hostility along with Australian public fury and acts of hate or convince the Australian public that the Indonesians were within their rights because Schapelle was guilty thereby restoring public calm and Indonesian relations. Of course, they chose the latter.
The trial was a complete sham. They presented marijuana in court 5 months after Schapelle’s arrest. It was pristine. The flowers were perfectly cured without a crumb, a speck of dust, mold or shrinkage. Journalists described the “overwhelming aroma of potent marijuana” when the bag was opened in court but anyone who has dried flowers or tried to keep fresh herbs in plastic for more than a fortnight KNOWS that what they presented as five months old was impossible. It was fresh Indonesian marijuana and they didn’t care because the batch that was “found” in her luggage was also fresh Indonesian marijuana.
How does it feel to be conned?
This woman, as the evidence and court report shows was correctly convicted. Let’s not hear about her again!
When you enter a country, you follow and respect their rules and laws. She was lucky but she took it for granted. Stay away from drugs! On the airplane jist before landing to any territories of indonesia passengers are warned ahout DEATH penalty and NO mercy for drug possession. Respect others ao others can respect you !
She should be an actress, she could won an academy award. (Two sentences deleted by Editors) I have no symphaty and i think she should be sue for lying in the inteview to make indonesia look bad. (Last sentence deleted).
wow Zara and Kate, it appears you have heard nothing, read nothing that has been presented which clearly shows Schapelles innocence, its the Australian governments own files, cannot be disputed because they are accurately correct and preserved and only released by freedom of information.. How sad we still have those even after the evidence is put under their noses, unlike poor Schapelle who never had the same courtesy or the court, could still think shes guilty.. The bag was under weight when it left her hands, overweight at other end, these facts cant be made up they cannot be altered they are from the checked in information.. So if you don’t want to hear about it again, then go elsewhere, I suggest another country perhaps because you are going to hear about in a big way ladies.. Wiki leaks, Amnesty , Expendable project and other major world wide human rights groups are fighting for the truth to come out.. It is out now, just not being acknowledged by the government and AFP, or the airport, but they have all attempted to hack into the expendable site using ripper software to try and block it, and raid offices of those attempting to get the truth to the people, as they are very nervous.. So get used to hearing about it! And be ready to listen as well. As those that still believe like with Lindy Chamberlain that she did this, will surely feel very stupid one day..
Its just been a re run of the Linda Chamberlain case, trial by media I bet the same people who say she’s guilty would still say Linda killed her baby because the media purposely led the sheeplike people to believe anything they say . The media in this country act like vultures , they won’t be happy until Schapelle is totally destroyed because just like in Linda Chamberlain’s case they can’t admit they were wrong . Schapelle’s lugage was checked in at 60 kg it was only when it got to the other side that it was 65kg ,and just how did Schapelle manage to do that she must be a miracle worker , loaves and fishes type . The person who was meant to pick up the package at Sydney airport admitted that he was suposed to do the job , he said he rang in and said they would have to get someone else , but nobody failed to turn up . This sort of arrangement had been going on for years , beats being picked up for speeding from State to State moving drugs around .
This Government has been on their knees , grovelling to the Indonesians , they never lifted a finger to help her , and now we are still going over there for holidays and coming back in a box from poisioning drinks , being blown up in night clubs and no one there thinks they should be punished for these crimes , they are laughing at us , what we should be doing is boycotting the whole place, spend our hard earned dollar elsewhere ,until they get the message we are not patsies
Gerry, why are you reposting this? I’ve been waiting for you to finish the original series. Got to part 9 and you said you had more information to post…
Was starting to think you’d been compromised…
Sustained coverage – this is why. There are actually 12 in the series including a couple of other pieces. It is our contention that many articles remain relevant and we are keen to republish them, especially where underlying issues remain unresolved.
There were actually 12 in the series in addition to a few other pieces. We republish articles where we still believe them newsworthy to this day. We believe in sustained coverage even by republication. We have reposted on Facebook diverse stories.
I always thought that the Corby case might have been a “tit for tat”, a trade-off to lessen the anti-Indonesian hysteria of the rabid Australian press, by drawing attention away from the Bali bombing. I though the anti-Indonesian hysteria in the rabid Australian press, if not calmed down, could have led to bad relations with Indonesia and hence make people in Defence nervous about heightening the possibility of future conflict.
I have no insight into how the minds of people in security think tanks work. However nothing would surprise me.