Guilty until proven innocent

Without substantial evidence there is a person incarcerated in a jail foreign to her native country. Her name is Schapelle Corby, a 32 year old Australian citizen who now resides in the Kerobokan Prison serving a 20 year sentence for drug trafficking. She was on holiday in Bali, Indonesia and was found with 4.2 kilograms of marijuana en her boogie board bag upon arriving at the Ngurah Rai Airport on October 8th, 2004.

The only crime for which she is 100% guilty of committing is not putting locks on her baggage before checking her luggage at the Brisbane Airport. Her flight was not one way, she was to make a delay in Sydney and then fly to Bali, in the course of which any number of possible luggage meddling could have happened.

The evidence tampering started as soon as the customs officer discovered the marijuana inside the boogie board bag and allowed a countless number of people to handle the boogie board bag, the airtight plastic bag which contained the marijuana and the marijuana itself.

Information later revealed that luggage handlers at the Brisbane airport in Australia were involved in a drug trafficking ring that transported the illegal substances throughout the Aussie nation. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, “Corby flew out of Sydney on the same day (8 October 2004) as a large shipment of cocaine was shipped out of the airport by a drug ring involving corrupt baggage handlers. During the week of 9 May 2005 several arrests occurred in Australia related to cocaine smuggling through Sydney airport. Her defence claimed that the cannabis was planted in her bag by mistake by baggage handlers.”

Every other attempt to prove her innocence failed and she was sentenced to serve 20 years in the Kerobokan Prison in Bali, Indonesia and fined 100,000,000 Indonesian rupiah or $11,000 USD.

Her appeals where denied and the only recourse that is left for the defense is to ask for clemency from Indonesia's president - but to be eligible for consideration, she would have to renounce her claims of innocence and admit guilt.

According to Schapelle Corby’s friend and fellow Kerobokan Prison inmate, Renae Lawrence, “Corby has gone from a strong-minded person who was determined not to crumble to a timid little child that cowers when I scold her for doing silly little things.”