Schapelle Corby found guilty for drug smuggling.

[Danimal]

After 9 months of being held in a cell and having her fate decided, Schapelle was found guilty for smuggling 4 Kilograms (About 8-9 lbs, the size of a pillow)

Her sentence is twenty years in a bali jail. (If you don't know about the whole thing then click here)

An appeal is being made to shorten this sentence. Do you think twenty years is a fair case? (Keep in mind Bali usually use the death sentence in these occasions.)

 

[Raziaar]

When the hell will these morons just get a regular job instead of smuggling drugs. Geez. Idiots.

 

[Danimal]

Raziaar, she was not actually knowledgeable of the amount of marijuana in her bag, it was believed that bag handlers tampered with it, but she was not able to prove it.

Thats a rather weak excuse, if you ask me. Just tell me, why would you believe in her story anyways, over every other drug mules who dole out similiar stories all the time?

Well, nearly the whole of Australia believes her story. But you would have to ask yourself, would you be stupid enough to put 4kg's of marijuana in a boogyboard bag? It wasn't even hidden.

"Crazy Ron", the owner of a massive mobile phone company has supported her along with the 'Corby camp'.

 

[Raziaar]

Raziaar, she was not actually knowledgeable of the amount of marijuana in her bag, it was believed that bag handlers tampered with it, but she was not able to prove it.

Thats a rather weak excuse, if you ask me. Just tell me, why would you believe in her story anyways, over every other drug mule who doles out similiar stories all the time?

You know. They have tamper seals and stuff available for this very thing. Why don't people ever use them?

 

[Ikerous]

Seeing as I'm pro marijuana smuggling, i'd go with unfair.

And thats an awfully long time for a non-violent crime...

 

[Raziaar]

Well, nearly the whole of Australia believes her story. But you would have to ask yourself, would you be stupid enough to put 4kg's of marijuana in a boogyboard bag? It wasn't even hidden.

"Crazy Ron", the owner of a massive mobile phone company has supported her along with the 'Corby camp'.

I don't really know what to believe. If she actually was the one responsible for the smuggling, then yeah, she deserves it. Otherwise, no she doesn't deserve it obviously.

And the whole of austrailia thing supporting it. Thats easy to believe and understand, and not really justifiable as an innocent factor. A country with a citizen standing trial in a foreign country out of the jurisdiction and reach of the native country, tends to stand by the citizen. Except in the cases of horrid crimes, really.


And don't talk about stupid regarding smuggling... because there are plenty of stories out there of retarded drug smugglers who try to get away smuggling in the dumbest places.

 

[MjM]

Theres a French guy in prison for the exact same thing. Stupid people do stupid things. She cries too much. She admitted her guilt to the customs officers. If there was something dodgy going on trial-wise the Australian government would have spoken up.

Shes definately guilty.

 

[Danimal]

The Australian Governement did get involved. Infact, Jhon Howard (Australian Prime Minister) personally spoke to the Indonesian Prime Minister in an attempt to help her... But to no avail.

Anyhoo, I will just shut up and step aside before I do something wrong.

How are you going to do something wrong? I don't understand your statement.

Let me rephrase:

"I will just shut up and step aside before I start an argument"

 

[Raziaar]

The Australian Governement did get involved. Infact, Jhon Howard (Australian Prime Minister) personally spoke to the Indonesian Prime Minister in an attempt to help her... But to no avail.

Anyhoo, I will just shut up and step aside before I do something wrong.

How are you going to do something wrong? I don't understand your statement.

 

[MjM]

No they wanted to make sure she wouldn't be executed, or face some ridiculous life long sentence, or see if the sentence couldn't be commuted to Australian prisons. But apart from that the government stayed well out of it.

 

[Mr-Fusion]

When the marijuana bag was discovered all the police and eventually the media were seen handling it without gloves. If there had been any of Chappelles finger prints on the bag it would be been hard evidence, if there were other peoples finger prints it could have proved innocence. But of course those useless Indonesian police had to ruin potentially credible evidence.

Either way 20 years for a bag of plants..is absolutely idiotic by my standards and beliefs. I think Indonesias justice system is ****ed and i will be assembling an invasion force to take control of the country.

 

[Sparta]

Thats a rather weak excuse, if you ask me. Just tell me, why would you believe in her story anyways, over every other drug mule who doles out similiar stories all the time?

You know. They have tamper seals and stuff available for this very thing. Why don't people ever use them?

Since you're an American and not an Australian you hve virtually no idea about everything thats going on over here with drug-smuggling and airports at the moment.

Basically the prosecution's case consisted of this:

The marijuana was found in her body bag during a routine customs search at Jakarta Airport (i dont know if that's the name of it, it was some Balinese Airport anyway). She didn't object to them opening the bag, she opened it for them.

Her father has a previous conviction on possession of marijuana in the 70's. Therefore its certainly possible that he may have been a dealer and she was the mule.

And that's pretty much their entire case. It was found in her bag, therefore it must be hers

The Defense's argument was that:
No finger-printing was done on the bag containing the marijuana (Why on earth would they forget that?)

An Australian inmate, who was convicted on assault and stalking a women(bad grammar, sorry), testified that he overheard two other prisoners, both presumedly convicted drug-traffickers (they never realised the names of the people, at least to my knowledge) laughing about how they set it up and she caught the blame. He has since been attacked twice after returning back from testifing. Which is kind of to be expected even if these claims are true or not.

To buy the bag of marijuana in Bali it would sell for 4,000 AUD. In Australia it would sell for 20,000 AUD. She was on her way from Australia to Bali, so why would the drug-smugglers send a 20,000 bag of marijuana to Bali where it would sell for 5 times less?

Ever since this trial began receiving media attention a whole bunch of ex-baggage handlers have come out to say that the security system at airports in the baggage handling section sucks. and anyone could steal anything from your bags or place anything in there.

Video footage of Schapelle's bag in the baggage handling section was erased.

The drug conviction relating to her father back in the 70's, really has no bearing on Schapelle as from what i'm told, everyone was smoking pot back in the 70's.

She doesnt fit the profile of a drug mule. 9 other Australians were arrested earlier this month (or maybe it was late April?) and they were caught with the drugs actually on their bodies. All of them come from poor families and terrible jobs, all of them worked in the same company for a brief amount of time, and all of them have changed their stories at least twice by now. Schapelle never changed her story, comes from a good family and was currently a "Beauty Student" at some TAFE Beauty school.

Thats pretty much everything i can think of right now

They gave her 20 years and the judges claim they discounted most of the defence's arguments. I have no idea what's wrong with them. I mean, discounting the majority of the points in the Defence's case, the two things that really cast reasonable doubt on the case are
A) No finger-printing was done on the bag, and
B) Video footage of the baggage handling area on the day of Schapelle's flight had been erased.

Unfortunately the Balinese courts dont use this whole "reasonable doubt" system that Australia and America use. Its not innocent until proven guilty, its guilty until proven innocent. So really, in my eyes something really suspicious happened. Either she is very very good at playing the media, or she was really a victim of some drug-smuggling stuff up.

 

[Raziaar]

She doesnt fit the profile of a drug mule. 9 other Australians were arrested earlier this month (or maybe it was late April?) and they were caught with the drugs actually on their bodies. All of them come from poor families and terrible jobs, all of them worked in the same company for a brief amount of time, and all of them have changed their stories at least twice by now. Schapelle never changed her story, comes from a good family and was currently a "Beauty Student" at some TAFE Beauty school.

Well. One thing i'll contradict you on... anybody can fit the profile of a drug mule. Just because she's female, with a halfway decent job, doesn't make her less likely to be a mule. I've watched lots of documentaries on high profile drug trafficers that recruit all sorts of people, including young college girls, etc to carry their drugs for them to make quick, extra cash. Some of these people had decent jobs, hair stylists, etc.

Poor family, terrible job... that seems like discrimination, if you ask me to say that they probably did it and using that as a factor.

 

[Sparta]

Well. One thing i'll contradict you on... anybody can fit the profile of a drug mule. Just because she's female, with a halfway decent job, doesn't make her less likely to be a mule. I've watched lots of documentaries on high profile drug trafficers that recruit all sorts of people, including young college girls, etc to carry their drugs for them to make quick, extra cash. Some of these people had decent jobs, hair stylists, etc.

Poor family, terrible job... that seems like discrimination, if you ask me to say that they probably did it and using that as a factor.

Yeah true, i'll give you that point.

But still the justice system over there is ridiculous. A religous cleric thought to be responsible for the Bali bombings that killed 202 people in October 2002 gets 18 months in jail and a person smuggling marijuana gets 20 years.

 

[Raziaar]

Yeah true, i'll give you that point.

But still the justice system over there is ridiculous. A religous cleric thought to be responsible for the Bali bombings that killed 202 people in October 2002 gets 18 months in jail and a person smuggling marijuana gets 20 years.

I don't even know where Bali is, let alone their justice system. Sorry, thats beyond the scope of my knowledge for this thread.

 

[jondy]

I don't even know where Bali is, let alone their justice system. Sorry, thats beyond the scope of my knowledge for this thread.

It's down in Indo. They're notorious for having harsh drug laws.

As for the case; looks like the defence is in the right, but I don't know enough about the situation to give a firm opinion

 

[iyfyoufhl]

just weed, let her go i say

 

[Ennui]

Seeing as I'm pro marijuana smuggling, i'd go with unfair.

And thats an awfully long time for a non-violent crime...

<3 I still love you Ikerous.

 

[CptStern]

After 9 months of being held in a cell and having her fate decided, Schapelle was found guilty for smuggling 4 Kilograms (About 8-9 lbs, the size of a pillow)

Her sentence is twenty years in a bali jail. (If you don't know about the whole thing then click here)

An appeal is being made to shorten this sentence. Do you think twenty years is a fair case? (Keep in mind Bali usually use the death sentence in these occasions.)

but .. but that's not what happened to Bridget jones in Bridget Jones: the Edge of Reason ...her jail mates sang madonna songs till she was eventually released, why couldnt she have done the same?

 

[The Monkey]

Yeah, I heard about it in the news not long ago. The Australian government should really do all they can to free her.

 

[superjuanchango]

She didn't just open her bags like a previous posted said. She refused to and tried to stop them from doing it first.