AAP
By Gabrielle Dunlevy, Southeast Asia Correspondent February 7, 2014, 10:02 pm
Schapelle Corby is set to learn whether she will be released on parole from a Bali jail. AAP
In her best Balinese, Schapelle Corby kept her gratitude simple.
"Bapak, suksuma," or "Sir, thank you," she told prison boss Farid Junaedi after learning she will walk free from Bali's Kerobokan prison within days.
Nine years into her 20-year sentence for drug smuggling, Corby is likely to be released from the jail on Monday after being granted parole by Indonesia's justice minister on Friday.
While Minister Amir Syamsuddin made an ambiguous and confusing announcement in Jakarta, Corby and dozens of Australian media awaited the decision in Bali as a seasonal downpour drenched Kerobokan.
Once it filtered through that she had in fact been granted parole, Mr Junaedi emerged from the prison, telling reporters he had seen Corby, who was so excited he was concerned she wouldn't sleep.
Mr Junaedi said the timing of her release depended on paperwork, which he hoped would be processed quickly.
"If they are signing it now, then we cannot hold it any longer," he said.
"Holding for one minute or one second, it matters for the inmates."
If the paperwork was received early on Monday, she could be released on Monday afternoon, he said, but it wouldn't happen on the weekend.
Corby, 36, has served nine years in Kerobokan for smuggling 4.2 kilograms of cannabis into Indonesia, and will remain in Bali to serve her parole until 2017.
After his confusing announcement, Mr Syamsuddin issued a statement, clarifying her parole.
"Corby has been approved to receive parole because (she) has fulfilled the substantive and administrative requirements set by ministry regulation number 21 of year 2013," he said.
He told reporters Corby had been given parole simply because it was the law in Indonesia, not because the government or he as the minister were being generous or treating her any different to the other 1290 applicants whose parole bids were processed.
"I don't want to talk specifically about Schapelle," he said.
"We're a dignified nation, a lawful country, not looking for popularity, not afraid of critics.
"We uphold the regulations."
When she is released, Corby will serve her parole in the Kuta home of her sister Mercedes and her husband Wayan Widyartha.
Earlier on Friday, they visited the jail, and on leaving, were swamped by dozens of local and Australian media crews.
They were at first reluctant to speak to the media but amid the chaos Mercedes eventually relented, pleading for privacy.
Wayan too, said the family was too nervous to comment ahead of the announcement.
"We don't know when she will be released. We keep on praying and, like all of you, hoping for the best," he said.
Among the conditions of parole, Corby must regularly report to the Denpasar BAPAS (Corrections Socialisation Board) and her parole will be revoked if she breaks a law, creates unease in society or does not report a change of address.
The former Gold Coast beauty student has always maintained her innocence after being caught with the cannabis in her body board bag at Bali airport on October 8, 2004. She was found guilty on May 27, 2005 and sentenced to 20 years' jail.
Mercedes Corby (centre), sister of Australian convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby, leaves the Kerobokan Prison in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, on Friday. Photo: EPA
Australian drug trafficker Schapelle Corby was granted parole by Indonesian authorities on Friday as mobs of journalists camped outside her Bali prison and a bidding war heated up for her first post-jail interview.
Australian drug smuggler Schapelle Corby. Photo: AFP
Justice Minister Amir Syamsuddin announced that Corby, whose case has attracted huge public sympathy and media attention in Australia, was among a batch of prisoners whose parole applications had been finalised.
The justice ministry added in a statement that “Corby has been approved to receive parole” as she had fulfilled the requirements as set out in the law.
Syamsuddin refused to comment when asked when Corby, who was arrested at the airport on the resort island of Bali with marijuana stashed in her surfing gear in 2004, might walk out of prison.
However, it is expected to be in the coming days once she has completed some final administrative steps.
Indonesian Justice Minister Amir Syamsuddin (bottom) arrives for a press conference in Jakarta on Friday announcing Indonesia has granted parole to Australian drug trafficker Schapelle Corby. Photo: AFP
As anticipation built in recent days that her release was imminent, hordes of Australian media flocked to Bali. A crowd of some 60 reporters, camera crew and photographers were outside the prison on Friday.
Channel Seven has reportedly sent the biggest crew to Bali, with 17 staff dispatched from Australia and another seven locals on board.
Her sister Mercedes, with whom Corby will live on Bali, arrived in the morning on a motorbike and had to fight her way through the scrum.
Multi-million dollar book deal?
A media bidding war is reportedly in full swing in Australia that could see Corby earn millions of dollars for her tell-all story if she is released.
There have been claims that the bidders would pay as much as A$3 million (US$2.7 million), although The Australian broadsheet said informed sources had told it that a more realistic price would be A$1 million.
Corby has rarely spoken to media during her time in Kerobokan, reportedly holding out for a lucrative interview on her release.
The 36-year-old will not be able to return to Australia until 2017, however. Her sentence ends in 2016 and then she must stay for another year to comply with the conditions of her parole.
During this period, she will live on the resort island with her sister.
Corby, who has always insisted that the 4.1 kilos of marijuana found in her body board bag were planted, will emerge a changed woman after years in Bali’s Kerobokan prison.
Kerobokan jail in Denpasar on Indonesia's resort island of Bali. Photo: AFP
Prisoners often live side by side in overcrowded cells, and drug abuse, fighting between prisoners and beatings by jail wardens are reportedly common.
She has suffered from mental health problems in prison and needed hospital treatment for depression.
Corby was convicted and jailed for 20 years in 2005.
The end of her sentence was brought forward to 2016 after she received several remissions for good behaviour, and a five-year cut following an appeal for clemency to the Indonesian president.
Her parole bid was a complex, months-long process which repeatedly ran into bureaucratic hurdles. The process sped up in the past week when a justice ministry parole board in Jakarta finally heard her case.
Her application included letters of support from the Australian government, as well as her family, the Balinese village head where she will live and the Kerobokan prison warden.
But while many in Australia support her early release, some in Indonesia have spoken out against it. Eight lawmakers on Thursday handed a letter of protest to Syamsuddin voicing opposition.
They said a decision to grant her early release would run counter to Jakarta’s tough anti-drugs laws and would be inappropriate at a time when Australia-Indonesia ties were at a low after a row over spying.
In prison Corby lived alongside other foreigners sentenced under Indonesia’s tough anti-narcotics laws, from people caught with small quantities of drugs at parties to those attempting to smuggle huge stashes into the hard-partying island.
Members of Australian heroin-smuggling gang the “Bali Nine”, including two who are on death row, are also incarcerated in Kerobokan.
