Hopes high profile of Schapelle Corby, Bali Nine’s drug-running plight a deterrent: Michael Keenan

JUSTICE Minister Michael Keenan says he’s worried Aussie fools are still looking to risk their lives despite the example of Schapelle Corby and the Bali Nine.

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EXCLUSIVE

The high profile plight of Schapelle Corby and the Bali Nine had hopefully gone some way to deter young Australians from risking their life to traffic drugs in foreign countries, Justice Minister Michael Keenan has said.

Speaking on the eve of Corby’s deportation, 13 years after her arrest and later conviction for smuggling 4.2kg of cannabis, Minister Keenan told News Corp Australia while some may have been dissuaded others still did not appreciate the severity of offshore laws and were prepared to risk their life.

Minister for Justice Michael Keenan: “I hope the example of her case dissuades”. Picture: AAP / Joel Carrett

Mr Keenan said Asian countries particularly had strict drug laws and there were still Aussie fools looking to take risk over gain despite the Corby case and that of the Bali Nine, the group of nine Australians convicted of smuggling heroin in Indonesia with ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran sentenced to death and executed and the others serving lengthy prison sentences.

“I hope the example of her case dissuades but also don’t forget the people who were executed in Indonesia shows that anyone involved in the drug trafficking in Indonesia is doing so with enormous risk of harm to themselves and it is an incredibly foolish thing to do, an incredibly foolish thing to do” he told News Corp.

Schapelle Corby in pictures

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“So look I hope yes the message has sunk in that when Australians go offshore and commit crimes they are not protected by the Australian government and of course they will be subject to the full force of the jurisdiction that they are in.

“I don’t want to comment on any one individual case but anyone who gets involved in drugs overseas particularly in our region where the death penalty exists is doing something incredibly foolish.”

Mr Keenan said while Corby’s case was high profile there were many other Australians getting caught overseas, not necessarily on the public radar.

Schapelle Corby waits for the start of her trial at a court in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, in 2005. Picture: AP

“Unfortunately in the course of decades there have been plenty of Australians that involve themselves in drugs trade in the region and I deal with cases regularly, maybe not high profile case you are mentioning, but Australians do involve in the drug trade at enormous risk to themselves,” he said.

One of those high profile cases is that of 22-year-old Cassie Sainsbury, facing 25 years in jail in Colombia for allegedly attempt to traffic 5.8kg of cocaine to Australia.