Schapelle Corby teases Bali trip days before Bali Nine inmate Renae Lawrence’s release

Schapelle Corby has hinted she may have returned to Bali in the same week her former cellmate, Bali Nine member Renae Lawrence, is due to be released from jail.

Schapelle Corby has hinted she may have returned to Bali for the first time since her release from Kerobokan jail.

Ms Corby shared an Instagram post which pans across a beach, believed to be Kuta’s Kelan Beach.

Ms Corby doesn’t appear in the video but she does tag SUP Rental Bali — the stand-up paddle boarding business which her long-term boyfriend Ben Panangian runs.

The pair met while serving time in Kerobokan and the couple have continued a long-distance romance since her release.

If Ms Corby has returned to Bali, it’s interesting timing as this week marks the release of Bali Nine heroin mule Renae Lawrence.

Ms Corby and Ms Lawrence were inmates at Kerobokan during her sentence. Ms Lawrence was transferred from Kerobokan to Bangli jail in 2014, where she’s spent the final years of her sentence.

Ms Corby was arrested and later convicted in 2004 after Denpasar Airport customs officials found marijuana in her bodyboard bag. A year later she was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Schapelle Corby during a ceremony inside Kerobokan prison in 2008. Picture: AFP/Sonny Tumbelaka.

A video posted to Instagram by Schapelle Corby on Sunday teased that she may be spending time in Bali. Picture: Instagram.

MORE: HOW RENAE SURVIVED BALI PRISONS FOR NEARLY 14 YEARS

After serving two-thirds of her sentence she was deemed eligible for parole, which was later granted in 2014.

She was released from prison but strict conditions forced her to stay in Indonesia until 2017.

After spending the rest of her parole in Bali, she was finally deported and returned to Queensland in 2017.

In June, Ms Corby indicated she had reunited with Mr Panangian on a trip to Vietnam, sharing a picture and video of a couple holding hands.

A 2017 photo of Ms Corby and her boyfriend Ben Panangian while on the beach in Bali. She was deported just over a month later. Picture: News Corp Australia

Ms Corby with Ben Panangian in 2014. Picture: News Corp Australia

In July Ms Corby’s sister Mercedes shared a photo of herself on the beach in Bali, tagging Mr Panangian’s business and thanking him for a boat ride.

Neither Ms Corby or Mr Panangian have confirmed whether she is in Bali or not. She was banned for six months from returning when she was deported but that timeframe has passed.

In a follow up post this morning, Ms Corby shared a bit of positivity while walking through a sunflower field but didn’t confirm where she was.

News Corp has approached the pair for comment and awaits response. The Indonesian embassy has also been asked whether Ms Corby faces any further travel restrictions in terms of travelling to and from there.

HATRED OF BALI NINE

In 2006 Ms Corby wrote in a book that she had blamed the Bali Nine for the severity of her own sentence.

She had been led to believe Renae Lawrence was a “psychopathic lesbian” and was “scared to death of her” before she had met her in person.

Renae Lawrence holds hands with relative as she asks for support before her trial in 2005. Picture: AFP

However, she recounted how she had once saved Ms Lawrence during a particularly dark time.

“All the girls who’d shared a cell with her had been telling stories about this freak. She refused to let anyone else sleep if she was awake. She’d kick them in the head, sexually hit on them, punch them. So by the time she checked in at Kerobokan, I imagined Renae as a psychopathic lesbian. I was scared to death of her,” she had wrote about Ms Lawrence in a Women’s Weekly extract published at the time.

“A frantic whisper swept around as she walked through the door. As I sat watching, my fears vanished. She looked like a frightened mouse. Her face was full of terror. Her big blue eyes spilling tears, Renae trailed behind the guards like a lost lamb.

“I finally met Renae. She was sitting on the cell floor, sobbing. “Come on, this isn’t going to help you,” I told her. It was impossible not to see the fresh scars on her sliced-up wrists. “And you can’t do that. Forget about doing that again.”

She wrote of one instance where she says she calmed Ms Lawrence during a suicidal episode.

Renae Lawrence dancing in prison in Bali. Picture: Lukman S Bintoro

“One night I heard angry shouting. The guards opened her cell. She walked over to my cage window holding a razor blade between her thumb and first finger. “I’m just moving my hand slowly and I’m going to take this out of your hand. Just give it to me.” My eyes were willing her to give me the blade.

“Her eyes were full of pain. She finally dropped it into my hand. The suicidal moment passed … for now.”

Renae Lawrence in front of women’s block inside Bangli Prison in Bali. Picture: Lukman S. Bintoro

The pair are said to have had a turbulent relationship in prison that appeared from the outside to go from friendship to bitter rivalry at times.

Despite this, it’s understood they mostly stayed out of each others’ way while serving time.

One time, Ms Lawrence turned up to court wearing makeup said to be applied by Ms Corby.

In 2014 Ms Lawrence gave an interview to Channel 10 where she alleged Ms Corby “knew” she was carrying drugs into Indonesia among other claims. Ms Corby and her family denied all the claims.

“Schapelle denies ever making any such confession to Renae Lawrence or to anyone else. The further claims by Renae Lawrence that Schapelle had done so on many occasions are preposterous, maliciously false and a creation of her own fantasy,” her family said at the time.

“The credibility of Renae Lawrence should be seriously questioned and unsubstantiated allegations should not be made simply for the sake of ratings and money.”

Ms Lawrence also said at the time that the pair “weren’t enemies” in prison: “We were actually friends most times. Sometimes we’d have arguments but that was because people would speak about us and it wasn’t true.”

Ms Lawrence was at one point tasked to care for Ms Corby in prison.

HOW LAWRENCE AVOIDED ‘LIFE’

Ms Lawrence, 41, was initially told she’d spend the rest of her life in jail. Instead she will be the only member of the Bali Nine to see the outside world.

On April 17, 2005, Ms Lawrence was one of the nine who were arrested for involvement in a plot to smuggle heroin into Australia.

Renae Lawrence inside Bangli Jail during the National Hero Day. Picture: Lukman S. Bintoro

Her sentence was reduced on appeal to 20 years.

Bali Nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed by firing squad in 2015 and another member, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, died of cancer.

Five others are still serving out their sentences.

Ms Lawrence, originally from Newcastle, NSW, told authorities everything about the plot, which led to her avoiding death row.

Six of the Bali Nine: Myuran Sukamaran, Chen Si Yi, Mathew Norman, Andrew Chan, Tan Duc Nguyen and Renae Lawrence in the Prosecutor's office in Denpasar in 2005. Picture: Lukman S Bintoro

Still, she’d have to spend many years holed up in Kerobokan with Chan and Sukamaran — the plot ringleaders who she claimed to had been afraid of — until she was transferred in 2014.

At trial she had claimed Chan had threatened to kill her and her family if she refused to carry the drugs.

Ms Lawrence had more than 2kg of heroin strapped to her body.

Thirteen years and seven months since her arrest, she is now expected to leave the Indonesian prison system for good when she’s released on November 21 and deported.