Armed guards take to the streets ahead of Corby’s deportation
THE mayhem is underway in Indonesia as armed guards and vehicles take to the streets to escort Schapelle Corby to the parole office and airport.
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THE mayhem is well and truly underway in Indonesia as armed guards and vehicles take to the streets of Kuta before escorting Schapelle Corby to her final parole meeting and on to the airport for deportation.
The beachside resort town appeared to be hosting royalty this afternoon as Denpasar Police carried out a test run along the route they will travel with Corby in a matter of hours.
The police convoy boasted three armed vehicles and up to 200 officers who have been enlisted to transport Corby from the Kuta villa she is currently holed up in to the Bali parole office. The parole office will be heavily guarded upon her arrival. Once there she will sign a release letter.
She is expected to emerge from her Kuta home this evening.
Corby will go from there to Denpasar Airport before taking a flight — delayed 13 years — home to Brisbane.
Police say she will not spend long at the airport for security reasons.
Bali officials said her sister Mercedes was “expecting a lot from security officials”, citing security concerns around the large media contingent on the Indonesian island and anyone else who “objects to her release”.
As of midnight on Saturday, Head of Bali’s Law and Human Rights Office, Ida Bagus Ketut Adnyana said Corby was official deemed “free”.
“She is no longer in detention.”
But her first hours of freedom are being closely watched and protected by Bali officials.
Her sister Mercedes and her bodyguard, who has protected the likes of the Dalai Lama and Roger Federer, are expected to join her on the journey, along with corrections officials.
‘IT’S GOING TO BE VERY DIFFICULT’
But for Corby, many challenges still lie ahead.
The former beauty school student was a “fun-loving ... giggly, young girl” when she arrived in Bali with friends to celebrate her sister’s 30th birthday.
Thirteen years later she will leave a “different person”.
Corby was sentenced to 20 years behind bars for smuggling 4.2kg of cannabis inside a bodyboard bag from Sydney to Bali in 2004.
She has always maintained her innocence.
During her time in Indonesia’s Kerobokan Prison Corby’s mental health began to deteriorate and while serving her sentence she was admitted to hospital on several occasions suffering depression.
In 2009, her fragility was evident when she was spotted in hospital with her hair in pigtails, appearing every bit the little girl as she lay down cuddling a teddy bear, her head on mother Rosleigh Rose’s lap.
She reportedly carried the teddy around the ward for several days.
The psychiatrist treating Corby at the time said she was suffering from depression and needed to be medicated and treated at the hospital at Denpasar’s police headquarters.
She battled not only with what was in front of her, but also what wasn’t.
Corby has previously expressed her desire for children and her concern at having missed the chance while in jail.
“Having a baby is something she thinks about a lot,” her mother Ms Rose said in 2007.
In her book My Story, Corby even hinted that the longer she was imprisoned, the more she would consider the possibility of having a child in the jail.
Whether or not she goes on to achieve her dream of starting a family remains to be seen.
Corby ultimately spent nine years in Kerobokan Prison after being granted clemency and released on parole in 2014.
She has spent the last three years in Indonesia and unable to leave as part of her parole conditions.
Corby is expected to finally be deported from Bali to Australia in a matter of hours.
While she’s about to taste freedom for the first time in more than a decade, she will remain a prisoner in many ways. And Corby appears to know it.
Officials this week said Corby has cried and asked when she might be able to return to Indonesia when questioned by Bali correctional officers about her coming deportation from the country.
She has reportedly complained that she is stressed by the constant attention ahead of her May 27 deportation from Bali but was upset at the prospect of never being able to return to the holiday isle.
“She said to me that she’s scared of the media,” Bali immigration chief Muhammad Natsir told Fairfax Media, saying she was constantly followed at home and on the beach.
“She’s overweight now because she is too scared to go and work out.”
Corby has been photographed in recent weeks running along an Indonesian beach.
She has spent the last few days sitting inside her house in the backstreets of Kuta, nervously awaiting her deportation. She will visit her parole officers for the last time before immigration staffers take her to the airport.
But it’s unlikely life will return to normal for her any time soon.
According to an author who has developed relationships with the convicted drug smuggler and her family, Corby won’t go into a shopping centre or do anything in public when she returns home because of her paranoia.
Tony Wilson, a former journalist who spent years covering the case with News Corp’s The Gold Coast Bulletin, has re-released his book Schapelle: The Final Chapter: Coming Home to include the latest updates on her life.
Mr Wilson has not spoken to Corby in two years but has stayed in close contact with her mother Ms Rose.
He said Corby’s transition from prison and parole in Bali to suburban life in Queensland was unlikely to be smooth.
It’s expected Corby will share her time between her mother’s place at Loganlea and her sister Mercedes’ house in Tugan, on the Gold Coast, when she returns to Australia.
“It’s going to be very difficult,” Mr Wilson told news.com.au.
“I think she’ll struggle with the attention she’ll be under from both the media and the general public.
“I can’t imagine her walking into a shopping centre on the Gold Coast or in Brisbane where people will be pointing and whispering ... or if she did she wouldn’t last ... she doesn’t deal with that.”
According to Mr Wilson, Corby — who he believes is innocent — is “not the person she was when she went in”.
“(By all accounts) she was a giggly young girl in her late 20s, fun loving,” he said.
“Her friends described her as a happy-go-lucky average chick.”
Mr Wilson said Corby was now best described as “not a happy person”.
“The parole officers say she’s so cranky and grumpy they can’t wait to see the back of her,” he said.
“You’d sit and talk to her and she’d be forever darting her eyes around to see if someone was looking at her or taking a picture.”
“She has a real genuine paranoia about being looked at. I think she’ll be somewhat reclusive and spend time mothers at Loganlea and sis.
“I don’t think she’ll be involved in a job.”
Corby’s mother has also expressed concern about how her daughter will adjust to life back in Australia when she finally returns home more than a decade after her arrest.
“When she gets here and settles in, we’ll just have to make sure we get her out and about,” Ms Rose told theCourier Mail on Thursday.
She said Schapelle had been holed up in her Bali home because of the media attention.
“We’ll be trying to get her back into the swing of things so she feels confident.” She said no media deal had been made for Corby to discuss her return, but would not rule out one down the line.
She said Schapelle had “mixed emotions” about returning to Australia, but couldn’t do anything about it.
But Ms Rose, who has not seen Schapelle in person for two years, is thrilled she is coming home.
“I’m getting excited now — it’s been 12-and-a-half years coming,” she said.
Friends have been warned to expect a very changed woman when Corby returns home.
“She’s been through a hell of a lot and they just want to be left alone,” a family friend told the Gold Coast Bulletin this week.
“It’s taken a lot out of her ... She’s not the same person she went in as.”
Originally published as Armed guards take to the streets ahead of Corby’s deportation
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