Schapelle Corby released from Bali’s Kerobokan jail after nine years
SCHAPELLE Corby’s family are relieved the convicted drug smuggler has been released from Kerobokan jail in Bali.
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SCHAPELLE Corby’s family are relieved the convicted drug smuggler has been released from Kerobokan jail in Bali.
Schapelle’s sister, Mercedes, in a brief statement emailed to journalists thanked her sister’s supporters.
“We’ve been waiting almost ten years for this moment - it’s very emotional for Schapelle and our family. We are all very relieved and happy,’’ the statement said.
READ: INSIDE CORBY’S SECRET HIDEAWAY
“Thank you for everyone who has been there for us and supported us all these years.’’
Prime Minister Tony Abbott was asked about Corby’s release when he fronted the media in Canberra.
“I am sure that this is a happy day for her, her family and her supporters,” he said.
“As far as I am concerned I suppose one aspect of a long saga, one chapter in a long saga, is closed.”
After nine years behind bars in Bali, Schapelle Corby got her first taste of freedom today — propelled into a massive media frenzy.
With her head down and face hidden by a hat and scarves, the 36-year-old convicted drug smuggler was bundled out of Kerobokan jail and taken for processing at the prosecutor’s office and parole board before being whisked away to the luxury Sentosa Seminyak hotel.
A huge media pack and scores of guards followed her every move — with Corby seen shaking and crying at times amid the chaos.
Her face has not yet been seen — with Corby believed to have signed an exclusive interview deal with Channel Seven — but official parole papers included a passport photo showing her with hair pulled back, wearing a black top with blue collar.
In a day of high drama, Corby was hustled into a prison van at about 8.20am local time in a matter of seconds. The vehicle then revved away amid a massive media scrum desperate for pictures or a comment.
Prison governor Farid Junaidi said Corby had seemed OK as she left.
“She was fine when she left, only a little anxious and she asked why there were so many people and reporters,” he told journalists outside the jail.
After a short drive, Corby was rushed into the local prosecutor’s office, head still down.
With members of the media literally falling over themselves around her, Corby was ushered into the building and into an office escorted by guards. The doors were then closed.
Guards had earlier been heard yelling “get out, get out, get out” to Corby as media mobbed the van’s door.
The prison van had travelled from the jail with lights on and with a police escort, arriving at the prosecutor’s office within nine minutes.
The prosecutor, Agung Kusimantara, later told media through a translator that Corby was “crying, in trauma from what the press did to her”.
READ: THE PAROLE OFFICER WHO WILL KEEP TABS ON CORBY
“We don’t know if she feel OK or happy or sad, we don’t know,” he said.
Corby was forced to lift the scarves from her face inside his office to be identified.
It was just her, the prosecutor and one corrections person inside the room.
After 37 minutes inside the office, where she was fingerprinted amid other procedural measures, she was hustled back out and into the van for the journey to the next stop — the corrections office, for further processing.
READ: JAILED AUSSIES HAPPY FOR CORBY
A photograph of the official release papers showed a passport photograph of Corby with her hair pulled back, wearing a black top with a blue collar.
Three of her fingerprints can be seen over the top of the picture.
Twenty-two minutes after leaving the prosecutor’s office, Corby arrived at the parole board, where she chewed gum as she signed documents with her brother-in-law Wayan Widyartha by her side.
Corby stood with Wayan and parole officer Putu Andiyani with a scarf wrapped tightly about her face as the corrections boss Ketut Artha explained she must obey her parole conditions.
She nodded repeatedly.
Artha said even he was allowed only a peek at Corby’s face during their meeting.
“I actually wanted to give her lots of directions, but in the situation it was not possible,” he said.
“Lots of questions were unanswered. And when she answered, she only said yes.”
She later shook hands with Artha and left his office through a side door to be taken away by one of four waiting black vans.
It soon became apparent that Channel Seven may have nabbed an exclusive interview, with Sunday Night reporter Mike Willessee and producer Andy Byrne waiting outside the corrections office to whisk Corby away.
READ: BISHOP SAYS RESPECT CORBY’S PRIVACY
Their convoy drove the main road from Denpasar to Kuta with about 25 motorbikes surrounding them.
In manic scenes, TV cameramen rode on the back of the bikes trying to shoot pictures through the windows of the vehicles.
There were four black vans travelling at slow speed, about 20kph.
The convoy eventually pulled into the Sentosa resort in Seminyak, which boasts 43 private three, four and five-bedroom villas with swimming pools and sundecks set amid lush tropical gardens and lotus ponds.
Inside, each villa boasts an open-plan living and dining area with a fully equipped kitchen, marble bathrooms and air-conditioned bedrooms with flat-screen TVs and internet access.
In the brief glimpses the media got of Corby, she appeared to be wearing a short-sleeved white top with a black garment over it, plus a number of scarves and black pants.
On her head, above the scarves, was a black, white and red checked hat — which effectively shielded her face.
Back in Australia, her mother Rosleigh Rose had whooped with joy and sprayed champagne from the steps of her Queensland home to celebrate the news.
She laughed and shouted with happiness in a brief appearance outside her home at Loganlea, south of Brisbane, after watching the news footage on TV.
“It was just beautiful to see my beautiful Schapelle come out from those doors,” Rose told Channel Seven.
A friend of the Corby family earlier said they were “in tears and screaming with excitement”.
“They can’t believe the news that she is finally out,” they said.
More than 100 police officers had been on hand to ensure the convicted drug smuggler’s safety after nine long years in Kerobokan prison.
Her release came after officials confirmed that they had all the necessary documentation and a corrections van was backed up to the gate of the jail.
Her brother Michael and half-sister Meleane were among the waiting crowd.
Michael Corby exclusively told News Corp that Schapelle was relaxed and ready to walk free.
“We have waited 10 years for this day haven’t we? I think she will be just fine. We have told her just go with the flow. There is nothing we can do about it.
“She just said: it’s time to get out.”
Badung Police Office deputy head Agus Nugroho had earlier explained that 106 police personnel were brought in to safeguard the release process.
“This security is based on the request of the head of the prison,’’ he said.
Corby was officially granted parole on Friday but was forced to wait out the weekend until the necessary paperwork was received by prison bosses.
There were still bureaucratic hurdles for her to jump through, however.
She had to go to the prosecutor’s office for paperwork and fingerprinting before going to the corrections office, known as Bapas, to be interviewed further.
Corby was then be free to go to the address she has nominated on her parole forms, the Kuta home of her sister Mercedes and brother-in-law Wayan.
However, for now, she has seemingly been whisked away by Channel Seven.
While debate reignites in Australia about Corby’s guilt or innocence, anger is growing in Indonesia at her expected release.
The judge who sentenced Corby to 20 years in prison lashed out on the weekend, saying he was right to jail the drug smuggler.
Queenslander Corby was caught at Ngurah Rai airport with 4.2 kilograms of cannabis in a bodyboard bag in late 2004.
Her sentence was reduced to 15 years after she won a clemency plea to Indonesia’s 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 head of the Balinese village where she will live and Kerobokan prison.
She will have to report regularly to authorities in Bali while on parole and while she will be allowed to travel to other parts of Indonesia, it will only be with prior permission from the authorities.
She cannot return to Australia until 2017.
There are now eight other Australians in Kerobokan jail — seven members of the Bali Nine and another man serving 18 years on drugs charges.
:: Below is how Schapelle Corby’s release happened minute by minute. Relive the moment in our blog where reporters Cindy Wockner and Kristin Shorten documented her release today.
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