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Schapelle Corby granted parole in Bali after nine years in jail - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Schapelle Corby granted parole in Bali after nine years in jail
Convicted Australian drug trafficker Schapelle Corby has been granted parole more than nine years after she was jailed.
Corby, a former Gold Coast beauty student, will be required to stay in Indonesia and report regularly to authorities once she is released from prison.
She is expected to live with her sister Mercedes, who lives in Kuta in southern Bali.
Indonesian justice minister Amir Syamsuddin held a press conference in Jakarta where he spoke about the prisoner applications he had been reviewing, including Corby's.
He said Corby's review has been completed, but when asked if she had been given parole, said he did not want to talk specifically about the Australian.
The minister appeared to distance himself from any suggestion that the decision was a personal response.
VIDEO: Justice minister Amir Syamsuddin speaks to reporters (ABC News)
"I don't want to speak specifically about Schapelle," he told media.
"It is not the compassion of the minister or the government, it is the right which is regulated by the laws, by the act, by the government provisions and all of the regulations that exist.
"We are a dignified nation and we enforce the law and we don't look at who that person is, we look at the legislation and the rights of those people."
Soon after, reporters were handed a press release saying that Corby's parole application had been approved because she has fulfilled all the substantial terms as required under Indonesian law.
Corby could be released next week, governor says
The governor of Kerobokan prison says Corby could be released from jail by as early as Monday afternoon.
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He told media he wanted copies of the original parole document sent to him, and would release her as soon as he received the letter.
It is understood her parole application involved her living at the house of her sister Mercedes.
It is unclear how long she will have to remain in Bali before being allowed to return to Australia.
Tim Lindsey, director of the Asian Law Centre at the University of Melbourne, says under Indonesian law Corby must be of good behaviour, report to authorities and be under supervision while on parole.
"The period of parole lasts the remainder of their prison term plus an additional year, under which they remain under the supervision of authorities," he said.
"The balance of her existing term would expire in September 2016 and under the criminal procedure code there would normally be required to be supervision for a further year, which could make it September 2017."
Former ABC Indonesia correspondent Tim Palmer says the parole decision should not be viewed in terms of the Australia-Indonesia relationship.
"What he's (Indonesian justice minister Amir Syamsuddin) made clear all along is, he barely mentioned Schapelle Corby's name. He wanted this to just be dealt with as another piece of paper that had no significance politically.
"He made it very clear in his statement this was not about any expression of compassion either from his office or from the government more broadly.
"This was simply a matter of strictly meeting the terms of the regulations and being entitled to her rights, so he has distanced himself as far as possible from this as being in any way a decision that required some discretion politically from the government."
Corby was 27 years old when she was arrested at Denpasar airport in 2004 after authorities found 4.1 kilograms of marijuana in her bodyboard bag.
She has always maintained her innocence.
During her trial in 2005, Corby's defence team argued she was a victim of an elaborate drug-smuggling syndicate run by baggage handlers.
She was found guilty in May 2005 and sentenced to 20 years in jail, as well as being fined more than $13,000.
Over the years she exhausted her avenues of appeal with no success in overturning her conviction.
She was granted a five-year sentence cut in 2012 after she applied for clemency from president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Combined with other small reductions in her sentence for good behaviour, Corby applied for parole after satisfying the requirement of serving two-thirds of her sentence.
