For some reason I woke up today thinking about the Schapelle Corby case. In case you don't remember, she was accused of smuggling 4.1 kg (9 lb) of cannabis into Bali, Indonesia. At the time, there was grumbling that such a charge might carry a death sentence, or life imprisonment in Indonesia. Her defense was that she was an unwitting carrier, and the drugs were planted on her. Her story was challenged by a lot of circumstance, like drug offenses in her family's past, drug charges in Australia -- at the same time she was facing her own -- leveled against her travel companions, and more.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard stated, in response to pleas by Schapelle's family, "I feel for her. I understand why there's a lot of public sympathy for her; I would simply say that I hope justice is done and it's a fair and true verdict...I would ask the rhetorical question: My fellow Australians, if a foreigner were to come to Australia and a foreign government were to start telling us how we should handle (it), we would react very angrily to that."
And he was right. The reason I was thinking about this is that I know someone who is getting ready to travel to a place where... well let's just say the risk outweighs the rewards, in my opinion. But the truth is, you are going to have a hard time drumming up sympathy if you venture forth anyways. Especially if you plan to break their laws -- which, to be honest, it's hard to decide whether she did or didn't.
So I wanted to know what was happening with her now. She is currently serving a 20 year sentence in Indonesia. I suppose she's done somewhere between a year and two years of it at this point.
I don't think this case is the pinnacle of interest, I just thought it was interesting to bring up an old, hot story, and remind ourselves how quickly these things fade from our attention.
