schapelle corby

zoe turned me onto this story that is getting very little press in the states, but is dominating the news in australia.

basically, last year schapelle corby, a 27 year old australian student was flying into bali for a vacation. upon arrival, police found 9 pounds of marijuana in her boogie board bag. she was immediately arrested for smuggling drugs into indonesia and has been kept there on trial since. she has maintained her innocence from the beginning saying that she has no idea how the marijuana got in her bag and her defense insists she is the victim of an existing drug ring in the area.

the trial is being handled by the indonesian courts and from what i gather, australian government hasn't been able to intervene. anyway, the verdict was reached a few days ago and she was sentenced to an unbelievable 20 years in bali's kerobokan jail. regardless of how you feel about her supposed innocence or drug use in general, this is a nightmare scenario and completely undeserved.

i encourage you to get familiar with this story by looking it up on the news. it's harrowing stuff. here are some articles to get started with

new zealand herald

the weekend australian

about the appeal