Girl busted with drugs in Muslim country

[GarKeeper]

World news in brief


INDONESIA

Australian gets 20 years for smuggling marijuana

An Indonesian court today convicted an Australian woman of smuggling nine pounds of marijuana into the tourist island of Bali and sentenced her to 20 years in prison.

Schapelle Corby, 27, who insists that the drugs were planted in her luggage, fought back tears as the verdict was announced.

``Judges are of the opinion that the accused imported marijuana,'' Judge Wayan Suastrawan said. ``She was arrested red-handed at the airport

[GarKeeper]

1. Link

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/11751941.htm

[bluestateguy]

2. Let us not forget

that Islamic fundamentalist governments are every bit as dangerous as what the American religious right seeks to impose in this country.

Theocracy in all it's forms must be opposed.

[loudsue]

26. A man who stole a $150 TV set in early 1970's got 35 yrs.

A black man in a southern state...of course.

Saw it on the news last night...he's getting out on parole right now.

35 years for stealing a $150.00 tv set. Just saying it makes me feel like someone kicked me in the gut.

Tell me again what Ken Lay did to all those 401K's?? And who, again, is he best buddies with? And which political party did he donate to??

[Violet_Crumble]

40. Indonesia isn't an Islamic fundamentalist government...

The government is secular...

Violet...

[paineinthearse]

3. GarKeeper

Welcome to DU

:hi:

[GarKeeper]

4. Thanks!

:hi:

[GarKeeper]

5. More

http://www3.cjad.com/content/cp_article.asp?id=/global_feeds/CanadianPress/WorldNews/w052711A.htm

[SteppingRazor]

6. They ought to throw the judges in jail

Or at the very least, the legislators who made these laws.

Initially, the Australian girl was facing the death penalty... for having 9 pounds of weed on her. These sorts of asinine laws are so far removed from what is fair and just I can't even begin to describe it.

Look at our own country, where a guy who grows a couple of plants can do more time than a rapist.

You want to talk about war criminals, then let's look at the people prosecuting the war on drugs.

[GarKeeper]

7. That would be almost every politician in the US

n/t

[SteppingRazor]

15. Your point?

Maybe "almost every politician in the US" ought to be rounded up.

[Quixote1818]

8. You should see the heartless posts on AOL !!!!

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050526234709990002&ncid=NWS00010000000001

I posted that Rush Limbaugh should get 20 years and the amount of hypocrisy on the board was incredible. I am not sure the post went through because it doesn't show up when I go their.

[GarKeeper]

9. Was she set up?

http://www.gabriellereillyweekly.com/gabrielle_reilly/australian_community_service/schapelle_corby.htm

[babylonsister]

10. Bali is 95% Hindu, not Muslim.

Indonesia is primarily Muslim, but Bali is only one tiny island among thousands. Just thought that should be clarified, though it obviously doesn't change the outcome.

[LSdemocrat]

11. Actually that's not too out of line with US penalties

http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/dll/marijuana_%20trafficking_penalties.html

22 pounds of hashish can get you 20 years in a US jail.

[Ms. Clio]

14. Yes, I was going to say, does anyone think it's really any better here?

[ernstbass]

12. This is a tragedy

and sadly we have asnine drug laws too. I heard something on a tv program that the surfboard bag was weighed when the girl checked at the airport in Austaralia and it weighed more when she got it in Indonesia - don't remember the details but it certainly lent credence to the theory that the pot was planted. I read about a man in the US who weas sentenced to 51 yrs for selling 8 ozs of pot - tough sentence because he had a gun w/ him at the time of the deals. When will we stop this madness?:banghead:

[Ms. Clio]

13. Your subject line is inaccurate--still time to change it

This has nothing to do with religion, anyway.

[SoCalDem]

16. Schapelle Corby, 27 is NOT a "girl".. She's a grown woman

NINE POUNDS of marijuana in your luggage is not something you wouldn't "notice".. As most travelers know, these days..you pack your luggage, and never let it out of your sight until you go through security...once it's passed, you should be in the clear..

Just as the runaway bride was not a girl, at 32.... this woman is no girl either.

Contrary to what some 'news articles' would have us believe, there are not roving bands of "drug-planters" who are out to entrap attractive women.

[GarKeeper]

19. It's claimed airport workers

used her bag in a smuggling ring.

Apparently she never saw the bag after Brisbane.

[SoCalDem]

21. There has to be more to this story then..

If she PASSED the security search, and her bags were tampered with, why would the baggage handlers on the other end "allow" her bag to slip past them? If THEY were to receive the smuggled drugs, why would they let it get to an unsuspecting passenger? Wouldn;t they assume that he/she would alert the police when they opened their bag?

Bags are inspected BEFORE you fly, and again at customs.. How would they expect to retrieve the drugs, unless they removed them before she claimed the bag?..

It smells...

[noiretextatique]

27. there seems to be a lot more to this story

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schapelle_Corby

The Corby case has generated intense controversy in Australia, where the prevailing public opinion in support of Corby - much of it with a strongly anti-Indonesian undertone - has confronted the Federal government with an unwelcome political issue. The matter recalled the Barlow and Chambers execution of 1986, in which two Australians were hanged in Malaysia for drug offences.

[jzodda]

17. all I can say is

If she was innocent then I feel sorry for her

and if she was guilty then shes an idiot. Who in their right mind would try to move 9 pounds of weed in their suitcase? and thats in any country, but I would especially never try it in a country as backward and repressive as Indonesia.

[lindsayg]

18. Smuggling drugs: 20 years, Terrorism: 2 years!!

Unfvckingbelievable.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Bakar_Bashir

[Bridget Burke]

20. Bali is not a Muslim country.

Why did you pick that particular phrase?

[jzodda]

22. I think he is saying

That its amazing that she goes to jail while one of Bin Ladens buddies who lives there goes free. Just check out the link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Bakar_Bashir

[Ms. Clio]

24. I think it's pretty amazing you would respond with a total non sequitur

[Bridget Burke]

25. Then why didn't he/she Say It?

Or was he/she just slamming Muslims?

[noiretextatique]

28. probably for the same reason s/he used "girl" instead of woman

to describe the 27 year old defendant :shrug:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

35. Bali is not a country, period

it's one of the islands of Indonesia.

[sleipnir]

23. Rockefeller laws in New York, could have earned her a life sentence.

Under the recently-eliminated Draconian drug laws, she would have faced a far harsher penalty if she was busted at JFK. The law was pretty clear and strict, her penalty would have been 15 years to Life.

IF TRUE, (It's quite suspect that she knowingly smuggled the drugs) it's certainly intent to distribute.

As it is, don't smuggle drugs into other countries, that's just stupid. I do question her guilt, but it's hard to say as I'm not privy each and every single aspect of evidence.

[goodhue]

29. Your subject line is misleading and inaccurate

She is a grown woman not a girl, and fact that Indonesia is majority Muslim is not relevant. Bali itself is not Muslim but Buddhist.

[Name removed]

30. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[goodhue]

31. good point

Thanks

[Name removed]

34. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

38. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Divameow77]

32. I read that Russell Crowe

has made it his personal mission to get the "woman" freed from her prison sentence.
Is it because she is from Australia?

[maxsolomon]

37. sure its because she's aussie

and one of the reasons we don't have much sympathy is because she's not amurkin.

its just natural to care more about those you have kinship with.

the weed was in her unlocked boogie board bag. would have been easy to tamper with.

even if she did do it, this is fucked. the global american-led drug war is pointless.

[Violet_Crumble]

41. I think he should do a prisoner exchange...

Him and Steve Irwin for Shapelle Corby. That'd make a lot of people very happy!

Violet...

[One_Life_To_Give]

33. Movie Midnight Express

Guess she never saw the movie Midnight Express. Where the guy gets Life in Turkey for smuggling drugs. And he waws also caught at the airport. I wonder if there are any more similarities.

[Orangepeel]

36. More like that Clare Danes movie

Breakdown Palace? Brokedown Palace?

Two girls (they were young, so "girls" is appropriate) were arrested at the airport for smuggling drugs in Tailand.

[Warren DeMontague]

39. Dumb Move. REALLY Dumb Laws.

Sad fact is, law enforcement agencies and other security personell globe-over are devoting MASSIVE amounts of energy to make sure that people don't smoke a relatively harmless plant that makes them silly and hungry. And countless people are languishing in jails for 20, 30, 40 years -or life- because we have let our governments be run by the worst strain of control freaks.

Meanwhile where is all the unaccounted for nuclear material? The surface-to-air missles the pentagon can't account for, not to mention the ones we gave to Osama's pals back in the Reagan years?

What a fucking waste. Although I suppose if large numbers of people on this planet can't get to a place where they don't care what gender the consenting adults next door choose to have sex with, it's really gonna be a stretch to expect them not to care what chemicals they choose to put in their bloodstreams.

Feh.