Australian drug trafficker Schapelle Corby, hiding her face from a media scrum, was hustled out of prison yesterday to start the next chapter of her troubled life after more than nine years behind bars in Bali.
The 36-year-old covered her features with a scarf and hat as she was released on parole and ushered into a minibus waiting outside Kerobokan jail on the Indonesian resort island, as camera crews and photographers fought to get a shot of her.
Corby’s case has been the subject of huge public interest back home ever since her 2004 arrest with marijuana stashed in her surfing gear in Bali, a favorite holiday spot for Australians.
Photo: AFP
Her steadfast proclamations of innocence and well-documented fight with mental illness in prison generated much sympathy in Australia. She was often depicted there as the victim of a conspiracy or of unfair treatment by Indonesia’s supposedly corrupt judicial system.
Her release received blanket coverage by Australian TV networks yesterday, which broadcast every moment live to the millions who have followed her case for years.
After she was freed, Corby visited government officials who will oversee her parole in Indonesia — where she must remain until 2017 — before being whisked away by a black SUV to a luxury resort and spa in the popular Seminyak district.
A bidding war has heated up in recent days for her first post-jail interview. A second black car containing a TV crew raced into the resort after Corby, while the rest of the following media pack were barred from entering.
As expected, the former beauty school student did not comment, but one official said she seemed upset.
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
STANDING TOGETHER: Amid China’s increasingly aggressive activities, nations must join forces in detecting and dealing with incursions, a Taiwanese official said Two senior Philippine officials and one former official yesterday attended the Taiwan International Ocean Forum in Taipei, the first high-level visit since the Philippines in April lifted a ban on such travel to Taiwan. The Ocean Affairs Council hosted the two-day event at the National Taiwan University Hospital International Convention Center. Philippine Navy spokesman Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Coast Guard spokesman Grand Commodore Jay Tarriela and former Philippine Presidential Communications Office assistant secretary Michel del Rosario participated in the forum. More than 100 officials, experts and entrepreneurs from 15 nations participated in the forum, which included discussions on countering China’s hybrid warfare
MORE DEMOCRACY: The only solution to Taiwan’s current democratic issues involves more democracy, including Constitutional Court rulings and citizens exercising their civil rights , Lai said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is not the “motherland” of the Republic of China (ROC) and has never owned Taiwan, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. The speech was the third in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to deliver across Taiwan. Taiwan is facing external threats from China, Lai said at a Lions Clubs International banquet in Hsinchu. For example, on June 21 the army detected 12 Chinese aircraft, eight of which entered Taiwanese waters, as well as six Chinese warships that remained in the waters around Taiwan, he said. Beyond military and political intimidation, Taiwan
RSS