More than 100 Muslims slammed the Indonesian government on Friday for approving Australian drug trafficker Schapelle Corby’s parole from jail, saying the convicted drug mule should receive the death penalty.
Corby, 36, was released from prison on the island of Bali on Monday after a drawn-out application that took more than a year finally led to her release.
The crowd of mostly men from the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) and other groups gathered in Jakarta demanding that Corby’s parole be revoked, saying the justice minister “should be ashamed” for green-lighting her freedom.
Photo: EPA
“She should have been given the death penalty — all drug traffickers should,” senior FPI member Haji Awit Masyhuri told reporters at the protest, adding that the Indonesian government had shown special treatment for Corby because she was Australian.
A speaker on a megaphone shouted that Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was “bowing down to Australia” when he granted Corby a five-year sentence cut in 2012, paving the way for her eligibility for parole.
The protesters also repeated past demands that the president issue a decree banning the sale of alcohol, claiming that alcohol consumption leads to increased HIV rates, crime and road accidents.
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