Corby Refuses To Be Moved From Kerobokan Penitentiary

Kerobokan (Antara Bali) - Schapelle Leigh Corby, the Australian prisoner over a narcotics case, has refused to be moved from the Kerobokan penitentiary in Badung that was burned during a riot on Tuesday night.

"Corby gave a lot of reasons for her refusal," acting director of security of the Directorate General of Penitentiary of the ministry of law and human rights, Bambang Krisbanu, said here on Thursday.

One of the reasons given by her was she would not like to have problems adapting to the new environment.

"Mentally she is not ready to move. That is up to her. We would not force her," he said on the sidelines of evacuation of a number of prisoners.

Besides Corby, nine narcotics prisoners popularly known as the "Bali Nine" group had also refused to be moved out of the prison.

"We are trying to treat them humanely. It is not a problem if they did not want to be moved. In essence it is up to them to decide," he said.

Based on the principles the government therefore was willing to bear the cost of moving them to penitentiaries in their regions of origin so long as they are still within Indonesia.

He said the conditions of Kerobokan penitentiary were no more conducive after the riot. Apart from the office that has been destroyed clean waters and electricity systems have also stopped functioning.

In the past two days water and electricity were supplied from fire engines and generators. Their food and drink are also supplied from outside the prison.

He said the government's decision to move the prisoners was aimed at improving situation in the prison as since Tuesday prisoners still tried to provoke prison security guards and threw out stones.

The moving of the prisoners would be done in stages. "There is no target when it will finish. But the faster will be better as the prison is no longer conducive," he said.

In the first batch 13 prisoners had been moved from the prison namely nine female prisoners both national and foreign citizens to Klungkung child prison while four others who are all foreigners to a secret place.

"We put the four in different places. We would not tell them for fear those in Kerobokan would be provoked as situation is not conducive anymore," he said.

Bambang said the priority was given to women and children. "If Corby would not want to be moved that was her right. What is important is there is no pressure from any party including foreign one," he said.

Corby was jailed for 20 years for smuggling 4.2 kilograms of marijuana into Bali on October 2004.

The Bali Nine meanwhile were caught smuggling 8.2 kilograms of heroin to Bali on April 17, 2005. Their sentences ranged from life imprisonment to death penalty. They are Andrew Chan, Myuran Sukumaran, Si Yi Chen, Michael Czugaj, Matthew Norman, Scott Rush and Martin Stephens.(*/T007)