RI Govt Grants Five-Month Remission To Corby

Denpasar (Antara Bali) - The Indonesian government granted a five-month remission to Schapelle Leigh Corby, Australian national who has been sentenced to 20 years in jail for carrying marijuana, an official said.

Chief of Kerobokan jail (Bali) Siswanto said the fourth remission given to Corby was in conjunction with Indonesian 65th Independence Day celebration on Tuesday (August 17).

He said the decrement of jail sentence to Corby was taken after the former student of an Australian-based beauty school had shown good behavior. Despite the fourth remission, Corby did not join the other prison inmates in a ceremony celebrating the Indonesian 65th independence anniversary in Denpasar.

The chief of Bali Law and Human Rights Office, Arman Nasar, on the occasion presented symbolically the remissions to 280 inmates from prisons in Denpasar.

Since her incarceration, Corby has already received three remissions on her prison term : the first one on the occasion of Christmas Day in 2008, the second on Indonesia`s Independence Day in 2009 and the third on the occasion of Christmas Day in 2009.

The Kerobokan prison authority had also intended to let Corby have a remission on Christmas Day in 2007. However, higher authorities rejected the proposal because she had been found keeping a cellular phone in violation of prison rules.

Corby was arrested shortly after arrival at Bali`s Nurah airport on October 8, 2004, for trying to bring in 4.2 kg of marijuana on a surfing board.(*)