Schapelle Corby

Schapelle Leigh Corby (born 10 July 1977) is an Australian woman who was convicted of smuggling cannabis into Indonesia.

She spent nine years imprisoned on the Indonesian island of Bali in Kerobokan Prison.

Since her arrest Corby has publicly maintained that the drugs were planted in her bodyboard bag and that she did not know about them.

Her trial and conviction were a major focus of attention for the Australian media.

Her mother's marriage to Corby's father which ended in 1979 when Corby was a baby, also produced Mercedes (1974) and Michael Jr (1976).

Corby's mother's second marriage produced Clinton Rose (1984).

Her third marriage, to Tongan-born James Kisina, produced James Sioeli Kisina (1987) and Melenae Kisina (1990).

After dropping out of high school in year eleven, she enrolled in a part-time beauty therapy course at a TAFE institute, finishing two of the four course modules.

She then worked in her family's fish and chip shop and at a Coles supermarket.

In the mid-1990s, Corby met a Japanese man, given the pseudonym Kimi Tanaka by the media, who was on a working holiday in Australia and the two began dating.

On Tanaka's return to Japan, Corby continued to visit him, and they married in June 1998 in Omaezaki, Shizuoka, Japan.

While living in Omaezaki, she worked at a Japanese inn.

Her husband also worked in the hospitality industry and as a seasonal worker on nearby tea farms.

The couple separated and Corby returned to Australia in July 2000.

The couple's divorce was finalised in 2003.

Returning home to Australia, Corby had a stopover in Bali, where she had been five times since the age of sixteen, which included stopovers on her way to or from Japan.

Corby's older sister, Mercedes, was previously married to a Balinese man (who was Corby's parole guarantor) and lives in Bali.

On 8 October 2004, Corby, her brother and two friends flew from Brisbane to Bali transiting in Sydney.

It was her first visit to Bali in four years, having had several previous stopovers between Australia and Japan to visit her sister, Mercedes.

Passing through customs upon her arrival at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar, Corby was stopped by customs officers and found to have 4.2 kg of cannabis in a double plastic vacuum-sealed bag in her unlocked bodyboard bag.

Customs officer Gusti Nyoman Winata said that she tried to prevent him from opening the compartment of the bag containing the cannabis.

Corby denied this during the trial, saying she originally opened the bag after being asked by Winata whose bag it was.

Corby said she and the customs official had difficulty understanding each other.

No CCTV footage of this interaction was retrieved or preserved.

Corby stated that she had no knowledge of the drugs until the bodyboard bag was opened by customs officers.

The prosecution case was based on the customs official's testimony that Corby said the bag was hers, and that it was found to contain 4.2 kg of cannabis.

Four customs officials present when her bag was first examined in Bali said she tried to stop the bag being opened, and that she had said "I have some..."

This provided a prima facie case for the prosecution.

Three of Corby's travelling companions claimed in their testimony that they had seen her pack the bag before leaving for the airport and that only the flippers and yellow bodyboard were inside it.

In contrast to the testimony of the customs officials, Corby said that she opened the bag herself at the customs counter.

Corby was convicted on 27 May 2005 for the importation of 4.2 kg of cannabis into Bali.

She was sentenced to 20 years by the Denpasar District Court and imprisoned in Kerobokan Prison.

On appeal her conviction and sentence were confirmed with finality by the Indonesian Supreme Court.

Corby was born in the Gold Coast suburb of Tugun, in the Australian state of Queensland, to Michael Corby (who died of bowel cancer on 18 January 2008 ) and Rosleigh Rose.

She is the third of her mother's six children.

In March 2010, Corby petitioned the President of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, for clemency on the grounds of mental illness.

In May 2012, she was granted a five-year sentence reduction.

Corby was released on parole on 10 February 2014 after serving nine years in prison.

According to her parole conditions, Corby was to leave Bali on 27 May 2017.

She was deported on that date and returned to Australia.