27 May 2005

Free Schapelle protest

| Kerces
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As you’ve probably heard by now, Schapelle Corby’s been found guilty and sentenced to 20 years and some large amount of rupees fine.

There’s going to be a Free Schapelle protest tonight (27-MAY-2005) outside the Indonesian embassy (8 Darwin Ave Yarralumla) at 5.30.

(That is to say, a protest about making Schapelle free, not a protest that is free. Though I don’t suppose you’ll have to pay to be there so it will be free too).

K

[ED – Caz also sent in the following:

Get your hankies out folks, and bring along your pitchforks and burning torches. It’s time to form an angry mob! And who doesn’t like being part of one of those?

Now that Our Schapelle™ has been sentenced to 20 years in a dirty Balinese prison, its time to tell those Indonesians that they’re very naughty people indeed. Because she didn’t do it! She’s very pretty! And good at hand gestures! And she, um, said she didn’t do it!

Canberrans who want to beat their chests and howl about the ‘terrible injustice’ of it all can attend a rally this arvo out the front of the Indonesian embassy. It’s set to take place at 5:30pm. Sadly, if you’re someone who likes to make an arse of themselves in front of the television cameras, you’ll probably be disappointed. The rally starts too late to make any of tonight’s news bulletins. Nice planning, morons.

My sources tell me the Greens are organising the event. That should convince the Indonesian authorities to change their minds – having a bunch of unwashed, pot-smoking hippies descend on their embassy. Schapelle’s release is clearly going to be imminent!

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i agree vg – i think people will slowly realise they have been spun, and then the public sentiment may turn.

worse case scenario – she comes home and then says ‘i did it’.

Talk about un-Australian.

I don’t think the Indonesians care a lick whether we have faith in their system or not. It disturbs me that people can’t seem to see the forest for the trees here and even entertain the notion that she IS guilty as charged, but rather simply believe the 7pm Ray Martin rhetoric (that Ch9 so heavily paid for). The fact that this rhetoric dances so loosely with the truth leads me to believe that not only are we predominantly a nation of booners, but we will believe anything, especially when it has the xenophobic slant that our media pushes.

Yes, I agree the sentence was manifestly unfair, but I am not convinced of her doe-eyed innocence as seemingly most of the country has been duped to believe. Most of the FACTUAL information I have heard (virtually entirely un-newsworthy as it goes against the image of ‘our Schapelle’) points directly to her guilt.

I take great offence to the blanket statements such ‘a nations outrage’. I, and many people I know (and they dont all move in my employment circles) are of the belief she is guilty and, curiously enough, she is ever so slowly slipping from our front pages.

C’mon VG, the presiding judge says he’s heard hundreds of drug cases and not found ONE innocent.

at the same time customs officials are botching procedure as they did in the corby case?

I realise that you’d like to see that sort of judiciary here because it’d mean an easy and quiet life for the police.

but don’t ask us to have faith in that sort of justice process.

Yes, that is correct (though if you had’ve written that I would have agreed). The judges did not believe her story and believed that of the custom’s officials. I would have thought that was obvious, hence the conviction

Vg,

The preceeding and following sentences surrounding the one you quoted talk about what the judges would need to accept to find Miss Corby innocent. I admit it was not written so well (I shouldn;t have put the quoted sentence in it’s paragraph, but taken in context and with my latter clarification I believe you should be able to see what I am saying.

If not here it is in a nutshell:

Judges will believe customs and court officials words above that of accused drug smugglers with drugs in their bags

To find Miss Corby innocent the judges not only had to believe her story but to disbelieve the cutoms official’s testimony.

RG, you’d need to get bigger lips…….and maybe an army……

“Not only that but the whole process of not finger printing, not producing the video even upon public request, amounts to a widespread conspiracy”

In what part of that sentence are you saying it wasn’t a ‘conspiracy’. Would it be the last 5 words?

Quoth LG “lip service”

…. you are kidding right? ALl that money doesn’t add up to lip service to me. Bribe perhaps (kinda fitting really) but lip service?

Screw the tax cuts, I want some of Indonesia’s lip service.

Vg,

I think you are being facetitious. Just to clear up, I am not saying it is a conspiracy, just pointing out that the judges would have to accept a conspiracy occurred to fine Miss Corby innocent. Point being: not likely.

conspiracy my arse.

her team presented evidence. it was rejected as flawed.

based on the case presented to them, she was found guilty.

ignore media spin, focus on facts.

drugs are evil, so are drug traffickers.

Yes, its a conspiracy

What has been to some estent ignored in this case, is that to find Miss Corby innocent the judges would have to find that 4 Indonesian customs officials lied.

Not only that but the whole process of not finger printing, not producing the video even upon public request, amounts to a widespread conspiracy. The judges would not and are not going to do that.

What of the video frmo the airports in Australia? Wiped after the request from the lawyers. Is this fact? Do we know the circumstances?

This case does remind me of the 1995(?) case of middleage Japanese travellers convicted of importing drugs into Australia. Drugs found in luggage, they all denied it, had a plausible story to explain the drugs presence, complained of mis-translation in the arrest and the court case, and ended up in jail.

In cases of drug importation around the world, possession does almost amount to guilt.

If I ever get busted at any Australian airport with say 2Kg of heroin in my bag, I’m just going to keep a straight face and say “Baggage handlers must have put it there”. I fully expect to be waved through with any further questioning.

OMG, Can. unsung hero seems to be making sense.

Canberra_unsung_hero9:08 pm 29 May 05

Why don’t we all just accept the “Umpire’s decision” for the time being… until new material surfaces..which I’m sure it will eventually.

well apprently it was rather leafier than the good gear and yes you can see that on TV.

What, by looking at it on a TV telecast? I don’t need contacts to know…..sorry

My contacts who would know claim that the stuff shown on tv as being found in the body board bag was not the high grade gear of which you speak.

But I can’t claim to be speaking on an area of personal knowledge.

Suffice to say that high grade Australian dope is of significantly higher value on the streets of Kuta or Denpasar than it is on our streets. This was only really well publicised once in the whole argument, in an SMH article, but known for years. The stuff wholly made in Bali is not as highly valued as stuff that is hydroponically nurtured here.

Your inference is most definitely wrong. Now before everyone jumps on the fact that the conditions are ideal in Bali etc etc, it is the quality of the goods that are highly valued, not the quantity.

Bali is a very nice place to visit if you don’t confine yourself to the bogan plains of Kuta. I stayed in a lovely bogan free environment for 7 days (Le Meridien resort at Tanah Lot was beyond the average booners capabilities).

But trust me, Bali is not the Yarralumla nursery of dope growing. The imported stuff is far more highly regarded, another pertinent point lost amongst the irrelevant and inadmissible rhetoric

First graders take drugs FROM Bali, not TO Bali.

But maybe, just maybe, the thick skulls in the boganate are starting to realise that Bali (Or “Equatorial Macquarie Fields” as someone on TSSH put it) is part of a third world country, and isn’t just a cheaper version of Noosa.

I could hardly miss Douglas Wood, but his wasnt a drug matter so the comparison is moot.

I can guarantee the public frenzy would not have been so large for the 45yo in Corby’s position. She was facing criminal sanctions, Wood is not, the comparison being increasingly irrelevant.

You don’t really have a contemporary bent on Indo/Aus relations, particularly as they relate to law enforcement. I do and you’re particularly wrong in that regard

Personally I thought the fact that they refused to fingerprint the bag spoke volumes.

Also, don’t buy in to the hype – Indonesia and Australia are NOT friends. They consider us a threat and we consider them the same. All the aid and stuff is just lip service.

They consider us the enemy, and therefore any Australian is not going to be given a fair go. Unfortunately, that IS fact. (LG wasn’t always a humble public servant you know!)

And as for a 45 year old overweight white guy? VG, did you miss all the concern for Douglas Wood?

Lets see exactly what would have been admissible in the case, according to Australian law.

1/ The fact the stuff was found in her bag
2/ Certain (not all) evidence of her admissions.

Every skerrick of evidence her poorly prepared and amateur team presented was based on hearsay, conjecture, guesswork and, in the case of the Vicotiran prisoner Ford, lies.

To top all of those ‘anti’ arguments off, the case was NOT being tried here, it was being tried in Indonesia. Their country, their rules. Yes their system may be ‘improving, still awful’ but the fact remains that if you roll the dice there, be prepared for the consequences.

I for one think she is guilty. If you wanna play first grade, be prepared for the consequences it may bring.

well put jb

The Herald-Sun have coverage of the protest, and the string of abusive communications the embassy have received.

BTW VG – how much of the prosecution evidence would have been admissable?

The whole case would have been shitcanned here.

Anyway I didn’t know I was required to hold an absolutist position on the Indonesian Legal system. It seem like a silly thing to have.

If I have any position it’s the more nuanced “Improving, still awfull, and I pray I’m never at its mercy”

There are dirty big signs all over Denpasar airport and in the Aussie travel warnings about moving illicit substances overseas. Whether the sentences are manifestly unfair the warnings are clear.

One cannot help but think what the press and public’s reaction to a 45yo overweight male in the same predicament would have been like.

For mine I didn’t see any admissible evidence that would have resolved her. Anything else outside that is rhetoric. Sure we may all see the sentence as excessive but it’s not our system to criticise

I hate sunshine and I don’t like the indonesian system. On appeal, he got what? 3 years? Something absurd.

The Australian legal system is also a joke, but that’s not what the argument is about. I never said “only the Australian system knows best”.

Many people have missed the acute possibility that she is in fact guilty of what has been alleged. before people starting taking a benevolent attitude (i.e. only Australia’s system knows best) to the other judicial syatem in our area perhaps they should consider whether the Court here was right on the admissible evidence presented to it.

People are either for or against the Indonesian system, they can’t be ‘sunshine friends’

It’s certainly a curious argument that agreement with one verdict represents a validation of all other verdicts, for all time.

No one protested him getting the death penalty because he killed people.

Have you ever been in an Indonesian court? Justice is not a part of their system.

However, at the same time, rallying outside any embassy or consulate is pointelss. Their country, their rules. Personally, I think it is absurd and appalling, but the Indonesian legal system won’t change its mind because of what I think. Or what any of you think either.

Canberra_unsung_hero9:33 pm 27 May 05

The expression “Cheese it the cops!” is believed to have originated in gangland Chicago prior to World War 1, and was used by later “notables” such as George ‘Bugs’ Moran, Dion O’Banion (1892-1924), Hymie Weiss (1898-1926),and ‘Machine Gun’ Jack McGurn.
Hymie Weiss is credited with coining the phrase ” A one way ride” in 1921.
By the mid 1920’s, the use of the expression “Cheese it the cops” ( or just “Cheese it” ) had become widespread amongst petty crooks and gangland members, not only in Chicago, but in New York and Detroit as well. The expression generally meant “Run for it, the cops are here”, or “Quit your (illegal) activity, the cops are on the way”.
By the 1930’s, the expression had spread to most American States, but by the 1950’s its use started to wane, and by the mid 1960’s it had all but disappeared.
The expression has recently been ‘resurrected’in some popular television programs such as “Futurama”.

theonlyjames7:53 pm 27 May 05

Morbo demands comments!

Morbo Demands More Futurama References!

K’s angry mob component could, in the right light, be taken to be a Bender reference

“Cheese it” means run. Bender from futurama uses it.

Another unsung post that makes absolutely no sense. Cheese it???

Canberra_unsung_hero4:58 pm 27 May 05

Cheese it ! Here come the cops !!

Talk about mob rule, I wouldn’t have thought the Greens would be so stupid and popularist.

No one complained about the Indonesian system of justice when Amrosi (one of the Bali bombers) got sentenced to death.

From what I have gleaned there was no hard evidence of her innocence and a lot of her guilt. That, in most courts, means the burden of proof is satisfied

Not so sure this will be help or hindrance… In any case, I have been told she has seven days to appeal and take it to the supreme court. Failing that she can try the super supreme court, however I think this story has too much ham already… Did anyone catch Channel 9’s disgusting “Live Coverage”?

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