Schapelle Corby misses jail term reduction

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Schapelle Corby misses jail term reduction

25 December 2008

Courier Mail

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0...73-3102,00.html

 

CONVICTED drug smuggler Schapelle Corby, of the Gold Coast, has missed being handed a Christmas Day sentence reduction from Indonesian authorities.

 

Indonesian authorities used the day to announce the freeing of 221 prisoners for good behaviour and a reduction in sentences for more than 7000 other prisoners.

 

Corby and fellow Australian drug trafficker Renae Lawrence were among 59 prisoners at Bali's Kerobokan prison in line for Christmas sentence cuts on Thursday.

 

Neither of the women were granted a reduction, but prison official Yon Suharyono said such a move remained possible over coming days.

 

"Maybe after Christmas, it would be issued," Mr Suharyono said in a statement.

 

"I cannot be certain of that.

 

"If there's no problem, it would be issued because it's their rights."

 

To be eligible for a sentence reduction, prisoners must have been of good behaviour for at least six months.

 

Corby, 31, is serving a 20-year jail term after she was caught at Bali's Denpasar airport in October 2004 with 4.1kg of cannabis in her boogie-board bag.

 

Both she and Lawrence - who is also serving 20 years for her role in the failed Bali Nine plot to smuggle more than 8kg of heroin from Bali in 2005 - had several months sliced off their sentences in August to mark Indonesia's Independence Day.

 

Elsewhere in the jail, death row prisoners and Bali Nine members, Australian heroin smugglers Andrew Chan, Myuran Sukumaran and Matthew Norman, each attended Christmas services, with Chan asking for an English language interpretation.

 

Despite missing out on Thursday's sentence reductions, Corby joined the Christmas celebrations.

 

"She came with a magazine with (her sister) Mercedes on its cover ... showing it to the reporters there," prison official Made Suardana said in a statement.

 

She also took a photograph of a reporter using the reporter's camera, the official said.