Last Friday, Aussie girl Schapelle Corby was sentenced to 20 years in Denpasar jail for allegedly importing 4kg of Marijuana into Bali in her boogieboard bag.

Normally, this would be accepted by Australians, except that in Schapelle's case it had become rather blatantly obvious that nothing the defence did or said would have any influence whatsoever on the 3 Indonesian judges. In fact, the lead judge even said in an interview that they planned to discount the evidence given by the defence.

To make matters worse, about a month ago, 9 young Australian s were caught trying to smuggle heroin OUT of Bali. They have not been given the same sympathy by their fellow Aussies as they were caught with the stuff strapped to their bodies and obviously knew exactly what they were doing.

Feelings against Indonesia are running pretty high in Australia at present -with some people even calling charities and asking that their Tsunami aid donations be redirected into other avenues.

I did saw an article on Good Morning America (which is shown very early in the morning/late at night here in Australia)on Schapelle, and was wondering what anybody over there has heard.

Can you imagine what it must be like to be charged with a crime in a country where you not only don't speak the language, but where you are "Guilty until proved innocent", rather than the other way around?

I'd love to hear your comments and feelings on this matter.


Megan McConnell