Indonesian Government Bans Schapelle From Channel 7 Interview; Threatens To Send Her Back To Jail
"It's going to cause polemic," said a governmental spokesperson. "So it's possible that we will revoke her parole."
The Indonesian government has banned Schapelle Corby from a televised interview that could have earned her up to $3 million, with authorities threatening to revoke her parole if the Channel 7 Sunday Night special goes ahead.
While Schapelle’s sister Mercedes maintained in a statement that the controversial profit Corby would make from the interview has been grossly overestimated, Indonesia’s deputy justice and human rights minister Denny Indrayana says it could violate a condition of parole by causing restlessness in the community. “I have instructed the officer here at the Corrections Bureau to advise the family not to do it, because in the end, it will, to our understanding, cause polemic,” he says. “It’s going to cause polemic, so it’s possible that we will revoke her parole.”
After ten years spent in Bali jail, following a highly publicised drug smuggling conviction, Schapelle Corby emerged on parole last week to media chaos, her face covered in a scarf and a summer festival fedora to save the best for the highest bidder. She was chased by the press to her luxury compound, but only one outlet was allowed in: Channel 7′s Mike Willessee suddenly appeared inside the gates, after his network secured the rights to her first interview.
Yesterday, Queensland Premier Campbell Newman warned against Corby profiting from her crime: “I am deeply concerned, in fact I am dismayed, that a convicted drug criminal has benefited it appears from her criminal activity,’’ he said. There was also unrest brewing in Indonesia about Corby’s post-release behaviour (that photo of her clinking a Corona inside the plush compound was reportedly sold to Women’s Day for $20,000), with the Governor of Kerobokan prison telling the local paper that, “I’ve made it clear to the family that if she’s willing to be interviewed, that would be stupid of her.”
Last night, Shapelle’s sister Mercedes gave a statement to the press. She said the sums being reported are “ridiculous”, and highlighted the hypocrisy of Campbell Newman warning against the interview, after his government partly funded the “biased and inaccurate” production of the sensationally underwhelming Schapelle telemovie that aired on Nine on Sunday.