I was browsing through the bookstore last week with a friend of mine, who pointed to series of books about ex-patriot experiences in Thailand. Most of these books are very humorous fish-out-of-water accounts of their first initial years in the hyper-fun/bazaar/nonsensical city of Bangkok; however, a few of them were surprisingly political in nature, or downright scary.

John Davie's Send Them To Hell detailed a 17 year journey of a man who claims to have been framed into rotting in the Thai prison system for 17 years of his life. He even ended on death row the last couple of years, and in the book, the accounts become more and more horrific.
Aside from the filth that these men are forced to endure (stench, lack of sanitation, mosquitos), they are also chained (this is officially banned--but the author claims it is still practiced) and lack adequate medical treatment.
The author goes through great pains to insist many of the inmates didn't deserve 'pity' as they were murderers, rapists, molesters, etc.; however, many of the folks in there (believed to be close to 20% as admitted by former prime minister Taksin Chinawatra) are victims of corruption.

Though, I'm not very bright about these 'legal' things, I found the world in which Davies so vividly renders to be absolutely, vividly, abhorrent. It left me disturbed the rest of the day.

I asked my uncle, who is a long-time expatriate if this was a problem in Thailand. He said that he didn't think so. He believes that the vast majority of expats in prison are folks who 'just got caught'.

He went on to discuss the young lady, Shapelle Corby, whom I know of from CNN reports a few years ago. Shapelle was found with 4.1k of marijuana stashed in her boogie-board bag, in the exact shape of her board.

I've read both pro and anti Guilty boards concerning Shapelle, and both appear to make convincing cases for or against the guilty verdict. It appears that she may be guilty to me, though I'm absolutely not 100% sure, but that her trial was sufficiently flawed enough to NOT render a guilty verdict (at least not in an American court system). My uncle says (and I've yet to verify this) that her family was in the business of smuggling drugs, so she didn't get much sympathy from him.
I do know that Shappelle's father was arrested with possession in Australia and he was unapologetic about having the drugs on him (which was a minimal amount).



Has anyone read this case? What's your opinion?




.]
[Edited 7/26/09 1:27am]

Hi Imago (I'm still thinking of a smart ass reply to your mercy flaming question; but I do love what Anxiety did)

Here in Australia Chapelle Corby has become a household name. There has been so many stories on TV, radio, Newspapers etc (It's an ongoing saga)

At one stage her best friend dobbed her sister in!

One thing for sure is no one really knows!!

But I think the drugs were her brothers and yes she knew they were there.

It's a very sad story and her Family have exploited it - making lots of money from the press.

Probably guilty.

She's guilty. It's no secret here in Oz that her family are notorious for their involvement in drug trafficking and she eventually got busted and is paying for her crime. Guilty as charged and in saying that her family should be sharing that cell with her.

Dayclear said:

Isn't 'probably' not good enough for a 20 year prison sentence?

PanthaGirl said:

I've been wondering what the Aussie take on the entire story is. I know there's a great deal of sympathy for her on the blogs, but I think it has more to do with the conditions of her arrest and trial than actually thinking she's innocent.
Though I've found several sites that claim she is completely innocent. I wonder how such sordid involvements via her family factors in to such sites' stances on the case.

Imago said:

It differs from person to person down under, depends on who ur talking to and their take on the story and of course, how well they have educated themselves in the case. I personally have no problem with ganja and peeps that smoke it or use it for medicinal purposes, but seriously when U take that shit across borders like Indonesia and break their very strict laws, U will pay the price. I know of peeps that know her and her family and as I stated earlier they are notorious for smuggling and other crimes.

I do not feel sorry for her due to her actions, but I do in a sense that she is the only one in her family serving the sentence. She was silly enough to play with fire and got burned and one of the greatest arguments awhile back was to have her transferred to Oz to serve the remainder of her sentence in her home country. I doubt that will happen. She broke the law on their territory and so she will most likely continue to serve her sentence under their supervision.

PanthaGirl said:

I agree she'll not likely be transferred to Australia.
It appears her only recourse is to apply for a pardon from the Prime Mininster in Bali, but to do so she must admit guilt. And he has stated publically that he doesn't feel drug traffickers deserve clemency.

It appears that twice a year, her sentence can be reduced (up to six month reductions with each review) through reviews that take place. once on Independence day, and once on her religious holiday.
So far she's had her sentence reduced no more than 2 or 3 months with each review, but if this is kept up several years could be shaved off her sentence.


Why are people so stupid as to play with fire in conservative countries like that? It baffles me.
As much as I love porn, you'll not see me handing out issues of playboy in Suadi Arabia, provided I would ever step foot in that country.

Imago said:

I hear yah there mate and I doubt she will admit to her own guilt which is consuming her day by day in that cell. I do remember the prime ministers words in Denpasar that there would be little chance of clemency due to nature of the crime and so in the end, even with her sentence being reduced she will most likely serve at least a minimum of 16-18 years of the sentence.

I think some peeps are either plain stupid, desperate, or curious to see what they can get away with but this is no way to prove it! Saudi Arabia lolol hell no I can't stand even going to Dubai due to the fact they disrespect women so much. The 2 times I've been there I felt extremely uncomfortable around the men and women and couldn't stand the way I was addressed, looked upon and not assisted. Due to the fact I was alone I was unable to check into a hotel because I was a female, and on my own. It's very backwards and pathetic. Many of my flight attendant friends that worked for Emirates had to relocate to Dubai and most of them returned to Oz within 3 - 6 months and did not finish their 3 years contracts. It was hell for many of them.

I just realized I've been misspelling her name for the last 4 years

Imago said:

Is that really so hard to believe?

INSATIABLE said:

INSATIABLE said:

You've come out of lurk mode to post a picture of that Chinese guy with the large brick phone, haven't you?

I would say there's a high probability that she was guilty, given her connections.

I am from Australia myself but I have been highly involved in both the travel and international student markets and am also a frequent Asia-hopper (as technically this is my corner of the world)

What is unfortunate is that there are many ignorant people in my country who see Asia (South-East Asia in particular) as inferior. They go overseas and have little or no respect for the customs, history, rules and regulations of their hosts,

Take for example Malaysia. In Malaysia, being a predominately Muslim country, it is custom (and actually logical for Caucasians!!) to cover your arms and legs as a female. It's not an extreme country so there's no need to wear a scarf unless you are visiting a mosque. However, you will see young Australian girls wearing beach wear outside of the resorts, basically waving their tits around. Also in Thailand shorts are considered for boys, yet you see fifty-year old Aussie men walking around in shorts none the wiser.

It's this lack of knowledge of the country we are visiting that leads to things like this. No fool should take drugs over a border in my part of the world. There are signs everywhere saying that drug smuggling carries the death penalty in many countries and, like anyone who breaks the law overseas, foreign citizens are subject to them.

I therefore think, although it is unfortunate that she is in a dirty prison for so long, she has been tried and punished according to Indonesian law. Regardless of the differences between the US court system and the Indonesian one, everything was done fairly and that is why the Australian government can't and should really not intervene.

I believe her case was used as an example to future tourists, and although I think the example was needed, it just happened to be her at the time.

Now her stupidity and arrogance in committing the crime is a different matter. I don't believe any of the outside stories like the ones about the baggage handlers planting it, due to her and her family's history.

connorhawke said:

Very accurate account of events surrounding her crime and foreign laws in general. Unfortunately as U say there are many ignorant peeps who continue to disrespect the laws and customs posed by host countries. I can understand that many peeps may not like the laws that are presented and need to be followed but they have chosen to be there and must display respect for others especially on their own soil.

As for the ridiculous story about the baggage handlers planting it in her case, that is simply impossible in this day and age. All pit crew members are subject to security screening and work in sterile/security restricted areas where they are constantly monitored by other staff and security cameras cover every angle of the tarmac. A 4kg bag of pot would be impossible to cover and plant in full view of this...and then there is the stench...

Imago said:

I can't give you the Aussie take, but I can give you mine! I think she's guilty, and that the coverage as waaaaay too over-the-top. I remember one of the leading news stories awhile ago was that Schapelle was being taken out to get a haircut for her birthday.
[Edited 7/26/09 22:47pm]

I think she was setup by her own family, used as the family pawn - she may not have known

connorhawke said:

I see that arrogance in Bangkok all the time.
Although, admittingly, I find the dicotomy between the rather conservative views on dress in Thailand coupled with the anything-goes attitude towards sexuality (not outward sexual behavior, but private sexual affairs) a strange mix.

The worse arrogance I've seen is amongst Americans and Brits though. The most arrogant Australians I've seen are kids in their 20s here on holiday and don't go anywhere outside of Silom, Patpong, Nana, or Khoa San (western dives). Most make absolutely no attempt to learn the language, and get impatient with Thais who speak with strong accents while speaking English. I was about a hair's width away from almost telling off a British dude who was not just loud, but ignorant beside me at one of the popular Coffee shops in Silom the other day. The only thing stopping me was my realization that outward displays of anger here are considered 'losing face' and 'tacky as hell'.

But yeah, I can imagine them thinking that being from the west, other cultures are going to tolerate their attitudes towards all manner of things, including drug use.

God for bid the day enough Americans come to Thailand and try to import their religion and homophobia.

Moonbeam said:

What, her name is spelled "Schapelle"? You mean, even with my corrected spelling of her name (which would have been Shappelle), I still misspelled it?

!

jstar69 said:

explain please

Imago said:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w...elle_Corby

Another reason this chick is annoying.

Moonbeam said:

Why does the wiki article make her so annoying?


Moonbeam, sometimes your anger is just too fierce. Just to fierce.

Imago said:

Moonbeam said:

Another thing I found really interesting about this case was the hypocrisy in my society it brought to light.

Now the uproar about this was huge. So many ignorant people and the media fed the frenzy, running around with all their "free whatsherface" garbage. Death threats, racist remarks to the Indonesian Embassy, what have you. It was disgusting and truly made me ashamed of my country. No wonder the Indonesian court system rightly stuck to their guns.

And then not long after we had the situation of the Bali 9 being arrested at Denpasar trying to smuggle heroin INTO Australia. The Australian Federal Police knew what was happening and allowed them to be arrested at Denpasar, in cooperation with the Balinese Police.

This case barely caused a blip in the Australian society regardless of the fact that three of them were actually sentenced to death. Informed individuals and opinion writers began to talk about this and the hypocrisy of the reaction. Interestingly, those arrested were predominantly Asian Australians, along with a lady who was rather unfortunate looking. And because of this, these people argued, people didn't care enough. Sadly, the Corby thing was a "save the poor white girl" in my opinion. Also because pot is considered fairly OK here and heroin isn't, this was another defining factor in the media circus.

It's all bloody ridiculous and makes me ashamed for my country.

chocolatehandles said:

Ah, dobbed. Number 3 on the list of Ausie words I'd never know if I hadn't watched Neighbours too much when younger!

As for the topic, never heard of her.

I saw the documentary of her being convicted and placed in jail. It's called Ganja Queen. I was in tears. As one member on her side said, they had the wrong Corby. I believe it was either her father or brother who was into growing weed and selling it. The person I spoke of before made it seem like maybe they put it in there instead of the initial thinking that it was stuffed in her belongings as it went through customs/baggage check.

I personally think she was caught in the middle of something. And unfortunately, the iron fist of Thailand's laws came down hard on her. The documentary placed me into the assumption (based on the facts stated) that they take drug trafficking quite seriously. So therefore, she didn't have a chance to begin with. When they announced the verdict, I felt my heart sink into my stomach. I felt sorry for her entire family. Especially her mother.

I hate to say this but it seemed as if her father was the only one who didn't seem too sorrowful over his daughter getting caught. As if he were relieved, actually. Everyone but him showed emotion in that documentary. And sadly, he died. So we can never really know if he had a part in it or not. And I doubt anyone will come forward if it isn't him.

But wow wow...reading all the comments here, My mind is actually being expanded. I did do some research on her after the film ended but none of it was as expanded as I thought it was. Nevertheless, I still sort of feel like she wasn't a direct suspect and more of an unknowing pawn..

as many have said here in Oz it is crazy...but not sure if anyone saw the trial in Indonesia when it aired live on all the major networks but I did and you know sometimes when peeps do something wrong they take the palm of their hand and hit it against their forehead ( like hin the simpsons?) she did that 3 times in rapid succession- body language never lies--- from that i say guilty.

missmad said:

I agree with that. THAT body language is always used for self-punishment. Good call!

TheEnglishGent said:

I'm dying to hear the other words that travesty of a tv show taught you