Tuesday, April 19, 2005
In deep sh!t

The Australian

Just as Gold Coast women Schapelle Corby is about to hear whether she has been convicted of drug smuggling and sentenced to death, for shipping a few kilos of grass, 5 young Australians decide to board a plane in Bali, with 5 kilos of heroin strapped to their torso.

Four more were rounded up by Indonesian police at their hotel. All 9 of them are under 30.

For f*ck's sake, what were they thinking?

(Sorry, I do not usually swear, but forgive me, I think this warrants it.)

Most of them were kids, 19 to 21 years old. Now they face DEATH by firing squad after a wretched few months in a Bali gaol.

The ‘Bali-9’ were arrested in a joint operation between Australia Feds and the Indonesians. The Feds had been involved in the surveillance in the run-up to the arrests, which occurred at the airport; one guy was even frog-marched off the plane.

Some interesting jurisdictional and moral questions remain to be answered, however. Knowing that the 5 on the plane could have been picked up at Sydney, should the Feds have been pushing to feel their collar in Australia, where they could not be sentenced to death?

I guess, the Indonesians were pretty keen to pinch them in Bali. It was their op., in their jurisdiction, so what if it carries the death penalty there?

---