Documentary Puts Schapelle Corby’s Parole At Risk

Schapelle Corby’s parole is in danger of being revoked after the Indonesia’s Justice Minister has watched a documentary about her release. Minister Amir Syamsuddin said that the convicted Australian’s family appeared to be ungrateful in the Seven Network’s TV documentary special.

“I am waiting for a complete report from the Bali Corrections Board. In the meantime, I’d like to announce that there’s a possibility I will revoke Corby’s parole,” the incensed minister told journalists at his office.

Ms Corby was granted parole in February after serving nine years in a Bali prison for drug smuggling in the country. She was warned against giving media interviews because it will cause “restlessness” in the local community.

So instead of personally appearing in the Sunday night program, which was simply titled “Schapelle,” she let her sister Mercedes face the camera and give an interview. The show also featured still images of her first days of freedom from Kerobokan Prison.

The justice minister said that her family tried to “sneak around the law” by still doing an interview, albeit not with Ms Corby herself.

In “Schapelle,” Mercedes gave a tearful interview, maintaining her sister’s innocence. She added that the marijuana found in Ms Corby’s bag could have come from Indonesia, which has provoked calls for her to be sent back to jail in the Asian country.

Mr Syamsuddin told Indonesian paper Kompas that the interview has made the family look ungrateful.

“If we are finally forced to take the decision (to revoke the parole), this is not removed from the family’s responsibility, which in my opinion, they didn’t show their concern to what we have faced.”

He said that the ministry would “deepen” its investigation whether the family was paid for the show.

The Corby family and the Seven Network have both denied that there was payment involved.

Mercedes and her husband Wayan Widyartha spent several hours in the Bali Justice Ministry office on Monday to explain the TV interview to officials in a bid to prevent the revocation of Ms Corby’s parole.