Australian
drug convict Schapelle Corby is set to be deported from the Indonesian island
of Bali on Saturday night after completing a twelve-and-a-half-year sentence
for
smuggling marijuana, a case that strained ties between the neighboring
countries.
Corby has
always maintained her innocence, saying she was unaware she was carrying more
than 4 kg (8.8 lb) of marijuana in a boogie board bag when she arrived on the
resort island in late 2004.
The case
received huge media attention, with many Australians feeling the former beauty
therapist had been harshly treated under Indonesia's strict drug laws, even
though Corby could have faced the death penalty for trafficking.
Adding to
the drama and public interest, the court hearings were broadcast live and
included emotional outbursts from Corby and her family when she received a
20-year sentence.
"Australians
became so besotted with the case," said Janine Hosking, who made the
documentary "Ganja Queen" about Corby's case. "She doesn't look
like how we would imagine a drug trafficker to look; she looks like the girl
next door."
"People
will speculate forever on this case," Hosking told Reuters previously, adding
that the media attention had worked against her even if it made her a star.
Corby's
sentence was later cut after a request for clemency to then president Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono and she was released on parole in 2014.
Under her
parole conditions, Corby had to keep in close contact with correctional
officers while living at the Bali home of her sister Mercedes, trying to stay
out of the public eye as the media tracked her every move.
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