Australian Woman Sentenced to 20 Years in an Indonesian Prison For Transport of Cannabis

May 27, 2005 4:38 PM

Is this a better case for the use of force than Iraq? Is it time to be the world's policeman? While Australia considers sending in two (2) lawyers, reporters indicate that most people die during incarceration in such jails as this.
posted by nervousfritz (25 comments total)

I apologize: it's my first post so I am prepared for the flames... I think "Is this" should instead be something about the subject, my mistake.
posted by nervousfritz at 4:40 PM on May 27, 2005

She got off easy, they were trying to execute her or life in prison.

Its impossible to tell if the drugs were planted or if she just assumed she'd get away with smuggling them in. If she smuggled them in then she's incredibly stupid for doing so. If she left her bags unlocked and available for someone to plant the drugs in then she's naive and partially responsible. But 20 years seems like an awfully long time.

I wonder how many people would be so upset if she were a balding forty something guy with a big belly and eczema?
posted by fenriq at 4:46 PM on May 27, 2005

Ok, I'll start it out slow...to answer your question, no--I don't think it is. I'm unfamiliar with the connection between Iraq, Austrailian massage therapists, Indonesia, terrorism, and weed.

Could you straighten it out for me?
posted by zardoz at 4:46 PM on May 27, 2005

Not to mention the dope smuggling chick was posted earlier....today.
posted by Eekacat at 4:52 PM on May 27, 2005

Why should the US, or Australia, start war to protect a convicted drug smuggler?
posted by caddis at 4:53 PM on May 27, 2005

She got off easy, they were trying to execute her or life in prison.

I'd rather be executed than spend 20 years in an Indonesian jail.
posted by homunculus at 5:00 PM on May 27, 2005

Or an American jail, for that matter.
posted by homunculus at 5:01 PM on May 27, 2005

Is this a better case for the use of force than Iraq?

I'll just assume that was an intentionally provocative joke. If not, what the fuck are you talking about?
posted by freebird at 5:02 PM on May 27, 2005

Sorry, "naive and partially responsible"?
I mean, naive, okay, if you like.
But how she can bear *one iota of responsibility* for someone (such as an airline worker) slipping something into her bag, I fail to see.
I'm not saying this is what happened, I'm saying that if it *is*, she is not responsible enough to serve one second in jail, let alone 20 years.
Somebody back me up here.
posted by uosuaq at 5:10 PM on May 27, 2005

Why does the forcerecon site have a dive klaxon?

I apologize: it's my first post so I am prepared for the flames...
nervousfritz you STUPID BASTARD!!!
....just trying to help.

/yes, entirely joking.

I can't see how intervening in this could be justified. For the U.S. at least. She's not our citizen. If the Aussies want to, I don't see how us Norte Americanos could have the right to say anything about it.
But why use force? The Indonesian cops are notoriously easy to pay off.

I wonder how many people would be so upset if she were a balding forty something guy with a big belly and eczema?
fenriq I am so turned on right now....
posted by Smedleyman at 5:27 PM on May 27, 2005

To follow up on Smedleyman's comment:
I don't have a problem with "intervening" in the sense of boycotts, diplomatic pressure, and maybe even sanctions (although that seems extreme for a case concerning one individual...but it wouldn't bother me) -- what I wonder about, what I consider relevant, is how the Indonesian government could find a way to back out of a judgment and sentence they've already handed down. I mean, no government is going to say "we found this person guilty and gave her 20 years, but since Australia is threatening not to buy any more textiles from us, we now find her innocent". That is, I wonder what possible "outs" there might be in their system that Australia or anyone else can push them towards.
This is a fairly cosmopolitan blog...can anyone enlighten me?
posted by uosuaq at 5:33 PM on May 27, 2005

How do you know she didn't do it?
posted by caddis at 5:34 PM on May 27, 2005

Considering what a total fuckup the Iraq war has been and that it was justified after the lies came out because "Saddam did bad things to people," I will say that it is at least as good a use of force as Iraq. But then, I would say the same thing about the state of American prisons and drug policy, even if it is not as bad as Indonesia. If only I could create a special little hell just for all the fucking scumbags that support the drug crusades and don't give a shit about the conditions in prisons in the USA and abroad. Even if she did do it, she does not deserve what is happening to her.
posted by weretable and the undead chairs at 5:45 PM on May 27, 2005

Why is anyone even commenting in this thread, this is (as was pointed out) a double post of an active thread from earlier in the day. Flag it and move on...
posted by jonson at 6:14 PM on May 27, 2005

Your implication, jonson, is that a text must be permanent to be meaningful. Let me say for the record - and indeed, for all posterity - that this notion is abhorrent and responsible for perhaps more human suffering than any other construct of the human mind. That and the damn bats.
posted by freebird at 7:06 PM on May 27, 2005

Alright... So if I understand the conclusion that you're trying to lead me towards, you think that it is more important to use military force and sacrifice lives to free one wrongly imprisoned woman (that nobody can really conclusively say is actually innocent, although I'd like to believe she is) than it is to remove a dictator who has wrongly imprisoned, tortured, and executed tens of thousands of innocent people?

Frickin diplomacy should be able to solve this one. A nice tap on the shoulder from the American ambassador should wake them up...
posted by chrismetcalf at 7:08 PM on May 27, 2005

Are you serious?

You expect the US to go to war on behalf a convicted drug smuggler? I realize all you Aussies think that, because she's good looking, she must be innosent, but the fact is she's probably not.

Why in gods name would the US do anything to get this girl out of jail. The US's insane international drug war is the only reason most of these countries even have drug laws.

I'd be happy if the international WoD ended, and the Indonesians released all their non-violent drug offenders (by the way, how many have you got in Au Jails? Hypocracy much?).

But if one pretty girl got released while the rest rotted, that would just make me sick.
posted by delmoi at 8:05 PM on May 27, 2005

OH MY FUCKING GOD WILL YOU STOP THIS SHIT ALREADY.

When you visit other countries, you must follow their laws or suffer the consequences, no matter if you're pretty, or unaware of the 18 pounds of weed in your backpack, or naive, or all of the above.

Christ alfuckingmighty. Now I know how the rest of the world must have felt about that Terry Shaivo shit.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 8:21 PM on May 27, 2005

Probably unrelated, but, breaking news: Explosion hits Indonesian market
posted by ori at 8:38 PM on May 27, 2005

I wonder if the Australians are going to start bombing the rest of Indonesia? Maybe the next one will get caught with 9 pounds of C4.

I just wish that the Australian reaction to this was "this is horrible" (which it is), and not "she must be innocent" (she's not).

It would be great if australian economic pressure was able to get Indonesia to reform it's retarded drug laws.

But I doubt it will. While the Balinese probably love pot-smoking Australians, most people over there probably don't.
posted by delmoi at 8:47 PM on May 27, 2005

I thought this was rather insane, from the CNN article:
"Many callers to radio talk shows in Australia said they regretted making donations to Indonesian tsunami victims, The Associated Press reported."

What the hell? That is rather extreme, don't you think?
If this woman is innocent she should not face jailtime, but military intervention would be freaking insane, and frankly, the US would pretty much be inviting attack from every country that has citizens imprisoned in Guantanamo or elsewhere if we got involved with or approved of such action.
Now, who knows if she is innocent or not. It does seem clear that she didn't get a fair trial (by Aussie or US standards). It may, however, have been completely within the norm for Indonesian justice in which case I feel very sorry for her and her family, but unfortunately that's what can happen when you travel abroad.
posted by papakwanz at 9:42 PM on May 27, 2005

uosuaq, partially responsible in that she didn't keep her shit under her control. If someone slipped drugs into her bags then she left them alone long enough for them to slip drugs into her bags.

Unless it was airport personnel and that's a hard sell.

Is 20 years in prison for smuggling weed excessive? Yes.
Is 2 years in prison for smuggling weed excessive? Yes.

But I don't get to make the laws here or in Indonesia where they quite obviously want you to buy the local weed and not bring it in.

Smedleyman, yeah, you might want to see a shrink about that attraction. Does he rev your motor too?

papakwanz, that quote is truly ugly. I don't think I like Australia very much anymore.
posted by fenriq at 9:54 PM on May 27, 2005

As an Australian, I am amazed at this response. Finally, something has jarred my lackadaisical countrymen’s self absorbed arses away from their consumerist narcosis, and there is a broad based concern with something other than credit card debt and its relationship with potential interest rate rises.

I have become utterly disgusted with the views of fellow Australians with particular regard to our treatment of refugees , which generally seem to be a gestalt based inability to effectively empathise, which seems to be reflected in the Corby situation. Bad/worse things happen to people in Australia daily, but in general, no one seems to care – until now. We didn’t care when Lindy Chamberlain was jailed for life principally because she was a devil worhipping Seventh Day Adventist – which was out of accord with our traditional religious beliefs, and people genuinely believed that to be prima facie in determining her guilt. In fact, the only reason the immigration scandal mentioned above, gathered momentum, was purely because an Australian was incorrectly detained and subsequently exposed to the very same treatment and facilities that in excess of 70 children endure daily at the Baxter and other detention centres run by Australia.

It's reminiscent of the saving Private Lynch manifestation the Americans used early in the Iraq war to garner support. There are some interesting political twists to this, however, and it’s worth watching the sleazy little bigot we maintained in office based on his fear based racist policies, as the very people he appealed to, and who put him in office, are now demanding all the things the left wanted when we jumped into the WMD debacle.

And now we want to withhold aid to the tsunamis victims.... I love a sunburnt country.
posted by strawberryviagra at 10:07 PM on May 27, 2005

Sorry for the duplicate - fixed the links in this post:

As an Australian, I am amazed at this response. Finally, something has jarred my lackadaisical countrymen’s self absorbed arses away from their consumerist narcosis, and there is a broad based concern with something other than credit card debt and its relationship with potential interest rate rises.

I have become utterly disgusted with the views of fellow Australians with particular regard to our treatment of refugees , which generally seem to be a gestalt based inability to effectively empathise, which seems to be reflected in the Corby situation. Bad/worse things happen to people in Australia daily, but in general, no one seems to care – until now. We didn't care when Lindy Chamberlain was jailed for life principally because she was a devil worshipping Seventh Day Adventist – which was out of accord with our traditional religious beliefs, and people genuinely believed that to be prima facie in determining her guilt. In fact, the only reason the immigration scandal mentioned above, gathered momentum, was purely because an Australian was incorrectly detained and subsequently exposed to the very same treatment and facilities that in excess of 70 children endure daily at the Baxter and other detention centres run by Australia.

It's reminiscent of the saving Private Lynch manifestation the Americans used early in the Iraq war to garner support. There are some interesting political twists to this, however, and it’s worth watching the sleazy little bigot we maintained in office based on his fear based racist policies, as the very people he appealed to, and who put him in office, are now demanding all the things the left wanted when we jumped into the WMD debacle.

And now we want to withhold aid to the tsunamis victims.... I love a sunburnt country.
posted by strawberryviagra at 10:15 PM on May 27, 2005

freebird writes "Your implication, jonson, is that a text must be permanent to be meaningful. Let me say for the record - and indeed, for all posterity - that this notion is abhorrent and responsible for perhaps more human suffering than any other construct of the human mind. That and the damn bats."

Ah, some of us still remember the joys of impermanence we felt during the epic bat wars. Good days, long gone, never to return.

Right, so you want to replace Helen for Corby and write "Doctor Howard"?
Howard: "Was this the pot that launched a thousand planes and burnt the insensitive judges of Jakarta?"
posted by nkyad at 11:06 PM on May 27, 2005