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| Kerobokan prison |
Amid accusations of 'set-up', four Britons face a justice system which will probably not believe their protests of innocence
One of the British women accused of cocaine smuggling in Bali remained sedated in hospital on Saturday as she continued to protest her innocence.
Rachel Dougall, 38, was becoming increasingly frantic as she faced the prospect of execution by firing squad. Speaking from behind bars before she was taken to Bali police hospital, she claimed she was the victim of a sting operation and protested her innocence.
To Australian ears, the cries of Dougall and her co-accused and partner Julian Ponder that their drug arrest was a "set-up" sound familiar. Almost eight years ago, a young Queensland beautician, Schapelle Corby, pleaded the same defence to accusations that she had smuggled 4.1kg of cannabis into the tropical holiday island. Airport baggage handlers were supposed to have inserted the drugs into Corby's boogie board bag without her knowledge.
But if the sad history of Corby is any guide, these stories will be greeted with disbelief by Indonesian judges. If that is the case, the four Britons and one Indian national arrested over Bali's biggest cocaine haul will face at best a long and miserable future in Kerobokan prison. At worst, they face a firing squad.
It's hard to see why Kerobokan's razor-wire-topped walls are not a more effective deterrent. More than 1,000 inmates, men and women, sleep in overcrowded cells in a prison designed for fewer than a third of that number.
Indonesia has 114 death row prisoners, 43 of them foreigners, though it has not executed anybody since 2008. On the day of death the prisoner is led to the place of execution and a target hung around their neck. They can choose whether to sit, stand or lie down, before a firing squad of 10 carefully vetted policemen pull their triggers.
There is no bail in Bali. Trials are conducted without juries and, compared to western countries, quickly. The "Bali Nine", a group of young Australians, including Sukumaran, who were caught trying to export heroin out of Bali, were tried and sentenced less than a year after their arrests.
There is scope for three appeals from that initial decision, which drags the process out. But judges can increase as well as decrease sentences on appeal. At one stage a number of the Bali Nine appealed against their life sentences only to see them changed to death, before seeing them reduced again on further appeal. After the final appeal, to Indonesia's Supreme Court, is exhausted, prisoners have one more chance, an application to the president for clemency.
Two weeks ago, Corby became one of the rare drug convicts to win this lottery. The price was her sanity. The pretty young woman, who denies she is a cannabis smuggler, is now mentally ill. She won her five-year reduction on humanitarian grounds and is eligible for release in September 2017.
Source: The Guardian, Michael Bachelard, June 2, 2012. Mr. Bachelard is the Indonesia correspondent for the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and fairfax.com.au
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