After almost nine years in a Bali prison, convicted Australian drug smuggler Schapelle Corby is finally fee.
Schapelle was one of 1291 prisoners granted parole from Kerobokan prison on Friday and is now spending what is likely to be her final days in a Bali jail.
“Corby has been approved to receive parole because (she) has fulfilled the substantive and administrative requirements set by ministry regulation number 21 of year 2013,” he said.
Kerobokan Prison boss Farid Junaedi said the next possible day for her release would be Monday.
“Now I’m waiting for the letter, without it, I can’t release her,” he told reporters on Friday evening.
“The letter must not be faxed or emailed. It has to be the original letter with the original signature.”
He said she could leave on Monday afternoon if they receive the signed letter by Monday morning.
Schapelle must also wait for both the Prosecutor’s Office and Board of Corrections to sign off on her parole conditions.
Both the Prosecutor’s Office and Board of Corrections are closed over the weekend.
Once she leaves the prison, the 36-year-old is expected to be taken to a villa in an unknown location until media attention following her release dies down.
Schapelle, who has spent the past nine years living in a prison cell with up to 12 others, will now live with her sister Mercedes in her small townhouse in Kuta.
While living with her sister, Schapelle will have to abide by strict parole conditions, including good behaviour, dressing appropriately, and having nothing to do with drugs or misbehaving in any way.
Schapelle must be supervised for another three years and, although her sentence will expire in 2016, she won’t be able to leave until mid-2017.
Indonesian justice minister Amir Syamsuddin told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday about his plans to sign Schapelle’s parole papers.
Schapelle’s was one of 1700 applicants to be signed, with the justice minister insisting she would not receive any special treatment.
Schapelle was sentenced to 20 years in the Bali prison in 2005 after being found with 4.2kg of marijuana in her body board bag.
Good behaviour remissions and a clemency reduction shortened her sentence. In May 2012, the Indonesian president cut a further five years from Schapelle’s 20-year sentence, in addition to the 27 months’ remission she had been granted.
