Australia: Australians reacted with anger and condemnation last night as a Queensland woman who has become a cause célèbre while awaiting trial in Bali was sentenced to 20 years in jail for drug smuggling.
Amid chaotic scenes at Denpasar District Court, Schapelle Corby (27) was convicted of bringing 4.1kg (9lbs) of marijuana into the Indonesian island of Bali.
Ms Corby, a beauty therapist, has maintained her innocence ever since being arrested last October, claiming the drugs were put in her bag on an internal flight from Brisbane to Sydney before she flew on to Bali.
Her story was lent credence when a man on remand in Victoria was flown to Denpasar and told the court he overheard other prisoners talking about a stash of marijuana that was lost while being smuggled by baggage handlers.
Later on the court was told that Ms Corby flew to Bali on the same day that Sydney baggage handlers are alleged to have trafficked cocaine through the airport.
Immediately announcing an appeal yesterday, Ms Corby's family and lawyers said they were shocked, and denounced the sentence handed down by the three-judge court as a miscarriage of justice.
But the prosecution is also appealing, claiming Ms Corby got off too lightly. "For us, a just penalty should be life for anyone who imports 4.1kg of marijuana," said chief prosecutor Ida Bagus Wiswantanu.
In the hours after the verdict was announced the vast majority of callers to Talkback radio were furious at what they said was an outrage. Protesters also gathered outside Indonesia's embassy in Canberra to express support for Ms Corby.
The case has been the biggest story of the year in Australia, with court photos of Ms Corby looking bedraggled and howling in anguish, moving Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe to admonish prime minister John Howard for not doing more.
"The photographs of Schapelle Corby broke my heart," Crowe told a national radio show earlier this month.
"The first thing I thought this morning was how can I get Johnny Howard on the phone and say: Look, what are you gonna do, mate? What are you gonna do?"
Last night, however, Mr Howard urged people to accept the verdict, saying that Australians must understand that other countries will resent Australia telling them how to run their justice system.
Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton, who spent three and a half years in jail after being wrongly convicted of killing her child at Uluru in 1980 (the infamous 'dingo baby' case), said she knew what Ms Corby was going through.
"I know what it feels like and how hard it is to keep your courage up under the circumstances. My prayers are with them all," she said.
The publicity the case has received has not all been pro-Corby though. Last weekend The Australian newspaper headlined a story "Meet the Corbys: A Dad with a drug record, a brother in jail, and a former bankrupt who wants 50 per cent of the action."
In Melbourne, radio "shock" jock Derryn Hinch said: "This case is only getting the extraordinary publicity here . . . because she is young, white, pretty, Australian and has big boobs."