DENPASAR, Indonesia: Australian drug mule Schapelle Corby brandished a knife and acted erratically in an encounter with Indonesian authorities after a government minister warned her parole was in peril, an official said yesterday.
Sunar Agus, a top prison official in Bali, said he visited 36-year-old Corby on Monday evening at her residence on the resort island of Bali. The visit followed the airing of a TV documentary in Australia on Sunday that featured an interview with Corby’s sister Mercedes, which has angered Indonesian authorities.
“We saw that she wasn’t mentally stable,” said Agus, chief of the Bali Corrections Division which is in charge of overseeing Corby’s parole. “She seemed scared when I started a dialogue and she tried to kill herself. She was able to grab a knife. But her family was able to stop her,” he told reporters.
Agus said the scene took place after the officials told her the documentary could see her thrown back in jail. “She said she was stressed from being followed by reporters all the time,” Agus said. AFP was not able to reach Corby or her relatives for comment.
The television documentary by Channel Seven has raised hackles in Indonesia, where officials have suggested Corby was seeking to profit from her crime via media exposure.
There has been unconfirmed speculation of a lucrative deal with Channel Seven, which the broadcaster has denied.
“There is a big possibility (that Corby’s parole) will be reconsidered,” Indonesian justice minister Amir Syamsuddin was quoted by the daily Kompas as saying on Monday. Corby’s saga has riveted Australians and generated significant sympathy in her home country.
AFP
