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Home / World

Schapelle Corby's release from Bali and return to Australia

By Cindy Wockner, Charles Miranda and Shaya Laughlin in Bali
news.com.au·
28 May, 2017 12:24 AM10 mins to read

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The 39-year-old, accompanied by her sister Mercedes, arrived on a Malindo Air flight that landed at 5.09am after being deported from Bali 12-and-a-half years after she was caught with 4.1kg of marijuana in her boogie board bag.

Schapelle Corby has arrived back in Australia, but she is yet to be sighted with her security team taking media on a wild-goose chase.

Corby was on a Malindo flight from Bali, which landed in Brisbane shortly before its expected 5.40am AEST arrival time (7.40am NZT).

Passengers reportedly had to wait on board while Corby and her sister Mercedes were escorted from the plane and into a waiting convoy of at least nine black vans.

The convoy left the airport, and headed south along Brisbane's Gateway Motorway.

Schapelle Corby's convoy stops at a service station. Photo / Supplied
Schapelle Corby's convoy stops at a service station. Photo / Supplied
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To avoid the following media, the vans split off into different directions, with one heading to the Sofitel hotel in Brisbane, while another part of the convoy stopped at a roadside service centre, up alongside a KFC, and a third contingent continued south.

A convoy carrying Schapelle Corby leaves Brisbane airport. Picture: Channel Nine
A convoy carrying Schapelle Corby leaves Brisbane airport. Picture: Channel Nine

On her newly created Instagram, Corby appears to be mocking the media.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Schapellecorby (@schapelle.corby) on May 27, 2017 at 2:22pm PDT

Through a statement given by an airport security official, the family asked for privacy.

Corby avoided the media and left Brisbane Airport less than half an hour after her flight arrived from Bali early on Sunday morning. The 39-year-old, accompanied by her sister Mercedes, arrived on a Malindo Air flight that landed early at 5.09am after being deported from Bali 13 years after she was caught with 4.1kg of marijuana in her boogie board bag.

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Airport officials confirmed she had left the airport grounds. It's thought she may be headed for her mother Rosleigh Rose's Loganlea house.

A large media contingent was waiting for her at Brisbane International airport. Corby's return home comes 12 years after she was sentenced to 20 years in prison, where she served almost 10 years before being on parole for a further three years.

SCHAPELLE"S TRICKY PLANE TICKET PLOT

Schapelle Corby has had the last laugh, switching her return flight home at the 11th hour. Photo/Instagram/Schapelle Corby
Schapelle Corby has had the last laugh, switching her return flight home at the 11th hour. Photo/Instagram/Schapelle Corby

Schapelle Corby has had the last laugh, switching her return flight home at the 11th hour.

While her Virgin Air boarding pass had been issued and she had provided it to authorities, at the last minute she told them she was on a Malindo Air flight to Brisbane instead.

Discover more

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Schapelle's friends: Where are they now?

26 May 06:31 PM
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Schapelle's state: Fragile and paranoid

27 May 01:28 AM
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'Almost at airport': Corby on Instagram

27 May 06:45 AM
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Going home: Schapelle frenzy grows

27 May 05:00 PM

The Malindo flight, which is due to land in Brisbane at 5.40am AEST, was due to leave 10 minutes ahead of the Virgin flight and boarded at the next gate. Meanwhile more than 40 members of the Australian media were booked on the Virgin flight, hoping to accompany Corby home.

Corby had been set to fly in seat 1A of business class of Virgin. It is understood she is now in 1A of Malindo.

And Corby's last minute flight change caused chaos at the boarding gates because the gates for Virgin and Malindo flights were swapped at the last minute.

Virgin had been due to leave from Gate 6A and Malindo from 6B but they were changed.

View this post on Instagram

Boarded

A post shared by Schapellecorby (@schapelle.corby) on May 27, 2017 at 7:04am PDT

It is not known if this was to make it easier for Corby to board her return flight home.

As confused passengers lined up at the wrong gate dozens of airport officials were brought in to sort out the situation.

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SCHAPELLE GETS BALI BAN

Corby has been banned from returning to Indonesia for six months. Photo / AAP
Corby has been banned from returning to Indonesia for six months. Photo / AAP

Corby has been banned from returning to Indonesia for six months.

As her flight home left Indonesia, Bali justice officials breathed a sigh of relief that the saga was finally over, denying she had been afforded any special treatment and deflected criticism about the large number of police involved.

They said it was the police, not them, who had decided to use armoured cars to escort Corby to the parole board and then the airport.

They were also at pains that Corby had only told them at the last minute that she had swapped flights, as they faced questioning from local media about the ruse.

Ngurah Rai Immigration chief, Ari Budijanto, denied it had caused problems, saying there was enough time for the change.

Surung Pasaribu, the head of Corrections, described Corby's case as being "very very difficult".

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"We hope there is not another Corby," he said.

INSIDE SCHAPELLE'S CONVOY

Several polices escorts a car that transported Schapelle Corby from her house to the parole office. Photo / AAP
Several polices escorts a car that transported Schapelle Corby from her house to the parole office. Photo / AAP

The convicted drug smuggler has also given her new Instagram followers a glimpse into her life as a free woman, after she went through customs at Denpasar International Airport - the place where she was first arrested almost 13 years ago.

Corby posted a video to her new Instagram account which she filmed while she was leaving Bali.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Schapellecorby (@schapelle.corby) on May 27, 2017 at 5:39am PDT

Corby was photographed with her sister Mercedes as onlookers took photos of the pair, who are preparing to board a flight back to Australia tonight.

For her journey home, she was travelling on a new emergency passport, issued on April 28 this year.

In addition to one of her first stamps being a Ngurah Rai exit stamp, she will also be blacklisted and banned from returning for at least six months.

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Corby can reportedly be heard with Mercedes making short gasps, before Mercedes says: "Woah that's a big one", referring to a TV camera.

She then says: "If it shines through they can see you they can see you with their lights."

SCHAPELLE'S LAST BALI PHOTO

Without the scarf, which earlier covered her hair as she made her way to the Parole Office, the Gold Coast beauty school student clutched a "Where's William Tyrrell" handbag, referencing the 3-year-old boy who disappeared from the New South Wales mid-north coast in 2014.

She looked a picture of health, wearing makeup and with her long dark hair sitting neatly on her shoulders.

With just a hint of a smile, she was clearly relaxed despite the chaotic exit from her Kuta home with sister Mercedes and trip with a police escort to the parole board.

She wore green pants, wedge sandals, her scarf around her shoulders and clutched her William Tyrrell handbag.

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When she and Mercedes went through Customs, their luggage through the X-ray machine appeared to also have William Tyrrell stickers on them.

At the airport, Corby's car was driven in through the loading dock area, the second of two options on the plan for today's deportation. This option was used to avoid disruption to the travelling public.

Meanwhile two truckloads of police, on standby at the departures gate, then stood down from duty.

Corby and Mercedes then entered an Immigration office within the airport for her deportation to be processed and her Brisbane-bound flight tickets home to be issued.

Corby was ushered into a room. She appeared calm, with the scarf still over her hair, Mercedes by her side.

Schapelle Corby covered her head with a scarf as she leaves the parole office in Bali, Indonesia. Photo/AAP
Schapelle Corby covered her head with a scarf as she leaves the parole office in Bali, Indonesia. Photo/AAP

SCHAPELLE BECOMES A FREE WOMAN

Mercedes Corby (left) with her husband Wayan Widyartha (right). Photo/AAP
Mercedes Corby (left) with her husband Wayan Widyartha (right). Photo/AAP

Corby was told she was free to go after signing in at the Parole Board one last time, in a high-level police operation.

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Corby left her Kuta home amid dramatic and chaotic scenes, where she was bundled into a car.

Dozens of police and media and surrounded Corby as she was taken out the gate of her home in Kuta and shoved into a waiting black car with Mercedes.

CORBY'S BIZARRE TYRRELL HANDBAG

Corby emerged from her villa yesterday with a scarf around her head, dark sunglasses on her eyes and was carrying a handbag with a picture of missing Australian boy William Tyrrell.

Tyrrell disappeared at the age of 3 from Kendall in 2014.

Bemused locals and dozens of Australian tourists barely caught a glimpse of Corby amid the crush of cameras as her car snaked its way out her laneway, surrounded by police running on foot.

As part of the convoy there were two trucks, five police cars plus the vehicle transporting Corby. It was the first time Corby had been seen in public in 10 days.

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The journey from her home to the parole board took about 40 minutes aided by police stopping trafffic at major intersection.

Shortly before 6pm Bali time, parole officials emerged from the office to hold up a freedom letter, telling her that her 15-year drug trafficking sentence was at an end.

It was the moment Corby has dreamed of for the past 12 years and eight months - the day, shortly before her 40th birthday, that she would no longer be a prisoner.

Corby entered the parole office, again shrouded by a scarf and spent about 40 minutes inside with officials, signing her paperwork and the all important freedom letter.

MAYHEM AS SCHAPELLE LEAVES

Schapelle Corby covered her head with a scarf as she leaves the parole office in Bali, Indonesia. Photo/AAP
Schapelle Corby covered her head with a scarf as she leaves the parole office in Bali, Indonesia. Photo/AAP

Earlier police had locked arms around the car to push back media as she left her home.
Corby's brother Michael, wearing an old man mask, sat on the fence, taking photos of the scene.

Corby's conviction and release from jail was chaotic and so was her release yesterday.

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Before she left the home, Schapelle's sister Mercedes told News Corporation; "Schapelle is holding up well".

And, finding her voice for the first time, Corby broke her three-year public silence and created an Instagram account. Her first post was a photograph of her beloved dogs, Luna and May, with the comment: "Going to miss these two. My puppies #Luna&May".

Within minutes of News Corp Australia revealing the Instagram account, Corby had thousands of followers.

And although Bali's Governor Made Mangku Pastika and local parliament members instructed officials not to give Corby any special treatment, yesterday's scenes showed it was the opposite.

More than 100 police were involved, four police cars lead and shadowed her convoy from home to the parole office to the airport, dramatic rehearsals were held earlier in the day.

"Today Corby is free," Surung Pasaribu, the Corrections chief at Bali's Law and Human Rights Ministry announced with some enthusiasm shortly before the show started.

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"Since midnight she was free, I think there is no problem."

On the issue of Corby's new Instagram, Pasaribu said it was no problem.

"I don't think it is a problem, but I don't follow Instagram and I don't really understand this Instagram even on my proper mobile phone I don't have it," he said.

He said the overwhelming response by authorities for Corby was at the behest of the Australian Government in Bali.

Governor Pastika also said that her safety must be protected at all times during her departure from Bali.

SCHAPELLE JOINS INSTAGRAM

Schapelle Corby has created her own public Instagram account - and has more than 64,000 followers.

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In one of her posts, she took a a selfie with her sister as she approached the airport, she wrote: "Almost at the airport with my @mercedescorby."

As she approached the parole office, she wrote: "Good bye to this parole paper work. Approching parole office for the last time."

She also thanked her "Bali family" before she left Indonesia.

Her first post, as she remained holed up in her Kuta home counting down the final hours to freedom, was a photo of her beloved dogs, Luna and May.

Schapelle wrote: "Going to miss these two. My puppies #Luna&May".

- Additional reporting from AAP

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