Schapelle Corby TV interview decision ruling to be made public

21st February 2014 

INDONESIA’S Deputy Justice Minister is expected to make a statement today in Jakarta about repeated attempts by the Corby clan to get permission for her post-jail interview. 
 
The office of Denny Indrayana says the deputy will address the media in the wake of a last-ditch dash to Jakarta by Mercedes Corby and her husband Wayan Widyartha in a bid to get the ministry to agree.
Mercedes and Wayan flew to Jakarta from Bali yesterday in bid to meet Mr Indrayana to discuss the interview, which so far he and all justice officials have denied them.

Their Jakarta dash followed a similar meeting earlier in the week with Bali parole board chief Ketut Artha who says he told them it was “impossible” for him to agree for an interview to go ahead.
He said his career was on the line and that the message from Jakarta and the Justice Minister, first conveyed a week ago, was clear.

Mr Artha said the Corby clan had been told there could no interview or that Corby faces being thrown back in jail in breach of her parole conditions.

“I have repeatedly conveyed to him (Wayan Widyartha) that it is impossible for me to allow the interview,” Mr Artha told News Corp yesterday.

Mr Artha said that Mr Widyartha had responded that he would ask the Justice Ministry in Bali.
“Then I told him, please do it. But it will impossible for you to get it (permission),” he said.

Mr Artha said that Mr Widyartha had brought him a letter seeking permission for the interview.

But after a meeting of the Justice Ministry in Bali yesterday, Mr Artha’s superiors instructed him to write a new letter to the Corbys, again warning them off from any media interviews.

Corby and her family have now been holed up in a Seminyak villa, with a crew from Channel 7’s Sunday Night program, for 12 days since her release from Kerobokan jail on February 10.

Earlier this week the program’s veteran reporter Mike Willesee said he remained optimistic the interview would go ahead and that Corby herself was ready to tell her story.

But it’s a story that Jakarta does not want told and they have repeatedly warned the family that an interview could see Corby sent straight back to jail.

Under her parole conditions, anything she does which could cause unease, restlessness and polemic in the community could be considered a breach of parole.

The Indonesian Government has been under fire domestically for granting Corby parole and political debate has raged as the country prepares for parliamentary elections in April.

At the height of the debate, in the days following Corby’s well-publicised chaotic release from jail, the Deputy Justice Minister made a special trip to Bali to — deliver the warning – no interview or go back to jail for causing polemic.