Schapelle, Lawrence given sentence cuts

Australian drug traffickers Schapelle Corby and Renae Lawrence were among 58,000
prisoners whose sentences were cut as part of Indonesia's Independence Day
celebrations on Tuesday.
The head of Bali's Kerobokan Prison, Siswanto, told reporters on Tuesday that Corby
and Lawrence both received five-month remissions for good behaviour.
"Renae and Corby got five months' remission. I just got the letter from the justice
ministry this morning," Siswanto said.
"They received their remission because they have been behaving well so far."
Both Corby and Lawrence are serving 20-year sentences, but Corby has now received 17
months' remission in total, while Lawrence has had 23 months shaved off her
sentence.
Siswanto said it was the fourth time Corby's sentence had been cut and the fifth for
Lawrence.
When asked about Corby's chances of receiving clemency, Siswanto said it was still
under consideration.
"The clemency is still under process. I haven't had the confirmation," he said.
"Clemency would only be given to convicted (people) who are permanently sick,
geriatric and children. That would be the priority for clemency."
Corby's lawyers applied for presidential clemency in March on humanitarian grounds,
saying she was suffering from depression that could endanger her life.
Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar confirmed on Tuesday that the
appeal had been sent to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, but refused to give
details.
"Yes, that (the appeal) is being processed. I don't want to make further comments.
We'll just wait," he told Agence France-Presse.
Siswanto told AFP the remission and Corby's clemency appeal were separate matters.
"Remission is granted on the occasion of Independence Day ... there's no relation to
her clemency appeal which will be decided by the president," he said.
Indonesia traditionally cuts jail terms on independence day and some religious
holidays for well-behaved prisoners who have served at least six months, and are not
sentenced to life in prison or death.
More than 58,000 prisoners, including militants, drug smugglers and people convicted
of corruption, were granted remissions on Tuesday by the Justice and Human Rights
Ministry, prison official Suherman said.
Anif Solchanudin, an Islamic militant who helped plan suicide bombings on three
crowded restaurants in Bali in 2005, had five months taken off his 15-year jail
term, said Chaeruddin Idrus, a ministry official on Java island.
Twenty other convicted militants jailed on the islands of Nusakambangan and Sulawesi
had their sentences reduced by up to six months, according to prison officials.
Corby did not attend the Independence Day ceremony at the prison on Tuesday, but
Lawrence did - and was part of the choir.
Corby, 33, was sentenced to 20 years' jail after she was caught at Bali's airport in
October 2004 with 4.1kg of marijuana in her boogie board bag.
She has always maintained her innocence and claims international drug smugglers
placed the marijuana in her luggage.
Supreme court officials last month confirmed a judge had considered Corby's plea for
presidential clemency and written a recommendation on her case to president
Yudhoyono.
Corby's family renewed its fight to have the convicted drug smuggler returned to
Australia last year after a psychiatrist warned she would not survive her sentence
if she remained in Kerobokan Prison.
Associate Professor Jonathan Phillips, the former president of the Royal Australian
and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, visited Corby in prison last August and
said she was "hanging on by a thread".
However, Siswanto told reporters on Tuesday that Corby must be examined by an
official government doctor.
"The doctor who examined the convicted must be an official government doctor, not
outside doctor who just came to visit," he said.
Lawrence, 33, was sentenced to 20 years' jail for her role in the failed Bali Nine
plot to smuggle more than eight kilograms of heroin from Bali to Australia in 2005.
Five gang members are serving life sentences and three others on death row have
launched a final appeal for their sentences to be reduced to 20 years.
The Denpasar District Court will begin hearing Bali Nine drug mule Scott Rush's
final appeal against his death sentence on Wednesday.