Phil asked me by email why I've not commented on Schapelle Corby. My reply:

I toyed with the idea but really I don't care enough. [Ed. - But I've posted this, thus contradicting myself. Who ever said consistency was important in this case?] I find the general Aussie reaction has been incredibly patronising ("those stupid Indonesians don't know how to run a trial" or "the cops set her up") and the sainthood of this woman has been based on nothing more than newspaper beat-ups. Given none of us were in the court, saw the evidence etc. it seems incredible to me that 90%+ of Aussies "know" she's innocent. And all this nonsense of boycotting Bali makes no sense whatsoever.

I agree with your post. There are a couple of aspects that prima facie don't make sense to me, but as I said I don't know the full facts and it is up to the defense to provide them in the case. That said the Indonesian justice system doesn't come out too well either- 3 judges who had never acquitted, for one.

I doubt if the reaction would have been the same if it was an overweight 50 year old Australian man in the dock. Or if it had been an Indonesian woman caught at Sydney airport with 4kg of grass in her bags. But the story has filled many metres of newspapers and hours of radio and TV. Pretty young female heroine (pun intended), dodgy third world trial, shoddy courts and cops...it's a media wet dream. They'll be flogging this one until kingdom come.

Right-o, back to not caring.

Other reading

Jakartass (and definitely read the comments).
The Swanker asks have Australians gone mad? Some would argue...he also has good coverage of the trial and verdict.
Asiapundit has a good roundup of reaction to the Corby verdict.
Tim Blair says she's innocent and sums up various bloggers' reactions.
Fumier's found some potentially overlooked evidence of her innocence.
New blog IndCoup points to 10 pieces of evidence against Corby.