LIZ HAYES: Tonight, a rare opportunity, a chance for you to judge for yourself. For the first time, from inside Bali jail, Schapelle Corby's own story, the whole story — how she was caught carrying more than four kilograms of marijuana in her luggage. That's a bag about the size of a pillowcase. How she's coping after more than a month in a steamy Indonesian prison and how she's facing the future, the threat of death by firing squad. The evidence? Well, the odds seem to be stacked against her, even though she's adamant she didn't do it. Now, see what you think.

Story

SCHAPELLE CORBY: It's hard to say that it's actually hit, that I'm actually adapting to it. It's like I'm leading someone else's horrible life though. Like, I shouldn't be here. I'm just trying to be strong and I'm just lucky that I've got really good family and friends to help me get through.

LIZ HAYES: Can you believe it?

SCHAPELLE CORBY: No. No, I can't. All I can do is try to adapt as best I can. And try to keep healthy.

LIZ HAYES: This is where I met Schapelle Corby, at Bali's police headquarters in Denpasar. She's now confined to the same cell that once held the Bali bomber, Amrozi. Our jailhouse interview is the first time the 27-year-old Queenslander has spoken at length about her arrest and the possible consequences.
Schapelle, the death penalty is a reality. You know that, don't you?

SCHAPELLE CORBY: Yeah, I know that. But hopefully it won't get to there. The prosecutors are actually at the point now to decide whether it's 20 years or life. (Laughs nervously)

LIZ HAYES: Twenty years or life?

SCHAPELLE CORBY: Which to me, it's like what is the use of me trying to survive these days anyway. If life's what, even 20 years…

LIZ HAYES: You couldn't do that?

SCHAPELLE CORBY: For my family I could. For myself, what's the use? I'd be, like, 50 by the time I get out and I'd never be married, never have children.

LIZ HAYES: Bali is Australia's playground, a place of cheap holidays and tropical delights. This was Schapelle Corby's first trip back here in four years. It was October 8, a Friday, when Schapelle, her younger brother James and two girlfriends flew out of Brisbane via Sydney, headed for Bali. Within a matter of minutes, the bags were being unloaded from Schapelle's flight. Inside the terminal, she collected her luggage and headed through customs.

SCHAPELLE CORBY: People were getting their luggage checked and I thought 'okay, maybe that's a normal thing because of all the terrorists and whatever' and so the guy that was checking the bags said to my younger brother, who is 17, he said, "Is that your boogie board?" "Yeah, I'm so excited. I'm having a holiday. I haven't been here for four years." And I've gone, "No, it's mine" and I've picked it up and put it on the counter. And, "Yeah, it's mine." And I've opened it up and I've just seen ... I don't know what it was, but I saw it's not — I didn't put it there. And as I closed it...

LIZ HAYES: You knew instantly?

SCHAPELLE CORBY: No, no. I just knew there was something there.

LIZ HAYES: And what worried you about that?

SCHAPELLE CORBY: It's just an instant click. 'Oh my God'. I've seen this kind of things in the movie, but I didn't know what it was at the time. I just knew that all I'd put in there was my boogie board and my flippers.

LIZ HAYES: But the customs officer who screened Schapelle's luggage already had his suspicions that there was more than just a boogie board in her bag.
How was she behaving at that time?

GUSTO WINATA, CUSTOMS OFFICER (TRANSLATION): After I started opening the second zipper, I asked her to finish opening it up. She started to get quite nervous and confused and that is why I started feeling inside the bag and opening the zipper even further.

LIZ HAYES: Do you believe Schapelle Corby knew she had something illegal in her bag?

GUSTO WINATA (TRANSLATION): I'm sure, because when we opened the second zipper, she was already trying to stop the opening of it. (IN ENGLISH) "Oh, no, I have something inside."

LIZ HAYES: It's been reported in the Australian press that the customs officer who challenged you about the drugs said that you, in his opinion, behaved very nervously.

SCHAPELLE CORBY: (Scoffs) He barely looked at me. I opened them myself.

LIZ HAYES: He said that you were reluctant...

SCHAPELLE CORBY: To open it?

LIZ HAYES: Yes.

SCHAPELLE CORBY: He didn't even ask me to open it. He said to my brother, "Is that your bag? Is that your boogie board?" And I've gone, "Nah, yeah, I'm so happy, no, that's mine. Hey, here you go. Whee. Yep, that's mine."

LIZ HAYES: He felt that you were acting almost suspiciously.

SCHAPELLE CORBY: No. No. And then I wasn't sure if he'd seen it, but I knew I was going to be in trouble anyhow, whether he's seen it or whether it's been planted there and someone is waiting for me to go outside, then they're going to get me outside, so I was going to be in trouble either way.

LIZ HAYES: You didn't try to conceal...

SCHAPELLE CORBY: No.

LIZ HAYES: ...what was in your boogie board?

SCHAPELLE CORBY: Well, I don't know if he saw it. I opened it and then I closed it.

LIZ HAYES: So you unzip it?

SCHAPELLE CORBY: I unzip it. He didn't even ask me to. I did it myself. I've opened it and gone and saw it and thought, "Oh, my God. I'm in trouble."

LIZ HAYES: Inside the bag was 4.2kg of marijuana with an estimated street value of more than $80,000. It's the biggest ever seizure at Bali's airport.

SCHAPELLE CORBY: And then they did a little test and it came up purple. And then they gave it to me and said it's marijuana. And I'm like, 'Well, yeah, I can smell it's marijuana, but it's not mine. This is my bag and this is this but this is not mine.' But they were getting my brother to touch it and do all the things. I'm like ... it didn't hit me. What's happening?

LIZ HAYES: Did you know this was trouble?

SCHAPELLE CORBY: Yeah. I didn't know exactly how much trouble.

LIZ HAYES: Under Bali drug laws, possession is everything. The bag was Schapelle's, the drugs were Schapelle's unless she can prove that somebody else put them there. So now it is up to her legal team to try and establish her innocence because, as far as the Bali authorities are concerned, the case is closed. She's guilty.

VASU ROSIAH: Somebody should be really mad, out of their mind to bring 4.2kg of marijuana in a transparent plastic bag. It's bizarre.

LIZ HAYES: It's not possible Schapelle did this?

VASU ROSIAH: No, not possible.

LIZ HAYES: Vasu Rosiah is spokesman for the legal team defending Schapelle.
So Schapelle has been charged with importing drugs and for being a dealer in drugs?

VASU ROSIAH: Yes.

LIZ HAYES: What penalty does she face?

VASU ROSIAH: If they prove both, then she has a maximum penalty of 20 years life or 20 years and one billion rupiah fine.

LIZ HAYES: Or death?

VASU ROSIAH: Yes. It is one of everybody's concerns.

LIZ HAYES: That this girl may lose her life?

VASU ROSIAH: If it's proven beyond doubt at all counts.

LIZ HAYES: Do you dare to think about the future?

SCHAPELLE CORBY: I am being really positive. I have to be. Otherwise, I just — like, it took me five days to actually eat. I was vomiting every day. Just like, 'What's going on?' I couldn't understand it. And I realise I have to... Everyone's being strong for me, so I have to have a respect for them and show them that I'm going to be okay. Until I go to court and the judge will say I'm innocent, there's no other way that it can go.

LIZ HAYES: If Schapelle didn't put the drugs in the bag, then who did? It's a question the family is still grappling with. Her older sister Mercedes, who once lived in Bali, is convinced there's a sinister explanation.

MERCEDES CORBY: Everybody is just saying, "Ooh, Mafia, sabotage".

LIZ HAYES: That's what they are saying to you?

MERCEDES CORBY: Everybody. Even if I'm in a taxi. 'Why are you going to Polda?' 'Oh, to see somebody there.' 'Oh, that Australian girl? Oh, Mafia business.' Everyone.

LIZ HAYES: They've been planted there, as far as you are concerned?

SCHAPELLE CORBY: Oh, absolutely. Well, I didn't put it there. That's the bottom line. I didn't put it there.

LIZ HAYES: They're not your drugs?

SCHAPELLE CORBY: They're not my drugs. I didn't put them there.

LIZ HAYES: They're none of your family's drugs?

SCHAPELLE CORBY: No. No.

LIZ HAYES: Not your brother's drugs?

SCHAPELLE CORBY: No.

LIZ HAYES: Your friends?

SCHAPELLE CORBY: No. No. And people say, "Maybe your friends put it there." It's like someone asking you, did your friend... This can happen to anyone and it's happened to me and that's... I don't know what I've done to deserve it.

LIZ HAYES: Customs officer Winata is the star witness for the prosecution. He says it's impossible that the drugs were put into Schapelle's bag when they arrived at the airport.

GUSTO WINATA (TRANSLATION): There's no possibility of that at this airport because, as the bags come down from the conveyor belt, security is already there.

LIZ HAYES: Do you believe they were Schapelle Corby's drugs?

GUSTO WINATA (TRANSLATION): In my mind, yes, I'm sure.

LIZ HAYES: The only thing we do know for sure is once Schapelle checked her bags into Brisbane Airport, she didn't see them again until they arrived in Denpasar. At no stage in Australia was the boogie bag weighed individually nor was it screened for drugs.
Are you telling me you've never ever taken drugs?

SCHAPELLE CORBY: (Laughs nervously) People have experimented when they're in, like, Year 8, Year 9. I did experiment in Year 8 and Year 9, but I get really, really paranoid. I can't... I can't... I can't be around it.

LIZ HAYES: So you did take drugs as a teenager?

SCHAPELLE CORBY: Oh, I experimented. And I'm pretty sure most, maybe 90 percent, 80 percent of teenagers actually do.

LIZ HAYES: So you're not a drug taker now?

SCHAPELLE CORBY: No, not at all. As my tests prove.

LIZ HAYES: You're not a dealer?

SCHAPELLE CORBY: No, I'm not a dealer.

LIZ HAYES: You've never sold drugs?

SCHAPELLE CORBY: Never sold drugs.

LIZ HAYES: Never bought drugs?

SCHAPELLE CORBY: No, never. Not even when I was experimenting, I never did, no. So as I say, I shouldn't be here. And it's just really, really hard to sit in that cell for three days straight, not getting let out of the cage once. Um, it's really hard to keep strong and not think — well, you just think, 'Who? Am I ever going to find out who did this?'

LIZ HAYES: Early this week, Schapelle's mum Ros, a no-nonsense fish-and-chip shop owner from the Gold Coast, flew into Bali.

ROS CORBY: All we want for Christmas is Aunty Pelle out, don't we, eh? That's what we have to concentrate on and that will be the best present for everybody.

BOY: That's what we mostly have to concentrate on.

LIZ HAYES: Ros, like her family and friends, is trying to come to terms with Schapelle's potentially deadly predicament.
You haven't seen Schapelle yet?

ROS CORBY: No.

LIZ HAYES: And you're hoping to see her soon?

ROS CORBY: Yeah, I am. But I just am scared I might break down. I don't know.

LIZ HAYES: What do you want to say to her?

ROS CORBY: Just give her a hug and cuddle. There's nothing I can say to her. Just she knows I love her and I know she loves me and I know she didn't do it.

LIZ HAYES: Twenty four hours later, Ros was finally able to see her daughter...

ROS CORBY: Everybody sends their love and thumbs up and everything. Okay. I will see you when it's visiting time. I've got heaps of reading for you...

LIZ HAYES: ...but wasn't allowed past these bars.

ROS CORBY: ...and letters and everything, Okay? I've got so much stuff.

SCHAPELLE CORBY: Well, the thing is I am innocent. I didn't do it. It's my bag, yeah. And that's why my lawyers are working so hard to try to determine where, where and when and who. Maybe not who, maybe that will never be found. Where and when. So it would be really, really helpful if some authorities could help me out to try to get that information.

LIZ HAYES: At the moment the Corbys are separated by a legal system that shows no mercy to drug traffickers. On the outside is a family who have long had a love affair with Bali and made it their second home. On the inside, Schapelle Corby, who's now learning this paradise could exact an awful price if she fails to convince a judge, a country, of her innocence.

SCHAPELLE CORBY: I think I've been here about five or six times since I was 16.

LIZ HAYES: So you've always been aware of the dangers of bringing drugs? You always understood that was not a good idea?

SCHAPELLE CORBY: No. (Laughs) Yeah, I know. I know. (Laughs nervously) I don't even smoke drugs. I don't have drugs. And I've had my urine tested and my blood tested and they're negative. I'm not a drug user.

LIZ HAYES: You weren't just being naive and silly and thinking, 'I'll give it a shot?'

LIZ HAYES: (Laughs) No, no. Not if I can get the death penalty. Not if I can be in here for 20 years and never have a baby, never have a life. No way.

LIZ HAYES: You always knew that that was what happens here if you bring drugs to Bali?

SCHAPELLE CORBY: Yeah, yep.

LIZ HAYES: Can you look at the Australian people and say without a shadow of doubt you are innocent?

SCHAPELLE CORBY: I am innocent.

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