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DRUG SMUGGLING TRIAL GRIPS AUSTRALIANS

Interest Hits Fever Pitch As Verdict Expected Next Week in Indonesia

AUSTRALIA - She has long been the water-cooler topic du jour here, her plight the focus of everyone from Australia's highest politicians to the humblest labourers, but last night Schapelle Corby was finally afforded the kind of treatment for which her case seems tailor-made. 

In the manner of the top-rated Australian Idol and Dancing with the Stars, the young woman accused of smuggling drugs into Bali was the subject of a reality-TV-style show, which assembled a studio audience to vote on whether she was innocent or guilty, then tallied up the votes of callers watching across the country. 

It was just the latest bizarre twist in a case that has gripped Australia in a way that seems more reality-TV than real. 

And while the "randomly selected" studio audience voted overwhelmingly, 91%, for Ms.  Corby's innocence, the reality of her situation will only hit home when a panel of Indonesian judges renders a verdict next week. 

The 27-year-old from Queensland's Gold Coast was charged with drug trafficking after Indonesian customs officials discovered 4.1 kilograms of marijuana in her body-surfboard bag.  She maintains her innocence and says her only crime was not putting locks on her bag to protect it from tampering. 

Prosecutors are seeking life imprisonment, although there is the remote possibility the judges could sentence her to be executed by firing squad. 

The inherent drama of the situation has not been lost on the Australian public, which has made this case, and its repercussions, a national obsession. 

The story has spawned T-shirts, hats and a wide range of Free Schapelle-themed paraphernalia; her case has been the focus of impassioned discussions by thousands in Internet forums, radio call-in shows, and at local pubs and clubs.  On the Internet alone, there are sites called Free Schapelle, Don't Shoot Schapelle and the Schapelle Corby Support Site. 

Supporters range from a man planning to launch a remixed version of the Beatles' Let It Be as a fundraiser, to a travel agent who says he will never send another client to Bali if Ms.  Corby is found guilty, to Aussie actor Russell Crowe, who used his appearance on a talk show recently to decry the government's lack of action on the case. 

For a nation accustomed to seeing its reality-TV stars bare their souls for the cameras, Ms.  Corby is ideal: She is a long-haired attractive surfer, with a perpetual little-girl-lost demeanour in interviews.  She is seen either as a happy-go-lucky woman jolted from the reality of working in her mother's takeaway fish and chip shop or as a skittish young woman ill-equipped to handle the harsh rigours of the Indonesian prison system. 

Her emotional outbursts have made for riveting media coverage: She collapsed en route to the court hearing during the trial; she broke down in tears on the stand one day, sobbing she did not know how long she could cope with the stress of her imprisonment; and she delivered a rousing plea for mercy to the judges on the final day of submissions. 

"My life at the moment is in your hands, but I'd prefer it if my life was in your hearts," she said, her voice breaking, in a brief, tearful address that has been played over and over again on television and radio shows dedicated to the story. 

Her plea to her own Prime Minister, John Howard, was similarly impassioned: "Mr.  Howard, as a father and as a leader, I plead for your help.  I did not do this.  I beg for justice."

On last night's reality-TV special, Schapelle's Nightmare: The Untold Story, journalist Liz Hayes, who interviewed Ms.  Corby in jail late last year, said there's no doubt the young woman's looks and raw emotions have bolstered support for her at home. 

"Schapelle Corby is displaying real tears and real fears," she said. 

"She is wearing her emotions on her sleeve....  The reality is there are many Australians in Bali jails and we have never heard of them, and will never hear of them."

Regardless of the outcome of next week's judgment in Bali, it is unlikely to be the last that Australia hears of Schapelle Corby.