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Corby wavers on interview as Indonesian police hover

Will Schapelle be allowed to keep the cash?

Schapelle Corby could be allowed to criticise Indonesian institutions and insist on her innocence in a potential interview about her nine year prison ordeal, but authorities back home will try to prevent her profiting from any TV deal.

Corrections authorities paid Corby a surprise visit on Wednesday to check she was still staying at the luxury Bali villa where she’s been in hiding since her release from Kerobokan jail on Monday.

They found a tired Corby still there, resting in five-star comfort as she considers whether to give her first exclusive interview to the Seven Network, whose staff are staying at the same resort.

While Queensland Premier Campbell Newman is hoping the state’s laws can stop the drug smuggler profiting from an interview, Bali’s parole boss says she needs to be cautious.

Head of the Bali parole board, Ketut Artha, has hinted in the media that Corby will have to be careful about what she says in case it proves “fatal” to her parole. Any breach of her parole would put her back in Kerobokan.

But Sunar Agus, head of corrections in Bali’s law and human rights office, says it is “her right” to be interviewed and said it wouldn’t be a problem if she used the interview to criticise Indonesia’s institutions.

“If it’s criticising, I don’t think so,” he told AAP.

“What’s forbidden is doing bad things that would lead to a law violation.”

He said it would also not be a breach of her parole if she continued to insist she was not guilty of importing 4.2kg of marijuana in 2004.

Mr Newman is looking into whether proceeds of crime laws can stop the former Gold Coast resident’s big pay day.

“I am deeply concerned, in fact I am dismayed, that a convicted drug criminal has benefited, it appears, from her criminal activity,” Mr Newman told reporters in Brisbane on Wednesday.

“I just think we need to recognise there was a trial in Indonesia, she was appropriately convicted, she went to jail and now it appears she’s benefiting from this act and I don’t think it’s very satisfactory.”

He’s backed up by federal law, under which Corby would have to pay back any money earned from a media interview about her nine years in jail.

Corby’s counsellor while she’s on parole, Ni Luh Putu Andiyani, was among the officials who visited her at the Sentosa spa in Seminyak on Wednesday and said her new charge was tired.

“The intention was to make sure that she’s still there, staying in that villa,” she said.

“It’s true, Corby is still staying there.

“When we came, Corby was still asleep and then she woke up. She still looked tired.”

Meanwhile on Wednesday, the touted first photo of Corby since her release from jail was removed from the Woman’s Day website after publisher Bauer Media received a copyright infringement notice.

It’s reported the magazine paid $20,000 for the low quality image of Corby clinking a bottle of beer with her brother Michael.

Corby’s sister Mercedes has since denied she sought or received payment for the image.

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