Australian drug trafficker Schapelle Corby released on parole from Bali prison

Release follows nine years in Indonesian jail

Schapelle Corby is escorted by prison guards to the prosecutor office after receiving parole (AP)

An Australian woman convicted of smuggling marijuana into Indonesia walked free from jail on Monday after being given parole, the latest chapter in what has been a media sensation in her home country since her arrest on the tourist island of Bali in 2005.

Schapelle Corby's case captured the imagination of many in Australia, where initial sympathy for her plight and nationalist outrage in the aftermath of two terrorist attacks targeting Australian interests in the country made for a potent combination for popular and highbrow media alike.

The 35-year-old said nothing as she left Bali's Kerobokan prison Monday through a large crowd of reporters.

Her release from prison was carried live on TV networks across Australia and plastered on websites of the nation's major newspapers. Corby's mother, Rosleigh Rose, briefly emerged from her Queensland home to spray champagne and whoop with glee.

AP