- Corby has been serving a 20-year jail sentence for a drug smuggling conviction
- Corby's release date remains unknown
- Australia's foreign minister: Corby case, release of convicted Indonesians not linked
(CNN) -- Schapelle Corby, the Australian serving time in a Bali prison on a conviction of drug smuggling, has had her jail term cut by five years.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced the decision to reduce the former beauty therapist's 20-year jail sentence on Tuesday, according to Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr, who welcomed the decision.
"The Australian Government has consistently supported Ms. Corby's application for clemency on humanitarian grounds," he said in a statement.
The clemency comes nearly seven years to the day of her sentencing. Corby, now 34, was convicted in May 2005 for smuggling nine pounds (4.1 kilograms) of marijuana into Bali's Denpasar airport the previous October. She has always maintained her innocence, saying that she was the victim of a drug smuggling operation.
Talking with reporters on Wednesday, Carr denied any link between the Corby case and the release last Friday from a Western Australian prison of three Indonesians convicted of people smuggling amid concerns they were minors.
Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr
"If there were no Schapelle Corby in a Balinese prison we'd still be releasing minors, kids on fishing boats who'd been collected through people smuggling," he said in an interview with Australia's ABC network.
"We'd be releasing them because it is plainly indecent to have in Australian adult jails kids from Indonesia who have been picked up on fishing boats being misused for people smuggling.
"At no stage has the Government sat down with our Indonesian counterparts and said, 'We'll release minors from our jails, if you consider a clemency application by Ms. Corby.'"
However, it remains unclear when Corby will be now be freed, whether she will be eligible for parole -- and if so, where she would serve it.
