Why Sara Connor only got four years jail for a man's death, when Schapelle Corby got 20 years for drugs.

When Byron Bay woman Sara Connor received a four-year prison sentence in Bali’s notorious Kerobokan jail for the fatal assault of local police officer Wayan Sudarsa on Monday, many were left scratching their heads.

How could 46-year-old Connor be penalised so leniently for a policeman’s death, compared to other Australians who have committed drug offences? Why did Schapelle Corby, the Queenslander who was convicted of smuggling 4.2 kilograms of cannabis in May 2005, receive 20 years? And why did the ring leaders of the Bali Nine, Sydney’s Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, die at the hands of a firing squad 10 years after trafficking 8.3 kilograms of heroin into the country?

Why are drug offences viewed to be more serious than violence causing death? Here, we navigate the tricky terrain of drugs, death, and the law in Indonesia.

A brief history

In the late 1940s, Asia’s ‘Golden Triangle’ in Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos, became the world’s biggest-producing area of opium. While documentation on rates of opium usage during this period is minimal, widespread sharing of needles caused HIV rates within Southeast Asia to skyrocket. Surges in drug-related crime and death, combined with pressure from the West, prompted the region to get tough on drugs, with neighbouring countries Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia introducing the death penalty for serious drug offences in 1975.

The move was a direct bid to halt the flow of narcotics from the Golden Triangle, and by 1998, approximately 60 per cent of Indonesian executions were for drug-related crimes.

Because Asia worked so heavy handedly to disband local production of heroin and the local underground drug trade, authorities hold a fervent hostility towards Westerners who undermine their efforts. The current Indonesian President, Joko Widodo, made the "war on drugs" a major part of his 2014 election campaign, and promised to send a clear statement to the world that Indonesia will not tolerate drug offences.

That year, President Widodo claimed 4.5 million Indonesians are addicted to illicit drugs, and that 40 to 50 young people die every day as a result. Within months, Andrew Chan, 31, and 34-year-old Myuran Sukumaran were stood beside six others, and shot in the heart as they sang 'Amazing Grace'. It took 27 minutes for them all to die.

Drug traffickers are viewed as "mass murderers"

Professor Tim Lindsey, the Director of the Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society at the Melbourne Law School, told Mamamia drug traffickers are perceived very differently in Indonesia compared to here in Australia.

In light of rapidly increasing HIV rates and addiction-related deaths in Indonesia, drugs are regarded to be a "social evil", Professor Lindsey said, with traffickers viewed as "mass murderers".

Serious drug offences make up one of the three crime categories that Indonesia penalises most heavily, alongside heinous, premeditated murders, and acts of terrorism, he said.

Largely, the blame falls on the Western world for this draconian approach.

"You have to bear in mind that this attitude towards drugs is an attitude that we wanted them to adopt," Professor Lindsey said, citing the US' harsh stance on drugs under President Nixon in the early 1970s, and later under President Bush in the 2000s.

"It reflects the war on drugs that the US propagated right across Southeast Asia," he explained.

Despite research showing that the death penalty is ineffective in kerbing drug offences, most Asian countries are "still adopting the measures we urged upon them in the 1970s", making Australia an anomaly in our region.

While our focus has since moved on to rehabilitative and remedial approaches, this has not trickled down to our neighbours.

“Rightly or wrongly, even though most Australians wouldn’t accept this position, Indonesia regards drugs as a much more serious offence... but we can't blame them for that, because it was partly our idea," he said.

Why Sara Connor got off "lightly"

In the context of how Australians have been treated by the Indonesian judicial system in the past, many were surprised to learn Sara Connor and her British partner David Taylor received four years and six years respectively.

Because Connor and Taylor were found to have not intended to kill Wayan Sudarsa, their crime was considered to fall below the three categories of Indonesia's most serious crimes, Professor Lindsey said.

It doesn't matter that Connor didn't land the punch that ended Sudarsa's life, upon admission she was involved in the joint assault, she was "jointly liable" for the death, which Professor Lindsey classified as a "medium level manslaughter".

Such would never receive a severe a penalty as a serious drug offence, he explained.

"I was surprised, I thought [Connor] would get closer to the maximum sentence, which was 12 years, but the prosecutors only asked for eight. I think the lighter sentencing reflects the fact that they didn't intend to kill him... these sort of brawls are not that uncommon in Indonesia," he said.

The fact that Connor is a woman may have also played into her hands, Professor Lindsey added, citing that, loosely, women tend to be looked upon more favourably by the courts.

Indeed, Connor's time in jail may be far less than four years if she receives remissions. For instance, Schapelle Corby received a total of 27.5 months of remission from her original 20-year jail term as reward for good behaviour, and on humanitarian grounds for her poor mental health. This may see Connor's sentence shaved down quite considerably.

The possibility of Connor's four-year sentence being extended is not unlikely, however, as prosecutors typically appeal sentences that are less than two thirds of what they originally sought.

"There’s a reasonable likelihood that prosecutors will appeal, and if they appeal, she’s looking down the barrel of a much harsher sentence," he said. "It is very risky to appeal, if she appeals, she’s taking a huge risk."

So, what about the future? Will the next Australian woman convicted of a serious drug offence be treated with the same empathy?

The chances of that are highly unlikely, Professor Lindsey said. In fact, under President Joko Widodo, Indonesia's war on drugs is only becoming more politicised, and more extreme.

"There is an unflinching attitude towards this... Australians just have to get in their heads that Southeast Asia have a very punitive approach to drugs."

Were you surprised by Sara Connor's sentence?