DENPASAR ~ Australian drug smuggler Schapelle Corby was checked out of hospital and back into prison this week, after nearly three weeks’ treatment for severe depression.

Corby’s stay at Sanglah Hospital in Denpasar raised eyebrows after the 30-year-old inmate was seen outside the facility having spa treatment and shopping at a nearby market.

The prisoner is serving 20 years for bringing 4.1 kilograms of marijuana into Bali in October 2004. Earlier this year she lost her final appeal, to the Supreme Court, though the former beautician student maintains she is innocent and the victim of an international drug-smuggling syndicate that placed the marijuana bale in her boogie bag.

Corby’s last hope is a pardon from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono; however, such a move would involve Corby admitting guilt.

A doctor at Sanglah said Corby, who was moved back to Denpasar Prison in Kerobokan on Tuesday night, was improving but would continue treatment at the jail.