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SNOWING IN BALI

He tried to burn himself to death, didn't he?

Yeah, in the other jail he try, but not professional.

Marco’s way of staying sane was perhaps by using drugs to escape reality, and by convincing himself that, with so many nationalities on death row, international pressure would be his salvation.

I’m sure. The Brazil embassy works hard. French guy. Dutch guy. Swiss guy, many people here, from Nepal, from Pakistan, from India, from America, from Australia, on death sentence.

– Marco

In June 2012 he got his first scare that political pressure could fail to stop the bullets when the Jakarta Post reported he would be executed in the coming weeks. The story was based on quotes from an Indonesian prosecutor, Andi DJ Konggoasa, who also claimed that Marco’s final request was for a bottle of Chivas Regal whisky.

That bit sounded believable enough, prompting a Brazilian friend in Bali to consider making the long and emotional trip to the island to take him a bottle.

But it was a false alarm. The source was wrong. Marco later told me that a few weeks before the story broke he’d signed some unofficial-looking papers brought in by an attorney, who’d also asked what his last request would be. Marco took it as a joke: 'Three bottles of Chivas whisky and two women,' he'd answered with typical Marco sass.

Were you scared?

No problem, no problem. My embassy is here all the time. You see they already put Corby's sentence down five years.

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