The remaining five members of the notorious Bali Nine still imprisoned in Indonesia may soon be transferred to Australian prisons if Indonesian President Prabowo responds positively to entreaties made by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during the recent APEC Summit held in Peru.
The Bali Nine is the name bestowed by the press on the nine Australians arrested in April 2005 caught trying to smuggle from Bali to Australia 8.3 kilograms of heroin valued at A$4 million. Two of the nine, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, identified by prosecutors as ringleaders, were sentenced to death and eventually shot by a firing squad on Nusa Kambangan Island on 29 April 2015. Six other members of the Bali Nine, Si Yi Chen, Michael Czugaj, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, Matthew Norman, Scott Rush, and Martin Stephens, were sentenced to life imprisonment. The only female member of The Bali Nine, Renae Lawrence, received a 20-year sentence.
Another member of the group, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, died in prison on 05 June 2018 from stomach cancer. Meanwhile, Lawrence’s sentence was eventually commuted in November 2018, permitting her to return to Australia.
Executed by Indonesian Firing Squad in 2015
As reported by ABC News, if President Prabowo agrees to a proposal currently being formulated to repatriate the remaining five members of the BALI NINE back to Australia, the five may be granted freedom or placed in Australian prisons to continue serving sentences of an indeterminate duration.
Scott Rush, Matthew Norman, Si-Yi Chen, Martin Stephens, and Michael Czugaj are the five still behind bars in Indonesia and serving life terms.
Australian Prime Minister Albanese reportedly approached the Indonesian President in Lima, Peru, on the sidelines of the APEC Conference, seeking agreement to allow the five men to continue serving their prison sentence in Australian prisons. Legal experts presume that part of the Indonesian-Australian agreement would enable the men to serve sentences of lesser durations than life in prison without parole.
A senior member of President Prabowo’s Cabinet, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, has confirmed that Albanese’s request is under advisement, and a decision is expected in December. Assuming the Indonesian government accedes to Australia’s request, the five Australian convicts could be back in Australia before Christmas.
The five men were very young when they were arrested in 2005. Matthew Norman was 18 at the time, and Michael Czugaj and Scott Rush were 19.
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