The Indonesian State News Agency Antara reports that the Indonesian and Australian governments will meet in the first week of December 2024 to work out the details that will allow the transfer of the “Bali 5” from their prison cells in Bali to Australia.
Slated to participate in the coming discussions are representatives from the Australian Ministry for Home Affairs and Yusril Ihza Mahendra, the Coordinating Minister for Law, Human Rights, Immigration, and Correctional Institutions.
The coming meeting, hosted by Indonesia, will review the specific terms and conditions surrounding the terms and conditions for transferring the five remaining members of the original Bali Nine, now serving life sentences in Bali.
RI Coordinating Minister for Law, Human Rights, Immigration, and Correctional Institutions
“We want to deliver to the Australians the pre-conditions which the government of Australia must meet and agree (for the exchange to take place),” explained Yusril.
The five still behind bars in Indonesia and serving life terms are Scott Rush, Matthew Norman, Si-Yi Chen, Martin Stephens, and Michael Czugaj.
Yusril shared the five pre-conditions advanced by the Indonesian government for the coming transfer of prisoners:
- Australia must make a formal request to the government of Indonesia for the transfer of the imprisoned Australians.
- The country requesting the transfer, in this case, Australia, must acknowledge and respect the decisions of the Indonesian courts that enjoy complete jurisdiction in administering justice within its sovereign territory. Yusril elaborated: “The decisions of our courts cannot be questioned. If found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison, life imprisonment, or the death penalty, those sentences must be carried out and cannot be called into question. This is our right.”
- The movement of the prisoners is an exchange and must be reciprocated. Later, when Indonesia requests the return of its citizens held in Australian prisons, these requests must be honored. Yusril also underlined that the requesting government must meet any costs associated with the transfer. When Indonesia is returning prisoners to their homeland under the coming agreement, Indonesia’s responsibilities are limited to safely delivering the prisoner to the departing aircraft.
- Yusril also stipulated that after a prisoner is returned to their home country, Indonesia must enjoy supervisory access over the prisoners to ensure details on a continued period of punishment in their home country are honored.
The Australian government must agree upon and accept these pre-conditions before the return/exchange of the Bali 5 goes ahead. The same conditions apply to the return of drug smuggler Mary Jave Veloso to the Philippines and also to a pending request from Paris for the return of an unnamed French national being held in an Indonesian prison.
The five still behind bars in Indonesia and serving life terms are Scott Rush, Matthew Norman, Si-Yi Chen, Martin Stephens, and Michael Czugaj.
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.
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