The five remaining members of the Bali Nine have returned home to their families after nearly two decades in Indonesian prisons, ending an ordeal that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said should remind Australians not to “be stupid” by disobeying foreign laws.
Flights landed in cities across the east coast on Friday morning carrying the one-time drug traffickers to Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane after the Indonesian government agreed to return them to Australia earlier this month.
Martin Stephens, Michael Czugaj, Scott Rush, Matthew Norman and Si Yi Chen look on as Australia and Indonesia sign an agreement for their return home.
Albanese, who spoke to the parents of one of the returnees, Scott Rush, on the weekend, said the men had committed a serious crime, paid a serious price and it was time for them to come home.
Referring to the Paul Kelly song How To Make Gravy, sung from the perspective of a man in jail writing to his family for Christmas on December 21, Albanese said tomorrow was that day and the first in decades when the families of the five men would have their loved ones home.
“Their families had their loved ones in jail for 20 Christmases,” Albanese said in Canberra. “And that was enough.”
Matthew Norman and Si Yi Chen to flew to Melbourne. Rush and Michael Czugaj landed in Brisbane. Martin Stephens arrived in Sydney. All had been arrested in Bali in 2005 after the Australian Federal Police tipped off Indonesian authorities about their plans.
Fellow Bali Nine members Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed in 2015. Renae Lawrence, the sole female member of the group, was released in 2018. The final member, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, died from cancer while serving his sentence.
The five recently returned men were briefly housed in the Howard Springs Centre, a former quarantine facility in Darwin, after the federal government negotiated their release with Indonesia. They will have access to medical and support services as they settle back into life in Australia.
None of the five have spoken with any media, who questioned the men as they exited the airport.
Albanese said the case was a reminder that Australians are subject to foreign law when overseas. “Don’t be stupid, essentially,” Albanese said. “Don’t take a risk like that. [Some of the Bali Nine] spent more than half their lives in jail.”
The government has kept tight control of the men’s return to Australia. The former prisoners’ parents were unaware their sons were definitely coming back until their flight landed on Sunday, November 15. Both sides have said the men’s return was an act of friendship from Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, with nothing given in return.
On Friday, Prime Minister Albanese said he was grateful to Prabowo for his act of compassion.
The Albanese government has also overseen the release of economist Sean Turnell from a jail in Myanmar, journalist Cheng Lei from China, and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from Britain.
The deal has not been without criticism, however, with a key member of Indonesia’s parliamentary justice committee criticising the arrangement.
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