Renae Lawrence calls on Indonesia to release remaining Bali Nine members
Bali Nine’s Renae Lawrence pleads for the five remaining members of her heroin syndicate to either be set free from Indonesia’s prisons or serve the rest of their time in Australia.
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Released drug smuggler Renae Lawrence has broken her silence in an emotional plea to Indonesia to release the surviving Bali Nine prisoners.
Lawrence remains the only member of the Bali Nine heroin-smuggling syndicate who has been released from Indonesia’s prisons since they were arrested in 2005.
Two were executed, one has died from cancer and five men remain behind bars.
“We acknowledge that we did the wrong thing and continue to apologise to the Indonesian government and the citizens of Indonesia and Australia and its people for our stupidity,” she told the media yesterday.
“I have no quarrel with the Indonesian legal system, but I continue to worry about these five young men who, if they had received the same sentence as me, may well be back in Australia with their families by now.”
Ms Lawrence was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2006 and released on good behaviour after 13. She returned to her home town of Newcastle after she was freed in late 2018.
She was the only member not to receive either a life sentence or, like Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, a death sentence. The two men were executed by firing squad in 2015.
Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen died of cancer in 2018.
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Ms Lawrence said the surviving members, Matthew Norman, Michael Czugaj, Scott Rush, Martin Stephens and Si Yi Chen, were all “very young men” when they were arrested.
“Their families constantly travel to Indonesia to visit their sons at great expense,” she said.
“Yet their anguish remains as each year goes by. These young men are losing hope.”
She called on Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo, who is currently visiting Australia, to set an end date for their sentences.
If not, she wants Prime Minister Scott Morrison to work with Mr Widodo to organise a prisoner exchange so the men can serve their time in Australia.
“These humane actions would, in some small part, bring our nations further together,” she said.
Ms Lawrence said she understands it would be “very hard” for Mr Widodo to do what she’s asking because “there are a lot of people against it — what we have done”.
But she hopes the five men will get “a second chance” like her and she wants the Australian government to push for it.
“I think it’s time we helped them.”