How Renae Lawrence survived behind bars in Bali for nearly 14 years
After almost 14 years in prison, convicted drug smuggler Renae Lawrence has been ‘praised’ for her model behaviour. But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing.
RENAE Lawrence leaned forward and looked straight at Martin Stephens.
“And what’s the point anyway, because if we dob them in, right, think about it, if we dob them in, they kill our family and then we are dead anyway. Don’t tell them and they just kill us instead and leave them alone.”
She was close to tears, biting her lip, telling Stephens in a whisper that dobbing the others in was not a smart move. “I’m not killin’ my family.”
In the same room with them were Scott Rush and Michael Czugaj, both just 19 years old, both from Brisbane.
The four of them had just been busted at Bali international airport with 8.2kg of heroin collectively strapped to their bodies.
Lawrence and Stephens were talking privately about what to do. Lawrence warned the 29-year-old Stephens against taking the advice of arresting police to “talk the truth”.
In the next room was Andrew Chan. He too had been arrested at the airport that night but unlike the four couriers he had no drugs on him.
MORE: Renae Lawrence faces arrest warrants back in Australia
MORE: Renae Lawrence’s mixed emotions about freedom
MORE: Where members of the Bali Nine are now
Lawrence, Chan and Stephens all worked together – for Eurest catering company at the Sydney cricket ground and Aussie Stadium.
All five were nabbed as they were about to board a flight from Denpasar to Sydney.
It was shortly before 9pm on April 17, 2005. By the time the night was out, another four young Australians would also be arrested at a Bali hotel – Myuran Sukumaran, Matthew Norman, Si Yi Chen and Than Duc Thanh Nguyen.
They were all part of the same plot and were quickly dubbed the Bali Nine.
Now, 13 years and seven months later, the first Bali Nine member is being freed from jail. Next week Renae Lawrence will walk out the doors of Bangli jail in Bali’s north-east, a free woman. She will go to Immigration, sign some paperwork and then be put on a plane home.
But her impending freedom is bittersweet. While she is being freed, having served her time and more, the remaining members of the Bali Nine remain in jail, on life sentences, so far with no hope of release.
And three of the nine are no longer alive. Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan were executed by firing squad in 2015, their pleas for mercy falling on deaf ears. She never got to say goodbye to them. By the time they left Kerobokan jail she was already in a different jail.
MORE: Australians behind bars in Indonesia revealed
MORE: Where the AFP went wrong in Bali Nine arrest
Tan Duch Thanh Nguyen succumbed to cancer earlier this year and died in a Jakarta hospital, guarded by his jailers. He too had been shifted out of Kerobokan prison by the time he fell ill.
Lawrence was the only member of the nine to get a sentence of less than life or the death penalty. She was sentenced to 20 years and, with twice-yearly remissions for good behaviour, her time is now up. In fact it was up six months ago but with no way of paying her original $100,000 fine, she has served an extra six months in lieu of the fine.
When Lawrence arrives home in Newcastle on November 22, it will be a vastly different place to that the one she left almost 14 years ago as a27-year-old.
She has no idea yet what she will do. She hopes someone will be kind enough to give her a job and overlook the stigma she will carry forever – that of a Bali Nine drug courier.
And she has an outstanding police warrant in New South Wales to contend with, relating to allegations of a stolen car and driving offences, allegedly committed before her Bali trip. The warrant for those matters is outstanding and police have said it will be enforced on her return.
When Lawrence flew to Bali in April 2005 it was not her first trip to the holiday island. She told Indonesian police, shortly after her arrest, that she had been to Bali in October 2004 with other conspirators and had taken drugs back to Australia on that occasion, paid $10,000 in cash for the job. She told police she was back in Bali again in December of 2004 but the planned drug run was aborted because of a lack of finances.
But later, at her trial in the Denpasar District Court, Lawrence withdrew these elements of her statement, saying this wasn’t true.
And in a confusing series of questions and answers when she gave evidence as a witness in Andrew Chan’s trial, during which she asked for a break to use the toilet, Lawrence withdrew her police statements, that she had been to Bali on a previous drug run, saying instead it had been a holiday.
Lawrence testified in court that Andrew Chan had threatened her and her family and that’s why she had gone through with the ill-fated drug run. “He said if we didn’t do what he wants he’d kill our family and me and send us to the farm,” she told the court. She told the court that she had no idea, when the drugs were strapped to her body, what it was.
“I didn’t know what it was, it could have been diamonds, money, anything, it was already wrapped.”
But prosecutors, it seemed, where happy to accept Lawrence’s original police statements, as being the truth. The later courtroom denials were ignored.
And when prosecutors delivered their sentence recommendation for Lawrence, it was not the life sentence they had demanded for the other three mules. It was 20 years. Even Lawrence was shocked. Prosecutor Putu Indriati told the court that Lawrence had been co-operative with police and that information she provided had helped reveal other members of the drug syndicate. But Ms Indriati urged the court to ignore Lawrence’s claims that she had been threatened by Andrew Chan, which she said were not supported by any evidence and lacked credibility.
The truth of the threat allegations is unknown.
Then there was the day that Lawrence turned up to court wearing make-up – applied by none other than her then jail mate, Schapelle Corby. Lawrence had a gum infection and was not feeling the best. Corby offered her some Natural Glow to help her out. Soon it was being reported that Corby had given Lawrence a make-over.
The pair had a tempestuous relationship during the years they were both locked up in Kerobokan. They were never friends or close, two completely different women thrown together by circumstances. For the most part they tried to stay out of each other’s way.
Lawrence was sentenced to 20 years in jail – the most lenient of the sentences handed down to the Bali Nine. She chose to accept her sentence and eschewed an appeal, which could easily have seen the term increased.
During her years in Kerobokan she became a trusted prisoner. In her pre-prison life she had been handy with cars, helping her Dad fix them, and in jail she was well-known as the prisoner who could get her hands dirty fixing the water pump, which constantly broke down.
By 2013 she was a Tamping or a prison leader in the women’s block, trusted by the then jail governor, who said he treated her like his own daughter.
That was, until prison authorities uncovered an alleged plot by Lawrence and another female prisoner to murder a prison guard. Allegations of the plot surfaced when text messages were discovered on the phone of the other prisoner.
Furious jail authorities stripped Lawrence of her remissions for that year and transferred her to another jail in Bali. Lawrence has always strenuously denied the allegations that she had plotted to kill a jail guard.
Prison life is full of jealousy and hatred among prisoners thrown together in overcrowded cells. Lawrence was the cell block leader but she had plenty of enemies in Kerobokan and has always maintained the murder plot was a set up. No-one was ever charged. Over the years Lawrence has had a number of girlfriends – fellow prisoners in jail.
In 2014 Lawrence was moved to Bangli jail. It is here that she has spent her final years behind bars, trying to rebuild her life and image away from Kerobokan where she was frequently compared to Schapelle Corby.
Bangli is a small and intimate jail – just 59 prisoners. Lawrence is the only foreigner there and one of only 11 female inmates.
Lawrence has learned Balinese dancing and has performed in jail exhibitions. She started painting and several of her artworks grace the administration block at the jail. She oversees her fellow female prisoners making handicrafts which are sold outside, some sent to Australia. The group is currently making little Christmas tree decorations, earrings, brooches and bracelets. They sell for $3-$5.
Male inmates make handbags using newspaper, intricate sailing ships, motorbikes and Balinese offering boxes. They breed chickens and grow fruit and vegetables.
Lawrence has embraced Balinese Hinduism while in jail and has asked permission for a Hindu ceremony to be held in the jail’s Hindu temple before she leaves next week. Jail authorities have agreed to her request for a Hindu priest from outside to officiate.
The jail’s Governor, Made Suwendra, has nothing but praise for Lawrence. He says she is very disciplined, accommodating and friendly.
He says while she has embraced the local religion he doesn’t think she has undergone the lengthy and complicated processes necessary to officially convert to Hinduism. She does however have Hindu religious items in her jail cell.
And while she has borrowed books on Hinduism from the jail library she doesn’t often participate in the indepth sessions sometimes held at the jail – primarily because it is in normally in the Balinese language which Lawrence doesn’t understand. She does however speak fluent Indonesian.
It is clear Lawrence’s farewell from jail will be an emotional one. It has been her home for almost 14 years, the only life she has known and she has close relationships inside.
Her mother and brother are now in Bali and will accompany her home. And a series of friends have been visiting Bangli jail this week as she counts down her final days there.
‘Living nightmare’: Family pain of Aussies killed in the Philippines
The family of an Australian couple found dead in a hotel room broke down as they revealed the cruelty behind the senseless murder the Philippines.
Scary way criminals are using GPS trackers
Almost half of all GPS trackers are going to buyers with nefarious backgrounds and many are allegedly used in high-profile cases including the alleged murder of bikie boss Alen Moradian.