Renae Lawrence: Bali Nine drug courier lands in Australia after release
Bali Nine member Renae Lawrence has dashed to a waiting car after arriving home at Newcastle airport, covering her head with a towel in a bid to avoid the media scrum.
Bali Nine member Renae Lawrence has landed in Newcastle with her family after almost 14 years behind bars for her role in the drug-smuggling operation.
The 41-year-old arrived on a connecting flight from Brisbane and walked down the steps of the plane, accompanied by her mother and stepbrother.
As Lawrence made her way through the airport, she was greeted by dozens of reporters in an intense media scrum.
In dramatic scenes, she avoided the baggage claim area and dashed to a waiting white SUV that was parked directly in front of the arrivals hall.
Once inside the vehicle, she covered her head with a blue towel and put towels over the car windows.
She sat inside the car, head covered, in between her mother and stepbrother, as they waited for their baggage.
Earlier, an overwhelmed Lawrence landed in Brisbane at dawn after almost 14 years behind bars in Bali, making no comment and looking lost as she attempted to find a bus.
She was pressed by a media pack at Brisbane International Airport about how she felt to be back home, but gave no response, although she was heard to mutter something in Indonesian.
Reporters then urged her to make one quick comment but a visibly stressed Lawrence continued to ignore them as she looked for a bus transfer to the domestic terminal.
Her mother, Beverley Waterman, said: “We don’t want to comment. Please, just leave us.”
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She also made no comment in Bali as she was ushered from prison and into a waiting car bound for the airport.
But the convicted drug smuggler’s homecoming could be ruined. The Daily Telegraph reported last week she faces arrest over an alleged high-speed pursuit in 2005.
Gosford Local Court issued two warrants for her arrest in June 2005 but she was in an Indonesian prison awaiting trial.
NSW Police said they were waiting to charge Ms Lawrence with several offences including stealing a motor vehicle, driving unlicensed and speeding.
Lawrence and immigration officials were escorted by police to Denpasar airport — where she was reunited with her family — and boarded a flight bound for Brisbane just after midnight (AEST).
After her chaotic exit from prison, she was able to finally take a breath as she met her mother Beverley and brother Allan in an immigration room at the airport as she waited for their flight.
As the group chatted and laughed Lawrence told of learning Balinese dancing in jail and of performing.
Her scheduled 9.10pm flight was delayed by more than 30 minutes, taking off at 9.34pm Bali time.
Bangli jail governor Made Suwendra said Lawrence had thanked jail staff as she left and apologised for her mistakes.
“She said thank you as she has already been treated well during her time in prison. And also said sorry for any mistake she’s done,” Mr Suwendra said.
He said Lawrence told him she was nervous.
Before leaving the women’s block, a tearful Lawrence hugged her girlfriend, Erna, and other female prisoners.
“All the women prisoners took her out from the women’s block and they were hugging and crying,” Mr Suwendra said.
“Some of her friends were also crying.”
As she walked along with officials toward the jail’s front entrance she was seen waving goodbye.
Minutes before Lawrence was freed, Maryoto Sumadi, the head of Bai’s Justice Ministry, held a media conference.
He said Lawrence had been banned from coming back to Indonesia for life and her name had been placed on a border control management system.
But he later said she could make an application to re-enter and the Government would decide.
Bali’s justice officer Maryoto Sumadi said Lawrence had “completed her sentence according to the decision by the Bali High Court on April 13, 2006”.
As the convoy from the jail drove along Bangli’s narrow streets it encountered a traditional Balinese ceremony featuring women walking with baskets.
In all, Lawrence served 13 years and seven months.
Bangli jail is overlooked by the Mt Agung volcano and surrounded by rice paddies.
The temperature is also more mild than Kerobokan and many say that Lawrence’s move there in 2014 was the best thing to happen to her.
The Bangli jail governor, Made Suwendra, has praised Lawrence and says he hopes that upon her release she will take a righteous path and be accepted by the Australian people.
Lawrence is the first of the Bali Nine to be released from jail, having received the lightest sentence of all nine. Lawrence received a 20-year sentence while the other eight were sentenced to death or life in jail.
They were all convicted of a conspiracy to smuggle 8.2kg of heroin from Bali to Australia.
Three of the nine have died - Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan were executed by Indonesian firing squads in April 2015 - and Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen died earlier this year of cancer.
The remaining five - Matthew Norman, Si Yi Chen, Scott Rush, Michael Czugaj and Martin Stephens - are all serving life sentences, with no prospect so far of release.
Only Norman and Chen remain in Bali’s Kerobokan prison, where their prison governor this week described them as “remarkable human beings” who he says deserved to be freed.
Scott Rush is in the narcotics jail in Bangli in Bali while the other two are in jails in Java.
Lawrence’s sentence was the most lenient in recognition of the assistance she provided to police immediately after her arrest, while others pleaded innocence and no knowledge of the 8.2kg of heroin strapped to the bodies of the four couriers.
The couriers were arrested at Bali airport on April 17, 2005 shortly before they were due to board a flight to Sydney. Also arrested at the airport was Andrew Chan, although he had no heroin on him.
The other four were arrested simultaneously at a hotel in Kuta and the nine were convicted of a conspiracy to smuggle drugs.
Their arrest followed a controversial tip-off from the Australian Federal Police to their Indonesian counterparts.
Lawrence was, for the initial part of her sentence, a trusted inmate at Kerobokan jail where she was a tamping or leader of the women’s block.
But that all came crashing down in 2013 when she was accused, with another prisoner, of a plot to kill a prison guard.
Lawrence denied the allegation but the jail boss was furious and had her transferred out. She ended up, eventually, in Bangli jail.
Here, in the wake of the execution of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumarn in 2015, Lawrence took up painting and had a pet Balidog called Oz, as well as a pet turtle. She initiated fellow prisoners to paint colourful murals on the formerly drab concrete walls inside the jail.
More recently she worked with fellow prisoners, making handicrafts and Christmas decorations, which were sold outside.
Before she walked out the jail doors, Lawrence had a medical check by the Bangli prison doctor who declared she was well.
As she took her first steps outside, Lawrence appeared calm and confident, wearing a black shirt and dark sunglasses but she had not covered her face.
“She said that she is sad and afraid because she has to say goodbye to her friends who she has been living together with for years,” Bangli jail doctor Gusti Putu Sumertayasa said.
“But she is happy for sure.”
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