Hundreds of Australian ex-pats languish behind bars around the world this Christmas
Dozens of Australians are banged up abroad with their first Christmas in jail. See who they are and why they’re in prison.
National
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Up to 177 Australians could spend Christmas in an overseas jail for the first time, joining ex-pat paedophiles, drug smugglers and political prisoners languishing behind bars around the world.
The total number of Aussies banged up abroad fell slightly in the past year to 330, according to figures from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT). The bulk of the 177 new detentions was in China, where 55 Australians were locked up during the 2021-2022 year of DFAT’s reporting.
The United States was a close second with 39, followed by 35 in Vietnam, 29 in Thailand, and 19 in New Zealand.
A large portion of the 773 Australians arrested overseas was for drug-related cases, with 10 in Indonesia, nine in Hong Kong, seven in Japan, seven in the Philippines and six in Thailand.
Dozens, meanwhile, were either transferred home or released to spend Christmas as free men and women, like economist Sean Turnell, who was imprisoned in Myanmar before returning to Australia in November.
ISIS bride Zehra Duman was released from jail in Turkey, while bikie boss Mark Buddle was extradited from the country to face charges in Australia.
One of the highest profile Australians to remain in legal limbo is Julian Assange, whose family hoped would be back in Australia by Christmas after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese personally urged the United States to end its pursuit of the WikiLeaks co-founder.
The Committee to Protect Journalists also wrote an open letter to US Attorney-General Merrick Garland to drop charges and halt efforts to extradite Assange before Christmas.
Assange’s brother, Gabriel Shipton, told News Corp Australia the push to be home by Christmas was a “critical time” to avoid being extradited to the United States.
“This is the last run that Julian will have in the UK courts and the application to appeal will be decided before Christmas,” Mr Shipton said.
“Julian’s very encouraged, obviously, by this political wave that’s going on at the moment. This sort of stuff keeps him going in the maximum security prison that he’s in.
“There are 800 prisoners in there, 20 per cent who are in there for murder. He’s not violent. He’s an Australian farmer. He has a young family that is missing him this Christmas”.
If Assange remains in Belmarsh on Christmas, his brother and father, John Shipton, will be standing by for his Christmas Day phone call. “Those times are the hardest,” Mr Shipton said. “When he can’t be with his family.
“But it’s not going to be much different than any day. I don’t think Santa Claus comes to Belmarsh.”
The total number of ex-pats behind bars fell by five per cent from 347 the previous year. Of the 330 that remain in custody, these are some of the most high-profile inmates spending the holidays in an international penitentiary.
PETER GERARD SCULLY – The Philippines
Jailed paedophile Peter Gerard Scully, 59, was sentenced to an additional 129 years in the Philippines for raping a baby and girl whose bodies were found buried under his home. Considered one of the world’s most depraved child traffickers and rapists, the former Melbourne businessman fled Australia in 2011 before being arrested in 2015 in Mindanao.
DUSTIN LINKLATER – Indonesia
The former restaurant worker from Darwin was jailed for seven years for sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy in Indonesia in 2019. He was found guilty of luring the boy from a waterpark and paying him $11 for oral sex.
CHENG LEI – China
Australian journalist Cheng Lei remains in rough prison conditions more than two years after being detained in 2020 and accused of illegally supplying state secrets. The Chinese-born Australian was tried in a secret court, and her exact conditions remain unclear.
YANG HENGJUN – China
Writer and democracy activist, Yang Hengjun, was accused of spying in 2019. The 55-year-old was a vocal critic of Chinese Communist Party Chairman Xi Jinping, and his arrest was seen as retaliation. He faced a secret trial in May, and is awaiting sentencing.
ROBERT ANDREW FIDDES ELLIS - Indonesia
The Victorian man described as “Bali’s worst paedophile” was sentenced in 2016 to 15 years in an Indonesian jail for grooming and sexually abusing girls aged between seven and 17. He continues to deny being a paedophile, saying he paid the girls “generously”.
BRENDON LUKE JOHNSSON – Indonesia
Convicted of cocaine possession, Brendon Luke Johnsson, from the Sunshine Coast, was sentenced in 2019 to five years in jail in Indonesia.
MICHAEL SACATIDES – Indonesia
Sydney man Michael Sacatides was sentenced in 2011 to 18 years in prison after being caught with 1.7kg of methamphetamine in Indonesia. The former Sydney kickboxing instructor was said to have married a local woman and was running exercise classes with other prisoners.
BRENTON HARRISON TARRANT – New Zealand
The Christchurch mass shooter, originally from NSW, was sentenced to life imprisonment in New Zealand for a terror attack on two mosques that left 51 dead.
LISA CUNNINGHAM – United States
Originally from Adelaide, 48-year-old Lisa Cunningham faces the death penalty in the United States over allegations she murdered her seven-year-old stepdaughter. The little girl suffered acute schizophrenia and prosecutors allege she died from a sepsis infection after injuries to her head and foot in February 2017. Cunningham has remained in custody since 2017 awaiting trial, which was delayed for years during the Covid pandemic.
THE BALI NINE – Indonesia
Members of the infamous “Bali nine” drug smuggling ring that escaped the death penalty remain in Indonesia’s notorious prison system. They include Si Ye Chen, Michael Czugaj,
Matthew Norman, Scott Rush, and Martin Stephens. Renee Lawrence was released in 2018, while Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed in 2015. Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen died of cancer in 2018.
VAN KHAM CHAU – Vietnam
Retired Sydney baker Van Kham Chau was sentenced to 12 years in prison during a 2019 trip to Vietnam, which he fled in a boat in 1982. The 71-year-old is a member of Viet Tan, a human rights group that the Vietnamese government designated a terror group.
JOHN NIKOLIC – Fiji
Ex-Melbourne racehorse trainer John Nikolic remains in Fiji’s hard-core Suva men’s prison after being arrested in 2018 on charges of smuggling $30 million worth of cocaine
into the country on the yacht, Shenanigans. He was convicted in 2019 and sentenced to 23 years in prison, with a non-parole period of 18 years. While an appeal was rejected in 2021, it was reported a new legal team will fight for a reduced sentence. His wife, Yvette, was found not guilty.
JAKE MASTROIANNI – Thailand
Once a popular Melbourne DJ, Jake Mastroianni was sentenced to two life terms in prison after he was arrested with hundreds of ecstasy pills in Thailand in 2014. He was found to have been acting as a criminal organisation with British co-accused, Lance Whitmore.
STEVEN HOVI, JAMIE HANSOM and TIHOMER STOJIC – Thailand
The three Australians were among five people arrested in Thailand’s beachside resort town of Pattaya in 2019. They were charged with acting as a “drug cartel” that police alleged was linked to the Hells Angels and Comanchero gangs in Australia.
ROBERT HALLIWELL – Thailand
Robert Halliwell was arrested with fellow addict Holly Deane-Johns in 2000 attempting to post a package of heroin to Australia. Thai police later found a further 110 grams of heroin in Halliwell’s apartment. The former Cronulla, Sydney resident and builder–— who jumped bail on drug charges in Australia and fled to Thailand in the 1980s – was sentenced to 31 years in jail and was considered lucky to escape the death penalty. Deane-Johns was transferred to a prison in Australia in 2003.
SUSAN DALZIEL – Mauritius
An Australian schoolteacher – who was 52 at the time – received a 28-year sentence for smuggling heroin worth $1.3 million into Mauritius in 2005. She will be 80 years old when she is freed. Dalziel was arrested on arrival from Nairobi in November 2005 with almost 4kg of heroin packed into her luggage. She had pleaded not guilty to drug peddling but was found guilty of trafficking, maintaining that she was used as a decoy for the real smugglers.
TRAVIS MCLEOD – Indonesia
Travis Mcleod, 49 of Fremantle, WA, was detained over a meth allegation and a subsequent police search of his villa allegedly uncovered 0.8 grams of ‘shabu’ – as it is known locally. Police also seized five jerry cans of ethanol, seven bottles of assorted chemicals, a dozen baking sheets, three Tupperware containers of green powdered kratom – a hallucinogenic leaf from a local plant – and multiple drug processing tools and paraphernalia, including a bong.
— additional reporting by Ondy Harvard, Sarah Blake, Stephen Drill, Mandy Squires and Cindy Wockner
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