Bali Nine’s Scott Rush applies for life sentence to be cut
Bali Nine’s Scott Rush, a Queenslander lured into a plot to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin overseas, has applied to have his life sentence slashed to 20 years.
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Exclusive: Scott Rush – one the five remaining members of the infamous Bali Nine – has implored Indonesian authorities to slash his life sentence to 20 years.
News Corp has confirmed that the 34-year-old Queenslander, who was lured into the doomed plot to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin into Bali, has applied for clemency — and the Australian Embassy in Jakarta has attached a guarantee to the application.
“Scott Rush has submitted a request to reduce his life sentence to 20 years. I have received his application and the requirements have been declared complete, namely the request from Scott and his family and the guarantee from the Australian Embassy in Jakarta,” Mr Arif Rahman, chief of Bali’s Narcotics Prison in rural Bangli, said.
Rush was arrested in 2005 at Bali’s Ngurah Rai International airport with 1.3kg of heroin strapped to his body.
During the Indonesian judicial process, Rush suffered years of seesawing between life in prison and the death row.
In February 2006 he was sentenced to life behind bars, then on appeal later that year he was sentenced to the death penalty – a punishment that claimed the lives of the two Bali Nine ring leaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, who were executed in 2015 on Indonesia’s Nusa Kambangan.
By 2011, Rush’s death sentence was returned to life in prison.
Now his latest application has been sent to the Indonesian Correctional Board’s office in Denpasar (Bapas) where it will be reviewed and studied.
“If the Bapas recommendation is published, (approved) Scott’s request file will be sent to the Ministry for approval or not,” Mr Rahman said.
Scott Rush’s father, Lee, has fought for his son since before his arrest.
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With his friend Robert Myers, the men alerted the Australian Federal Police of the smuggling plot and asked to have Scott intercepted in Brisbane, before he headed to Indonesia.
They had correctly suspected the worst.
However, the AFP tipped off the Indonesian National Police and nine days later Rush was arrested with heroin strapped to his body.
Fast forward to the eve of 2020 and the remaining members of the Bali Nine – Rush, Su Yi Chen, Michael Czugai, Matthew Norman and Martin Stephens moulder in Indonesian prisons. With the ring leaders executed, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen died in prison of stomach cancer while Renae Lawrence was deported.
Five years ago, Rush, who had struggled with drug use on the inside, was moved from the notorious Kerobokan jail at his own request in a bid to get away from the drugs that flood the
institution.
Should the Indonesian authorities now deliver clemency to Rush, he could be back with his family in Australia by 2026, as a 40-year-old man, with the Australian Embassy responsible for his deportation.
Originally published as Bali Nine’s Scott Rush applies for life sentence to be cut
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