By James Massola
The five remaining members of the Bali Nine could be transferred to Australia as soon as next month after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese directly lobbied new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto.
The two leaders met earlier this month on the sidelines of the APEC meeting in Peru, where Albanese raised the cases of the five men, Matthew Norman, Michael Czugaj, Scott Rush, Martin Stephens and Si Yi Chen, who are in prisons on the Indonesian islands of Bali and Java.
Australians Matthew Norman (right), Si Yi Chen (centre) and Tach Duc Thanh Nguyen in court during their trial in Denpasar, Bali in October 2005.Credit: AP
It was not the first time Albanese had raised with Prabowo the fate of the five men, who are serving life sentences after being arrested in 2005 for attempting to smuggle heroin from Indonesia to Australia.
Albanese had also privately lobbied Prabowo’s predecessor, Joko Widodo, to secure the men’s freedom.
Securing their release is a major coup for the Albanese government, which has already secured the release of economist Sean Turnell from a jail in Myanmar, journalist Cheng Lei from China and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from Britain.
An Australian government source confirmed the five men would return to Australia, but declined to comment further.
Michael Czugaj (right) and Matthew Norman arrive at Denpasar District Court, Bali, in December 2005.Credit: AP
The ringleaders of the Bali Nine, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, were executed by the Indonesian government in April 2015, soon after Widodo came to office. Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen died from cancer in June 2018, while Renae Lawrence was released from prison in November 2018 after having her sentence commuted.
Lawrence was released in chaotic scenes at Bali’s Bangli prison and immediately deported. She was the first member of the group to be released from an Indonesian prison.
On the eve of her release, Norman, 38 – the youngest member of the Bali Nine in prison – told this masthead that he wished Lawrence the best of luck.
“What’s going on with Renae, that’s her story. She was sentenced by the courts to 20 years and she has run her course. She has got her [sentence] remissions, she has done what she needs to do to get out,” he said.
“I wish her all the best of luck. For me, I’m still here with a life sentence and I’m still doing all that I can to better myself. I still have hope that my sentence will come down.”
And Norman spoke about his hopes of one day being released.
“I believe that through the Indonesian judicial system, with a life sentence you have many opportunities to have your sentence reduced, and we have been applying for the past years to get that reduction. We still haven’t just yet, but we still have hope that we can get our sentence reduced and that one day we will get out of here.”
It is unlikely the five would be required to serve life sentences in Australia, but it is likely they would have to serve at least some additional time here.
The Australian newspaper reported on Friday evening that Yusril Ihza Mahendra, Indonesia’s co-ordinating minister for legal affairs, human rights, immigration and corrections, had said his country did not yet have prisoner exchange laws, but that the transfer could be made under the framework of mutual legal assistance.
“In Peru, the Australian prime minister made the request for the transfer of Australian prisoners with President Prabowo,” Mahendra said on Friday.
“The Indonesia president responded that they are currently reviewing and processing the matter, and it is expected to be carried out in December.”
Mahendra said the Indonesian government would take the same approach as it had taken to Filipino woman Mary Jane Veloso, who had been on death row in Indonesia and was due to be executed alongside Chan and Sukumaran in 2015, but who received a reprieve.
Filipino president Ferdinand Marcos recently announced that a transfer deal had been struck with Indonesia and that Veloso would return home soon.
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