Remaining five Bali Nine members return to Australia, freed under deal between Anthony Albanese and Prabowo Subianto

The remaining five members of the drug-smuggling ring have been whisked home in secret, returning as free men after they were ‘plucked from jail’, with no prisoner-swap ­required as part of the unprecedented deal.

The five members of the Bali Nine watch as Australian diplomat Lauren Richardson signs the paperwork for their return home on Sunday. Picture: Indonesian government

The remaining five members of the Bali Nine drug-smuggling ring have been whisked home in secret to Australia after more than 19 years in prison, returning as free men under an unprecedented deal between Anthony Albanese and Indonesia’s new President Prabowo Subianto.

The men – Matthew Norman, Martin Stephens, Si Yi Chen, Scott Rush and Michael Czugaj – flew from Bali on Sunday morning on a Jetstar flight to Darwin with three Australian embassy officials. They will stay at an undisclosed location for a short period before being reunited with their families.

As the Prime Minister hailed Mr Prabowo’s role in the release, it was revealed the heroin smugglers’ life sentences have been quashed and they will not have to serve further jail time in Australia. There was no prisoner-swap ­required as part of the agreement to secure their release.

The Australian has been told the former drug mules were “plucked from jail” and the speed of their transfer came as a surprise to them. Pictures released by the Indonesian government show the five men looking on pensively as Lauren Richardson, the Australian embassy’s minister-councillor for home affairs, signed their release alongside an Indonesian government official in a VIP room at Bali’s international airport.

Also present were senior officials from the Directorates General of Immigration, Corrections and Inmates Affairs and the governor of Kerobokan prison where two of the five men had been held.

Australian and Indonesian officials to the side of the plane that would take the group back to Australia. Picture: Indonesian government

Indonesia’s co-ordinating Minister for Law and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra said in a media statement late on Sunday that the signing of the legal agreement allowing the men’s deportation was conducted virtually last Thursday.

“At exactly 10.35am (Western Indonesian Time) the group of five Australian inmates and three Australian embassy officials departed from I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport for Australia,” the statement said.

“Around 2.42pm Darwin time Chris Goldrick, one of the Australian embassy officials accompanying the group on the flight, confirmed that the five Australian inmates … had landed safely in Darwin, Australia.” The agreement was signed for Australia by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke. The five men’s release is a diplomatic coup for Mr Albanese, who raised their plight with his Indonesian counterpart on the sidelines of last month’s APEC summit in Peru.

It comes just months after Julian Assange’s family credited the Prime Minister with securing the release of the WikiLeaks founder, while the government also secured the freedom of political prisoners Cheng Lei and Sean Turnell from China and Myanmar in recent years.

Mr Albanese thanked Mr Prabowo for his “act of compassion”, declaring “it was time for them to come home”. “I want to express my gratitude to President Prabowo for Indonesia’s cooperation and commitment to working with Australia on this matter,” he said.

“Australia respects Indonesia’s sovereignty and legal processes and we appreciate Indonesia’s compassionate consideration of this matter.”

Mr Albanese said Australia shared Indonesia’s concern over “the serious problem illicit drugs represents”, and would continue to work with Jakarta to tackle narcotics trafficking and transnational crime.

The Indonesian government had initially made it a condition of the men’s return that they continue to serve time in jail and that authorities be allowed to monitor their rehabilitation.

But in the end, legal impediments to those conditions and the fact that there was no formal bilateral prisoner transfer agreement between the two nations meant that was not possible.

One senior government source said there was ultimately “no quid pro quo”, but the men had volunteered to continue their rehabilitation in Australia.

It is understood the former prisoners have been banned from Indonesia for life, complicating likely efforts to secure permanent residency for those with wives and children in Indonesia.

The men were caught in April 2005 trying to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin into Australia with four other members of the conspiracy.

The group’s ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed by firing squad in 2015. Fellow smuggler Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen died in prison from stomach cancer in 2018, while Renee Lawrence was released in November that year for good behaviour. The federal government refused to reveal where the newly released men would be temporarily housed, requesting privacy as they re-adjusted to life in Australia.

They will receive government support and medical checks before going their separate ways.

Dr Yusril told reporters after a cabinet meeting on Friday that the return of the remaining Bali Nine prisoners was imminent, “however there are some domestic issues in Australia that need to be resolved first”. “God willing, this will be signed soon and finalised,” he said.

The minister met with Mr Burke a week earlier in Jakarta, who emerged from that meeting saying the two countries were still working through specifics of the deal.

The Australians’ release comes amid similar arrangements between Indonesia and The Philippines government for the return of Filipino woman Mary-Jane Veloso, another drug trafficking convict who was scheduled to be executed alongside Sukumaran and Chan but was spared at the eleventh hour.

While there is also no formal prisoner transfer treaty between the two ASEAN member nations, Philippines’ Justice Undersecretary Raul Vasquez said last week it had been made legally possible under the Southeast Asia bloc’s Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty.

The French government is also negotiating the return of Serge Atlaoui whose life imprisonment sentence in 2007 for alleged narcotics production was later increased on appeal to the death penalty.

A further deal is expected for 59 Iranian nationals detained in Indonesia on drug-related ­charges.