Bali jail sentence cut for well-behaved Renae Lawrence

Bali Nine drug courier Renae Lawrence may have her prison sentence cut nine months for good behaviour.

Bali Nine drug courier Renae Lawrence may have her prison sentence cut nine months for good behaviour.

Lawrence, 37, who is serving 20 years in Bangli prison in central Bali, was yesterday recommended for a six-month bonus cut to her three-month ­remission during celebrations to mark Indonesia’s 70th Independence Day. Reductions for good behaviour on Independence Day and at Christmas are ­customary.

Lawrence, of NSW, was ­sentenced for her role in the 2004 plot to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin into Australia from Bali. As the only member to receive a 20-year jail term, she is eligible for reductions. The other six ­surviving members of the Bali Nine are serving life sentences in jails in Bali and east Java and are ineligible.

The cuts bring Lawrence’s parole closer and she may qualify next year but she has yet to apply. She was moved from ­Kerobokan jail in 2013 after ­allegedly plotting to kill a prison guard but has since been considered well behaved.

The April 29 executions of Bali Nine ringleaders Myuran Sukumaran, 34, and Andrew Chan, 31, leave three members in Kerobokan jail — Si Yi Chen, 31, Matthew Norman, 29, and ­Michael Czugaj, 30.

During the first celebrations at the jail since the executions, in which artwork and dancing were also displayed and the media were allowed in, the head of Bali’s Corrections office, Nyoman Surya, recommended hundreds of remissions.

But prison governor Sudjonggo said: “The recommendation process for prisoners sentenced for drug (crimes) is not yet ­finalised.”

He said New Zealander ­Antony de Malmanche, who was jailed in June for 15 years for drug trafficking, had been recommended for a sentence reduction along with Australian Edward Myatt, who was jailed for eight years in 2012 for smuggling hash and methamphetamines to Bali.

Prison art and dancing teacher Tina Bailey said inmates were determined to continue rehabilitation programs with the same vision and purpose in honour of Sukumaran and Chan.

“Andrew and Myu did such a good job with the programs they started they left a legacy that people are continuing because it’s solid,’’ she said.

“It’s not the same without them.”