Renae Lawrence will never be allowed back into Indonesia

Renae Lawrence, the only member of the Bali Nine to be released from prison, will never be allowed back into Indonesia.

Bali Nine member Renae Lawrence with Bangli jail governor Made Suwendra and an Immigration officer ahead of her release from jail on November 21. Picture: Supplied

Renae Lawrence, the only member of the Bali Nine drug smugglers to be released from prison, will never be allowed back into Indonesia, immigration officials have confirmed ahead of her deportation on Wednesday.

Thirteen years and seven months after she was imprisoned in Bali amid an international media circus, Lawrence was hoping to make her exit quietly.

But late today Bali Immigration chief Agato Simamora said Australian consular officials had still not handed over Lawrence’s passport and travel documents and that if they did not receive them by the end of the day — tomorrow is a public holiday in Indonesia — “we might have to take her to the immigration detention centre rather than the airport”.

Lawrence has already spent an additional six months in jail after qualifying for early release in May because she could not afford to pay the $A95,000 fine due on completion of her sentence.

Technically she is a free woman from midnight Wednesday though she is to be released into the custody of Immigration officials later that morning before her deportation. She will be banned from returning to Indonesia for at least six months.

Mr Agato said Schapelle Corby, who was deported in May last year after serving nine years in Kerobokan also for drug smuggling, had already had her ban extended twice and that ban “would be extended again and again”.

Asked if the same would happen with Lawrence after her deportation he replied; “She will never step foot in Indonesia again”.

Lawrence, 41, today sought forgiveness for her sins in a small Hindu ceremony at the secluded Bangli prison 90 minutes northeast of Kuta beach.

A Hindu priest arrived just before 10am (AEST1300) accompanied by helpers carrying baskets of offerings and conducted a 15 minute ceremony in which he later said Lawrence prayed for a fresh start.

“She didn’t ask for anything else and she didn’t speak much. She just told me that she wanted to thank the spirits, to be cleansed of her sins and have a fresh start,” he said.

Bangli prison governor Made Suwendra said Lawrence was spending her last days as a prisoner with inmate friends and visiting family ahead of her release but did not want to speak publicly before her deportation for fear “her words could get taken out of context and she might ruin her chance of a release, or land herself in trouble once she gets to Australia”.

She has served the last five of her original 20 year-sentence at Bangli where former prisoner-turned-outreach counsellor Novian Hariyawan described her as a “changed woman” from her early years in Kerobokan prison where she was known as a feared enforcer.

Lawrence is the only one of the original Bali Nine, convicted for attempting to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin out of Denpasar airport, to have been granted remission.

Ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukamaran were executed in 2015 and another member, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, died of cancer earlier this year.

The five remaining fellow traffickers - Matthew Norman, Martin Stephens, Si Yi Chen, Michael Czugaj, Scott Rush – are all serving life sentences in Indonesia.

Rob Lawrence has said his daughter is a “nervous wreck” ahead of her return to Australia where she faces an outstanding arrest warrant related to a high-speed car chase in NSW in 2005, one month before she was arrested in Bali with 2.7kg of heroin strapped to her body.

Last year he told reporters she intended to stay under the radar on her release, unlike Corby who launched herself on Instagram with a series of glamour shots following her deportation.

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