Renae Lawrence deserves a second chance, says Bali’s Bangli prison governor

The Bangli Governor says he hopes Australia will accept Renae Lawrence, as she prepares to spend her last night behind bars.

Australian Renae Lawrence will be released tomorrow. Picture: Lukman Bintoro

The governor of Bali’s Bangli prison, where Bali Nine drug smuggler Renae Lawrence will spend her last night of incarceration tonight, says she deserves a second chance and that he hopes Australia will accept her.

Lawrence’s family has said she is a “nervous wreck” ahead of her deportation to Australia where she faces an outstanding arrest warrant related to a high-speed car chase in New South Wales in 2005, just one month before she was arrested at Bali airport with 2.7kg of heroin strapped to her body.

The 41-year-old, who has served 13 years and seven months for drug trafficking, has herself expressed concern in recent months about whether she will be given a chance to re-enter society as a notorious ex-prisoner.

But Bangli Governor Made Suwendra told The Australian today on the eve of her release that Lawrence was fully rehabilitated.

“From our observations she has changed, she is fully rehabilitated and she has expressed remorse for the crime that she has committed,” Mr Suwendra said.

“I hope that the Australian government and Australian people will be able to accept her and treat her like an ordinary citizen, because after her release … her rights as a citizen should be protected and fulfilled.

“My message to Renae is take care of yourself, stay on your path of righteousness, stay away from a life of crime. This is your chance to be a good person. I hope you can continue to be productive and play your role in society, be useful to your family, your community and country.”

Butan Bangli Governor Made Suwendra. Picture: Liam Kidston

Mr Suwendra repeated his assertion that Lawrence had been a “cooperative” prisoner in Bangli, a small detention facility of just 59 prisoners a 90 minute drive northeast of Denpasar, where she has served the last five years of her sentence after being transferred from the island’s notorious and overcrowded Kerobokan jail.

Lawrence is technically a free woman from midnight (1.00am AEDT) though she will most likely be released from prison into the custody of Bali Immigration officials early tomorrow morning after being fingerprinted and signing her release papers — a process that should take no more than half an hour.

She will then be driven to Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar, where she was arrested in 2005 along with fellow Bali Nine members after she was found to have 2.7kg of heroin strapped to her body, and flown back to Australia.

Mr Suwendra said he hoped, for Lawrence’s sake, that a family member would accompany her from the prison tomorrow ahead of her deportation.

“It all depends on the family but I would prefer that the family is here to pick her up so they can provide support upon her release,” he said.

No family members attended the traditional Hindu ceremony yesterday at the prison which Lawrence had requested and during which she asked forgiveness for her sins and prayed for a fresh start.

Bali officials will be hoping to avoid the media circus which surrounded the deportation of Schapelle Corby in May last year after she completed her two and a half year parole period.

All release documents have been prepared ahead of her deportation tomorrow and all that remains to be done at the prison is for her fingerprints to be taken and for Lawrence to sign her release papers — a process Mr Suwendra said should take no more than half an hour.

“For us, Renae’s release will be just like any other release. She has served her sentence and it is her time to be released. Nothing special.”

Lawrence was “happy” ahead of her release and has spent her last days as a prisoner with inmate friends and visiting family ahead.

However she 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”.

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 from her original 20-year sentence.

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.

Lawrence’s family has said she intends to stay under the radar on her release, unlike Corby who launched herself on Instagram with a series of glamour shots following her deportation.