The five remaining members of the infamous “Bali Nine” drug ring have returned home after nearly 20 years in Indonesian prisons.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese issued a statement on Sunday confirming the return of Matthew Norman, Scott Rush, Martin Stephens, Si Yi Chen, and Michael Czubak. He said he was “pleased to confirm” their return to Australia.
He thanked Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto “for his compassion.” It began with a high-profile case in 2005 when Indonesia caught nine young Australians trying to smuggle 8.3kg (18lb) of heroin out of Bali strapped to their bodies. The eight men and one woman were arrested at an airport and hotel in Bali after Australian police tipped them off.
The case hit the headlines around the globe when two of the group’s ringleaders, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, were executed by firing squad in 2015 – prompting a diplomatic spat between neighbors Indonesia and Australia.
Following the executions, Australia withdrew its ambassador from Indonesia, but he went back to Jakarta five weeks later. Other members of the Bali Nine received either 20 years or life sentences in prison. It shed light on Indonesia’s very strict drug laws, which are among the world’s toughest.
Of the nine, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen died of cancer in prison in 2018. Shortly after, Renae Lawrence, then 41, the only woman of the group, had her sentence commuted after nearly 13 years behind bars and returned to Australia that same year.
Without media, the five were flown on Sunday from Bali’s Ngqura Rai International Airport to Darwin, in northern Australia, on the Australian airline Jetstar, Indonesia’s senior law minister Yusra Itza Mahendran told The Associated Press.
Mahendran said they were moved as “prisoners,” and “once repatriated,” they came under the jurisdiction of the Australian government. The Indonesian president had not granted them a pardon.
