By Maddy Morwood and Jessica Lamb, ABC
Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, members of the so-called Bali Nine gang, were executed in 2015. (File photo)
Photo: AFP
The remaining members of the Bali Nine could be set to return to Australia after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese lobbied the new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto for their release.
Albanese raised the issue with Subianto on the sidelines of this month’s APEC summit in Peru that Australian men Scott Rush, Matthew Norman, Si-Yi Chen, Martin Stephens and Michael Czugaj be transferred to Australian prisons to continue serving their sentences.
Senior Indonesian minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra said his government will consider Albanese’s request and make a decision in December.
He said that other countries have made similar requests about their inmates, including France and the Philippines.
It is anticipated that if they return, the men are likely to serve additional time but are unlikely to continue their life sentences.
All five men are serving life sentences in Indonesian prisons with no chance of release for their role in the 2005 attempt to smuggle more than 8kg of heroin out of Indonesia.
The heroin had a value of over $4 million (NZ$4.46m) at the time.
‘Humanity is fragile’
The Bishop of Townsville Tim Harris has long been advocating for the Bali Nine’s release.
At the time of his arrest, Scott Rush’s family was a part of the Corinda-Graceville parish in Brisbane where Harris was serving as a parish priest.
Michael Czugai also attended the Catholic primary school connected with the Brisbane parish.
Harris has visited both men at Kerebokan Prison in Bali.
He said he was watching the developments closely.
“From day one, I did not condone what Scott and Michael had done and I still don’t to this day, but the Christian way is to never give up on anybody – that’s my view today,” he said.
“Humanity is fragile and we need to look after each other even when we have done wrong.
“I hope I get the chance in the very near future to meet Scott again and embrace his father and mother.”
Convicted drug smuggler Renae Lawrence, the only member of the Bali Nine to be released from an Indonesian prison, said in 2020 she feared for the mental health of the five men, who were “losing hope”.
“When we were arrested in 2005, Matthew Norman, Michael Czugaj, Scott Rush, Martin Stephens and Si Yi Chen were all very young men,” Lawrence wrote.
“Matthew Norman was the youngest at 18 years of age and Czugaj and Rush were just 19.
“If they had received the same sentence as me [they] may well have been back in Australia by now.
“Their families constantly travel to Indonesia to visit their sons at great expense, yet their anguish remains and as each year goes by these young men are losing hope.”
The Bali Nine ringleaders, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, were executed in 2015 and another member, Tan Duc Than Nguyen, died of cancer in 2018.
– ABC