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.
Mr Albanese raised the issue with Mr 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.
Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Law, Human Rights, Immigration and Correctional Institutions, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, said his government would consider Mr Albanese’s request and make a decision in December.
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 8 kilograms of heroin out of Indonesia.
The heroin had a value of over $4 million at the time.
Filipina prisoner Mary Jane Veloso, who was due to be executed alongside Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran in 2015 but was spared at the last minute, is set to be transferred home to serve her prison sentence after the Philippine president struck an agreement with Indonesia’s new president.
After news of the deal with the Philippines was struck and announced on the sidelines of APEC, Mr Mahendra said there were plans for the transfer of other prisoners, including from Australia and France, whose leaders had made similar requests.
Martin Stephens and Michael Czugaj received life sentences in 2006. (Reuters: Bagus Othman)
In a statement, Mr Mahendra said the Indonesian government would not grant clemency but transferring prisoners home was possible.
‘Humanity is fragile’
The Bishop of Townsville Tim Harris has long been advocating for the Bali Nine’s release. His latest letter lobbying the prime minister was sent only two months ago.
At the time of his arrest, Scott Rush’s family was a part of the Corinda-Graceville parish in Brisbane where Bishop Harris was serving as a parish priest.
Michael Czugai also attended the Catholic primary school connected with the Brisbane parish.
Bishop Harris has visited both men at Kerebokan Prison in Bali.
“This has been a very difficult journey for Scott and Michael and the others … I wanted them to know they were not alone,” he said.
Bishop Harris said when he spoke with the Rush family on Friday night, they had not heard news of the reported proposed deal from official channels.
“If it is true, it’s extraordinary news …,” he said. This has been an ongoing nightmare for 20 years.
“I’m cautiously optimistic now but I’m not shouting from the hilltops until I have all this confirmed.”
Bishop Harris said “the time is right” for the Bali Nine to be returned home after 20 years of incarceration.
Bishop Tim Harris of Townsville said he was “cautiously optimistic” about any potential return to Australia. (ABC News: Baz Ruddick)
“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.
“After 20 years I think there is a feeling that, look, enough is enough.”
Bishop Harris said he was in awe of the resilience of the Rush family.
“Chris and Lee — Scott’s mum and dad — are incredible people … They have lived these 20 years in the hope that one day Scott would come home,” he said.
“I can only imagine what they are feeling now. I hope this is not all a cruel hoax in that sense.”
“I hope I get the chance in the very near future to meet Scott again and embrace his father and mother.”
Five remain in Indonesian jails
Each year, before Indonesia’s Independence Day, members of the Bali Nine serving life sentences have lodged applications for clemency and each year there has been no response.
Of the original nine, only five remain in Indonesian jails.
The sole woman, Renae Lawrence, was freed and returned to Australia in 2018. Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed by firing squad in 2015.
Another member, Tan Duc Than Nguyen, died of cancer in 2018 in a Jakarta hospital after serving time in East Java.
Only two Bali Nine members are now held in Bali’s Kerobokan prison: Si Yi Chen and Matthew Norman.
Si Yi Chen and Matthew Norman were both arrested at a cheap Bali hotel room in possession of heroin. (ABC News: Phil Hemingway)
Si Yi Chen continues to run a silversmith workshop behind bars, teaching other prisoners to make jewellery.
Scott Rush is in Bangli Narcotics Jail in Bali’s north.
Michael Czugaj is in Porong jail in East Java and Martin Stephens is in prison in Malang, also in East Java.
Stephens married Indonesian woman Christine Puspayanti behind bars at Kerobokan jail in 2011.
Lawrence 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.”
