The five remaining members of the Bali Nine drug smuggling ring have returned home in time for Christmas after nearly two decades in Indonesian prison.
Matthew Norman, Scott Rush, Martin Stephens, Si Yi Chen and Michael Czugaj — all now aged in their late 30s or 40s — spent almost 20 years locked in Bali’s Kerobokan Prison.
They were serving life sentences after being found guilty of trying to traffic more than 8kg of heroin from Bali to Australia in 2005.
The men after the federal government struck a deal with Indonesian authorities.
After spending four days in the Howard Springs federal accommodation facility near Darwin, the men have now returned to their respective homes, greeted by family, friends and supporters.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it was time for the men to return home, citing Paul Kelly’s classic song How to Make Gravy in which an inmate laments spending Christmas away from his family.
“(The Bali Nine members) committed a serious crime. They paid a serious price for that crime,” Albanese told reporters on Friday.
“They sing the great Paul Kelly song in jail over Christmas … well, their families had their loved ones in jail for 20 Christmases, and that was enough.”
Albanese reiterated the Australian government respected Indonesian laws and warned his country’s citizens to do the same.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the members of the Bali Nine now back in Australia had “paid a serious price” for their crime. Source: AAP / Lukas Coch
“It is a reminder for people out there travelling, that Australians are subject to the laws of countries they are in,” he said.
“Don’t be stupid … don’t take a risk like that.”
The men’s release draws an end to the saga which up-ended their lives and tested Australia’s diplomatic relations with its northern neighbour.
Indonesia has some of the world’s strictest drug laws and sparked a diplomatic incident when Bali Nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed by firing squad in 2015.
Bali Nine member Renae Lawrence was released in 2018, while Tan Duc Than Nguyen died of cancer the same year.
Previous attempts to free the remaining Bali Nine members failed to gain traction, but the accession to power of President Prabowo Subianto in October renewed hope for their release.
The two governments finally struck a deal in December, which Indonesian senior minister for legal affairs Yusril Ihza Mahendra said was “reciprocal in nature”.
Australian ministers have denied a quid pro quo agreement that would force the federal government to consider freeing Indonesian prisoners in the future.
The five men, who have not been pardoned, are banned from entering Indonesia for life.
