JAKARTA: Five Australians who have been serving life sentences for drug smuggling in Indonesia for almost two decades returned home on Sunday, authorities from the two countries have confirmed, after Jakarta and Canberra agreed to a transfer deal.
The five belonged to a group of nine people called the Bali Nine, who were arrested in 2005 for attempting to smuggle more than 8 kg of heroin out of Indonesia’s Bali island and into Australia, following a tip-off by Australian police.
Indonesia and Australia virtually signed a practical arrangement agreement on their transfer on Thursday, the Indonesian Ministry of Immigration and Correctional Affairs said in a statement.
“The five remaining convicts from Bali Nine case were transferred from Bali on Sunday morning and have landed in Darwin, Australia,” the statement read.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has also confirmed their return.
“I am pleased to confirm that Australian citizens Matthew Norman, Scott Rush, Martin Stephens, Si Yi Chen, and Michael Czugaj have returned to Australia this afternoon,” he said in a statement.
“I have conveyed my personal appreciation to President Prabowo for his act of compassion.”
He acknowledged that the five men had “committed serious offenses” and said they will have the opportunity “to continue their personal rehabilitation and reintegration here in Australia.”
The Bali Nine case has long been a point of tension between the two neighbors, with the Australian government continuously advocating for the members’ return.
Indonesia executed the group’s two ringleaders, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, in 2015, prompting Canberra to recall its ambassador in protest.
The only woman in the group, Renae Lawrence, was released and returned to Australia in 2018, while another member, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, died from cancer in prison that same year.
Last month, Albanese raised the issue with Indonesia’s new President Prabowo Subianto on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in Peru.
It was followed by a meeting between Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Legal, Human Rights, Immigration and Correctional Affairs Yusril Ihza Mahendra and Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke in Jakarta earlier this month, where he handed over a draft proposal for the return of the five prisoners.
Under the draft agreement, the five Australian convicts are banned from returning to Indonesia.
“Their status as convicts remains. We transferred them to Australia as convicts. The Indonesian government did not grant any form of pardon,” Mahendra said in a statement.
Indonesia has one of the world’s harshest anti-narcotics laws, and drug trafficking is punishable by death.
The new Indonesian government also agreed last month to repatriate to the Philippines Mary Jane Veloso, a death-row drug convict who was nearly executed by a firing squad but was spared after years of pleadings from Manila.
