The last five Australians in the heroin trafficking gang Detainees in Indonesia have returned home after Canberra reached a deal with Jakarta to end two decades of overseas imprisonment.
“I am pleased to confirm that Australian citizens Si Yi Chen, Michael Czugaj, Matthew Norman, Scott Rush and Martin Stephens have returned to Australia this afternoon,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wrote in X on Sunday.
I am pleased to confirm that Australian citizens, Si Yi Chen, Michael Czugaj, Matthew Norman, Scott Rush and Martin Stephens have returned to Australia this afternoon.
I thank President Prabowo Subianto for his compassion.
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP)
The five, who were serving life sentences, belong to a larger group of nine people who were caught trying to smuggle more than eight kilos of drugs from Bali international airport to Australia in 2005.
The failed plan has been a point of tension between the two countries, with the Australian Government defending its return for decades.
Indonesia executed the group’s two Australian leaders, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, in 2015, prompting then-Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to call him .
Last month, Albanese presented the case to Indonesia’s newly inaugurated president, Prabowo Subianto, on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru, Reuters reported. Indonesia’s Justice Minister confirmed at the time that he had agreed to return the remaining men, according to the agency.
“I thank President Prabowo Subianto for his compassion,” wrote Anthony Albanese.
In a joint statement with Anthony Albanese and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke on Sunday, Indonesian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said: “The men will have the opportunity to continue their personal rehabilitation and reintegration in Australia.”
The Bali Nine were arrested in 2005 by Indonesian police, following a tip from Australian authorities.
Four of them were detained at Denpasar International Airport with more than eight kilograms of heroin strapped to their bodies, while four others were found in a hotel on Kuta island. Chan, one of the group’s leaders, was captured after boarding a plane to Sydney.
Chan and Sukumaran were sentenced to death, while the other seven were sentenced to life in prison upon appeal.
The only woman in the group, Renae Lawrence, was after serving 13 years of his 20-year sentence. Lawrence had initially been sentenced to life in prison, but her sentence was later commuted to 20 years and she was released early for good behavior.
Another member, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, died of kidney cancer in 2018 while in prison, Nine News reported.
The Bali Nine case has exposed the strict drug trafficking laws in Indonesia, where several foreigners are currently detained on similar charges.
