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Convicted drug smuggler Renae Lawrence has broken her self-imposed silence to call for reduced prison sentences for the Bali Nine members who remain behind bars.
Key points:
- Renae Lawrence is the only member of the Bali Nine to be released from an Indonesian prison
- Lawrence says those who were convicted alongside her are suffering from mental anguish
- The five remaining members who are left in Indonesian prison are serving life sentences, with no release date
In a statement aimed at Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Lawrence said fellow smugglers Matthew Norman, Michael Czugaj, Scott Rush, Martin Stephens and Si Yi Chen should be given determinant sentences.
Those men were sentenced to lifetime prison terms 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.
Lawrence, the only member of the Bali Nine to receive a determinant sentence, said she feared for the mental health of the 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."
About Renae Lawrence
- Renae Lawrence felt compelled to try and help the five of the Bali Nine who are still serving life sentences in Indonesia.
- It has been a little over a year since she was released after 13 years in various prisons
- Lawrence says she is occasionally verbally abused by those who do not feel she deserves her freedom, in her hometown of Newcastle
- Getting a job has proven impossible to date
- Lawrence hopes her message will reach the Indonesian President, and that the lives of five Australians condemned to life in prison will change as a result
Lawrence also suggested that if a determinant sentence could not be achieved, the Australian and Indonesian governments should work on a prisoner swap deal so the men could serve their time in Australia.
The plea comes as Indonesian President Widodo arrives in Australia where he will address Parliament on Monday, making him the second Indonesian leader to do so.
Mr Widodo is here just days after a new bilateral trade agreement was cut between the two countries, making Lawrence's plea timely, but whether Prime Minister Morrison will even discuss the Bali Nine with Mr Widodo remains to be seen.
Other members of the Bali Nine, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, were executed by firing squad in 2015 for their roles in the crime.
And in 2018 Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, also one of the offenders, died in a Jakarta hospital at the age of 34.
In 2019 Lawrence avoided a prison sentence after pleading guilty to a series of historical traffic offences related to a high-speed car chase that took place in Australia, in 2005.
Topics: law-crime-and-justice, crime, drug-offences, prisons-and-punishment, australia, indonesia, newcastle-2300, nsw
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