The Indonesian government has handed Australia a draft proposal for the repatriation of the Bali Nine members still in prison, a deal it hopes can be finalised by the end of December.
There was hope a final deal could be reached as soon as possible, Indonesia’s minister for law, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, said in a joint press conference after meeting with Australia’s home affairs minister, Tony Burke, in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Some details, including a lack of relevant laws allowing for a prisoner transfer, needed to be worked through before a final deal could be reached, Yusril said.
A draft proposal was handed to Australia during the meeting.
“We hope that we can finalise this matter … this December,” Yusril said.
That an Indonesian proposal was handed over during the meeting was “a significant step forward and shows significant goodwill”, Burke said.
Impediments within both legal systems were discussed.
“I have full respect for the Indonesian legal system and approach the conversations with a great deal of respect and a great deal of humility,” Burke said.
“There are … some issues which have not yet been resolved and that work will continue between our officials.”
The Australians were arrested in 2005 after trying to smuggle heroin and five members remain behind bars serving life sentences – Scott Rush, Matthew Norman, Si-Yi Chen, Martin Stephens and Michael Czugaj.
Ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed in 2015, sparking a diplomatic incident with Australia, while Renae Lawrence was released in 2018 and Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen died of cancer the same year.
Jakarta is reportedly seeking the repatriation of Indonesian prisoners held in Australia as part of any deal.
The Bali Nine were nine young Australians, many of whom barely knew one another, arrested on the holiday island in April 2005, as they tried to smuggle more than 8kg of heroin with a street value of $4m into Australia.
Video footage of four of the group, caught at Denpasar airport with packages of drugs crudely taped to their bodies, dominated Australian headlines for weeks. Other members of the group were arrested on planes and in a Kuta hotel room.
It emerged that the Indonesian authorities had been monitoring the group, having been tipped off to a potential crime being committed by the Australian federal police. The AFP told Indonesian authorities “take whatever action you deem necessary”, despite knowing this could expose the Australians to the death penalty.
“If you suspect Chan and/or the couriers are carrying drugs at the time of their departure, please take whatever action you deem necessary,” correspondence from the AFP to the Indonesian national police said.
Ultimately, all nine were convicted of drug smuggling and given a range of sentences from 20 years in prison to death.
Now, after 19 years in prison, the five remaining members of the Bali Nine are potentially within weeks of returning home. The five are scattered across Indonesia’s overcrowded prison system: three are in Bali jails and two are in separate prisons on the island of Java.
Australia and Indonesia do not have a prisoner exchange agreement, so a formal arrangement would have to be struck between the two countries before any repatriations could take place.
Yusril has previously reiterated Jakarta’s preference for the Bali Nine to continue serving their life sentences after returning home, but conceded that Australia granting clemency was not impossible.
“We are transferring them to their countries so they can serve their sentence there, but if the countries want to give amnesty, we respect it. It’s their right.”
Government ministers have said Indonesia’s new president, Prabowo Subianto, is behind the push to engineer prisoner exchanges, not only with Australia but with other countries such as the Philippines and France.
“The Indonesian government is very serious about this,” Yusril said. “Mr Prabowo really wants it to be as soon as possible.”
