Indonesian minister signals approval for release of Bali Nine on return to Australia

A senior Indonesian minister said Jakarta would respect any decision Australian authorities make about what happens to the remaining Bali Nine drug traffickers when they return home in an unprecedented bid to transfer them.

The comment by Law, Human Rights, Immigration and Corrections Coordinator Yusril Ihza Mahendra is the clearest sign that the five men currently imprisoned for life in Indonesian prisons could be released within months or even weeks.

Earlier this month, the Indonesian government announced that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had requested new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto to repatriate the men from Indonesian prisons to Australia.

The five men – Matthew Norman, Michael Czugaj, Scott Rush, Martin Stephens and Si Yi Chen – are serving life sentences in various prisons and Albanian government ministers had said the transfer deal would likely mean they would continue those sentences behind bars in Australia.

However, legal experts in Australia pointed out that there was no specific legal agreement or framework with Indonesia for such a step, leading to speculation that the prisoners could actually be sent home and released later.

Mr Mahendra has now signaled that Jakarta will not be a problem if this happens.

He said the transfer would require Australia to agree to certain conditions, including that the Indonesian government have access to monitor prisoners even when they return home.

But he told local media in Jakarta that authority over what happens to the prisoners would be handed over to Australia.

Other conditions he cited include that Australia respect and accept the sentences handed down to men in the Indonesian justice system and that Australia pay the costs of transporting prisoners.

He also said the transfer of prisoners should be reciprocal, meaning that if the Indonesian government wanted its citizens sent back home from Australian prisons, Australia would need to consider those requests in the future.

The minister also said a formal request should be made along the same process by which Indonesia recently agreed to transfer high-profile Filipino drug trafficker Mary Jane Veloso to his country.

Mr Mahendra told local media that Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke would discuss details of the transfer when he visits Jakarta next week.

Along with the five men in prison, two others thought to be the ringleaders of the heroin smuggling operation, Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, were executed in Java in 2015.

One member of the group, Tan Duc Than Nguyen, who was serving a life sentence, died of kidney cancer in Jakarta in 2018, while Ranae Lawrence, the only woman in the Bali 9 group, was released in 2018.

Who are the Bali Nine?

The Bali Nine consisted of Australians arrested in Bali in 2005 as part of a conspiracy worth an estimated $4 million to smuggle heroin out of the country.

The group was detained by Indonesian authorities upon notice by the Australian Federal Police, and then tried and sentenced in court.

Five Bali Nine members remained in prisons in Indonesia, serving almost 20 years in prison.