JakartacTypeface:> The five remaining members of an Australian drug smuggling group known as the Bali Nine returned home to Australia on Sunday after being imprisoned in Indonesia for almost two decades, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed.
“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,” Albanese wrote on social media platform X. “I thank President Prabowo Subianto for his compassion,” the Australian premier added.
The five men were among nine people apprehended in Bali in 2005 when trying to smuggle 8.3 kilograms of Heroin from Bali to Australia. They had been incarcerated for almost 20 years. Two convicted ringleaders, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, were executed in 2015. The only woman in the group, Renae Lawrence, was released in 2018, and another group member, Tan Duc Than Nguyen, died of cancer in prison. (DPA)
