Yusril: Bali Nine Prisoners Continue To Serve Sentences In Australia, Not Free

Coordinating Minister for Law, Human Rights, Immigration, and Correction Yusril Ihza Mahendra/ANTARA/Rolandus Nampu

The Coordinating Minister for Law, Human Rights, Immigration and Corrections (Kumham Imipas) RI Yusril Ihza Mahendra emphasized that the convict in the narcotics smuggling case, Bali Nine, will continue to serve his sentence in Australia, not be released if the two countries have reached an agreement.

"Even if Bali Nine wants to be transferred to Australia, we will not release them. We will transfer them to Australia as prisoners," said Yusril, Thursday, December 5.

This, said Yusril, has been contained in the draft agreement that has been submitted to the Australian government. Where in the agreement the Australian Government must recognize Indonesia's sovereignty and respect the Indonesian court's decision.

"Later he will serve his sentence in Australia based on our court ruling which must be recognized by the Australian government and respected," he said.

However, said Yusril, if the Australian governor-general wants to grant clemency, remission, amnesty to the convicts is entirely their authority.

The Australian government's task of fostering prisoners and Indonesia is given access to monitor the development of prisoners.

"We still have access to monitor what happened with the inmates we returned," he said.

Yusril emphasized that the transfer of prisoners between Indonesia and Australia was reciprocal.

The draft agreement requested by the Indonesian government has been submitted to the Australian government. Yusril stated that Indonesia was just waiting for an answer from the Australian government to respond to the draft.

"If we agree, we will process it, but if we ask that the person be forgiven here, released, repatriated, we cannot fulfill it because we have never forgiven or given clemency to narcotics cases, not only to foreigners, our own citizens, we never give it," he said.

"The period of clemency to foreign nationals. We return home as prisoners, it's up to the government that you want to give clemency, amnesty, please," concluded Yusril.

Bali Nine is the nickname for nine Australian inmates who were arrested in Bali for being involved in a drug syndicate case in 2005. They were proven to have smuggled 8.2 kilograms of heroin.

The nine inmates include Andrew Chan, Myuran Sukumarian, Si Yi Chen, Michael Czugaj, Reane Lawrance, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, Matthew Norman, Scott Rush, and Martin Stephens.

Andrew and Myuran were executed in 2015, while Renae was sentenced to 20 years in prison and has been released in 2018 after receiving several remissions. Meanwhile, Tan Duc died in detention while serving life imprisonment in 2018.

Currently, there are only five Bali Nine inmates who are still serving life in prison in Indonesia. They are Si Yi, Michael, Matthew, Scott, and Martin.