Bali Nine
The Bali Nine were a group of nine Australians convicted for attempting to smuggle of heroin out of Indonesia in April 2005. The heroin was valued at around 4 million and was bound for Australia. Ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were sentenced to death and executed on 29 April 2015. Six other members, Si Yi Chen, Michael Czugaj, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, Matthew Norman, Scott Rush and Martin Stephens, were sentenced to life imprisonment whilst another, Renae Lawrence, received a 20 year sentence. She was released after the sentence was commuted in November 2018. The Indonesian authorities reported on 5 June 2018 that Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen had died of stomach cancer. In November 2024, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese sought the repatriation to Australia of the remaining five members of the Bali Nine. On 15 December 2024, the five remaining members of the group were repatriated to Australia, and their life sentences were commuted with immediate effect.
Background and arrests
Several of the Bali Nine were employed by Eurest, a multinational catering company. Norman, Lawrence, Stephens and Chan, the latter a supervisor with the company, all worked for Eurest, which provided hospitality services to the Sydney Cricket Ground, where the group was employed. Rush and Czugaj alleged they were recruited by Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, their co-defendant and the alleged financier of the smuggling plan, while socialising at a karaoke bar in Brisbane.Evidence was heard that Rush had met Nguyen six months earlier while fishing. He then travelled to Sydney with Nguyen to attend a 21st birthday party where he was introduced to Sukumaran, who called himself "Mark". It was alleged Nguyen offered them free trips to Bali. Several days later Rush and friend Czugaj returned to Sydney, where arrangements were made for them to travel to Indonesia. The Australian Federal Police concluded that Sukumaran, Chan, Lawrence and Norman were part of a larger syndicate that successfully imported a commercial quantity of heroin into Australia from Indonesia on 23 October 2004. Other members of the syndicate were arrested in 14 AFP raids in Sydney and Brisbane on the same day in early May 2005.
Arrests in Indonesia
Lawrence and Stephens arrived in Indonesia on 6 April 2005, followed by Rush and Czugaj, old school friends from Brisbane, who arrived two days later. The group was introduced at a hotel where Chan and Sukumaran were staying, having arrived in Bali earlier.Chan and Sukumaran handed out SIM cards to stay in contact. During their stay, police noted the group would spend a large amount of time in their hotel rooms, although Rush and Czugaj went shopping, eating, drinking and played water sports. The group met again on 16 April for what police allege was a final briefing, before meeting for their final time at the airport before their 17 April arrest. After receiving information from the AFP about the group, including the names, passport numbers and information relating to their links to possible illegal drug trade, Indonesian police placed the group under constant surveillance for a week before their arrest.
The group was arrested at Ngurah Rai Airport on 17 April. Between them, they were in possession of more than of heroin in plastic bags. Chan had several mobile phones in his possession, but was carrying no drugs when arrested.
Indonesian police believe a 22-year-old Thai woman, Cherry Likit Bannakorn, supplied Chan with the heroin. She was believed to have left Bali on 18 April 2005, a day after the nine Australians were arrested, and was briefly detained at the Thai-Malaysian border, but released as the paperwork needed for her to be extradited to Indonesia was not available.
Head of the surveillance team I Nyoman Gatra later testified in court during trials for the accused that police were initially unaware Sukumaran was part of the group, because original information obtained from the AFP did not mention him by name. Indonesian police assumed Sukumaran was Chan's bodyguard as he was seen to accompany Chan in Bali.
Criminal proceedings
Pre-trial investigation
Indonesian law does not require that arrested people be immediately charged with an offence, and by 22 April 2005 no charges had yet been laid. Police indicated that the five arrested at the airport would be charged with drug trafficking, which carries the death penalty, while those arrested in the hotel would be charged with the lesser offence of drug possession, which carries a maximum penalty of ten years' imprisonment. It was suggested that Andrew Chan recruited the other eight to act as drug mules – couriers who would not arouse suspicion while carrying heroin to Australia – and offered them A$10,000 to A$15,000 each to carry out this task, and given A$5000 spending cash.On 27 April 2005, Colonel Bambang Sugiarto, head of the Bali police drug squad, said police would seek to have all nine charged with offenses which carry the death penalty. He revealed that several of the nine had previously visited Bali using false passports, suggesting that they had acted as drug couriers before. Indonesian police released video evidence showing heroin being removed from the bodies of the four arrested at the airport. Indonesian police initially maintained that Chan was the "mastermind" of the importation plan.
Australian police said that they believed that an Australian drug syndicate was behind the plan. It was soon decided that Myuran Sukumaran, not Chan, was the real leader of the smuggling plot. Defence lawyers conceded that the four arrested at the airport were acting as drug couriers, but said they did it for the money to help their low-income families and because they were threatened with physical harm if they did not comply. They also said they did not know what they were transporting and did not know that drug trafficking in Indonesia carried the death penalty.
Reactions in Australia
The parents of Rush and Lawrence criticised the AFP for allowing the Indonesian police to arrest the nine rather than allowing them to fly to Australia and arresting them in Sydney upon their return. On 24 April 2005, AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty said the AFP would hand over all evidence it had obtained against the Bali Nine:Lawrence's father, Bob Lawrence, said in October 2005 that he wanted to meet Keelty face to face after learning of the comments made by Lee Rush:
On 13 February 2006, Rush's parents gave an interview to the ABC TV program Australian Story, speaking out against AFP actions. Rush's parents were quoted as saying:
In an interview aired on the same episode of Australian Story, Mike Phelan of the AFP responded to the Rush family's criticisms and said:
Keelty went on to state that "if someone went back to Lee Rush and assured him that Scott would not be able to travel then that is their call."
Federal justice minister Chris Ellison, defended the AFP's actions:
The Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, said that Australia opposed the death penalty and would seek clemency for the group if they were convicted.
Philip Ruddock, a federal MP, was quoted as saying:
Criminal trials
Criminal trials for the accused commenced in the Denpasar District Court on 11 October 2005. Three of the four arrested at the Melasti Bungalows, Nguyen, Chen and Norman, were tried together, with the remaining six defendants tried separately. All defendants faced a maximum penalty of death by firing squad if found guilty. The trials were often delayed due to the defendants complaining of illness, headaches and nausea. Australia's prime minister, John Howard, said the Australian government would oppose any death sentences imposed.On 6 December 2005, Australian lawyers Robert Richter QC and Brian Walters QC called for the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions to extradite the nine to Australia on heroin conspiracy-related charges. On 7 December 2005, Denpasar District Court judge I Wayan Yasa Abadhi called for Australians not to interfere in the legal proceedings in Indonesia, saying:
Sukumaran remained mostly silent throughout the proceedings and blamed amnesia for his poor recollections of events leading to his arrest. Trials were scheduled to be completed with verdicts announced before 23 February 2006, before a legal deadline for the group's detention expired.
Lawrence claimed that she received threats of harm against herself and her family if she did not proceed with the plan to import heroin into Australia and gave evidence in the Denpasar District Court that she was ordered to book a flight to Bali. She claimed she did not know why she was ordered to travel. Her co-accused Stephens claimed he was also ordered, with threats, to travel to Bali by Chan, who showed him some photographs of his family going about their daily lives, saying that they would be killed if he did not co-operate.
Rush further accused Chan of strapping the heroin to his body wearing rubber gloves. Chan protested his innocence and defending his silence during his final plea, reading from a two-page statement:
In sentencing Lawrence, the judges found no evidence to support her claim that her life was threatened and although the prosecutors requested a lighter 20 year sentence due to her early cooperation with police, the judges sentenced her to life imprisonment. On the next day, the remaining three defendants, Chen, Nguyen and Norman, were sentenced to life imprisonment as well. On 24 January 2006, the prosecutors demanded the death penalty for Sukumaran, this being the first time that a demand of death was put forward for any of the Bali Nine. They told the Bali court that there was no reason to show any leniency to the 24-year-old, because he helped organize the heroin smuggling operation. The prosecutors also claim that it was Sukumaran who strapped heroin to the bodies of his fellow accused. Indonesian police identified Sukumaran as one of the main players in what they said to be a major smuggling ring. On 26 January, it was also recommended that Andrew Chan receive the death penalty.
On 14 February 2006, after learning of his fate, Sukumaran attacked photographers and threw water bottles at protesters and onlookers gathered outside the court building.
After news that the death penalty had been handed down, then–Australian Prime Minister John Howard, noting that the death penalty warnings had been in place in Indonesia for decades, implored the youth of Australia to take notice and not take such "terrible risks".
The death sentences were criticised by some Australians, who compared them to the light sentence given to Abu Bakar Bashir, the Indonesian leader of the terrorist group which carried out the 2002 Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people including 88 Australians. Both death sentences were cheered by some of those in court.
Allegations of bribery were made on 27 April 2015 relating to Indonesian judicial authorities, to reduce sentences to less than 20 years in prison. A former lawyer for Chan and Sukumaran declared that the original amount demanded was more than 1 billion rupiah, but two weeks before they were due to be sentenced, the "deal" failed and backfired, triggering a request for the death penalty. Julie Bishop, Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs, expressed her concern over the allegations involving the questioning of the integrity of the judicial process.