Jakarta – Deputy Chairman of Commission XIII of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Andreas Hugo Pareira, believes that the process of transferring the Bali Nine prisoners back to their home country, Australia, seems to be shrouded in secrecy. According to him, the Indonesian government seems to comply with all of Australia’s requests regarding the transfer of the five drug case convicts.
“The transfer of prisoners involving 5 Australian foreign national inmates seems to be concealed, and the same thing happened with Mary Jane, a Filipino foreign national inmate,” said Andreas Pareira as quoted from a written statement, Thursday (19/12/2024).
Andreas regretted that the transfer of the five Bali Nine drug convicts was only made public after they arrived in Australia. It is recorded that they were dispatched to Australia on Sunday (15/12/2024) morning local time from the airport in Bali.
In the process of transferring the Bali Nine prisoners, the Government stated that the Australian authorities want the negotiations with Indonesia to go smoothly. Meanwhile, at the same time, the Indonesian government is negotiating the arrangement of practical arrangements.
Andreas believes that the Indonesian government seems to lack firmness in the process of transferring the Bali Nine prisoners. This is evident from the practical arrangement, which he described as being dictated by complying with all the requests from the Australian side.
“Whereas Indonesia does not have a legal basis for transferring foreign prisoners to their home countries.” Then, what is this practical arrangement? Where does this practical arrangement fit within our legal system? said the legislator from Nusa Tenggara Timur I electoral district.
“This topic has become a concern not only for us but also for other countries.” Many parties are ultimately questioning the integrity of the legal system in Indonesia,” Andreas Pereira concluded.
Executed to Death in Prison
For your information, the Bali Nine is the nickname for 9 Australian prisoners who were arrested in Bali for being proven to smuggle 8.2 kilograms of heroin.
The nine prisoners are Andrew Chan, Myuran Sukumaran, Si Yi Chen, Michael Czugaj, Renae Lawrence, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, Matthew Norman, Scott Rush, and Martin Stephens.
In 2015, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed, while Renae was sentenced to 20 years in prison and was released in 2018 after receiving several remissions. Meanwhile, Tan Duc died in custody while serving a life sentence in 2018.
So those who were detained and repatriated to Australia are Scott Anthony Rush, Mathew James Norman, Si Yi Chen, Michael William Czugaj, and Martin Eric Stephens.
Leave a Reply