Bali 9 transfer details to be discussed in Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke’s meeting with Indonesian government

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke will discuss the fate of the remaining Bali Nine prisoners in a critical meeting with the Indonesian government set to take place later this week. Mr Burke will travel to Indonesia to discuss the details of a transfer, including the timing of a transfer, and critically, whether they will continue to serve the remainder of their life sentences in Australian prisons. Mr Burke said he would respect the opinions of the Indonesian government where the group were concerned. “The Indonesian Minister has said publicly that he would like to talk to me about those five Australians who are imprisoned there in Indonesia, and I’m very grateful and respectful of Indonesia,” he told Sky on Sunday. “It’s got its own justice system. I’m very respectful and grateful that they, they want to be able to have that conversation, and I’ll be approaching that conversation with a good deal of humility and listening to where the Indonesian government’s up to.” The diplomatic mission to return the remaining five prisoners, Si Yi Chen, Michael Czugaj, Matthew Norman, Scott Rush and Martin Stephens, who were sentenced to life in jail over a drug trafficking plot to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin into Australia in 2005, has been long been advocated by Anthony Albanese. In a positive sign for the deal, Coordinating Minister for Law, Human Rights, Immigration and Corrections Yusril Ihza Mahendra has said his government would “respect” a decision for Australia to grant the prisoners clemency once they return to Australia. “If Australia wants to give remission or pardon, it is entirely up to the Australian government,” he told local media earlier this week. “We will respect it. If transferred and they are in prison then a week later the government release them, we will respect it.” For the deal to proceed, Australia would need to make a formal request to the Indonesian government and pay for the transfer costs, said Mr Mahendra, who said he would like to see the transfer happen this year. Of the original Bali Nine members, the group’s ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed by firing squad in 2015. In 2018, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen died in prison from stomach cancer. Renae Lawrence also had her sentence commuted and was released in November.