By Jake Evans for the ABC
A collage of pictures from 2006 showing the Australian 'Bali Nine' (from top, L to R): Myuran Sukumaran, Scott Rush, Tach Duc Thanh Nguyen, Renae Lawrence. (Lower row, L to R): Si Yi Chen, Matthew Norman, Michael Czugaj, Martin Stephen and Andrew Chan, on Bali island during their trials. Photo: AFP/ Jewel Samad
The remaining five members of the Bali Nine have returned to Australia after spending two decades in an Indonesian prison for their roles in a botched drug smuggling operation.
Australians Scott Rush, Matthew Norman, Si-Yi Chen, Martin Stephens and Michael Czugaj were serving life sentences in Indonesia for their roles in the 2005 smuggling plot.
The two ringleaders of the plot, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, were executed in 2015; Renae Lawrence's 20-year sentence was commuted in 2018 and Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen died of stomach cancer in that same year.
The men arrived in Australia earlier today and have been provided temporary accommodation while they resettle.
But the ABC has been told the men are effectively free to live unhindered in Australian society.
'Time to come home'
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the men had committed serious offences "but it was time for them to come home".
"I am pleased to confirm that Australian citizens Matthew Norman, Scott Rush, Martin Stephens, Si Yi Chen, and Michael Czugaj have returned to Australia this afternoon," Albanese said in a statement.
"I have conveyed my personal appreciation to President Prabowo [Subianto] for his act of compassion."
An Indonesian policeman stands guard in 2015 next to a detention room where Australians Myuran Sukumaran (L) and Andrew Chan (C), members of the so called Bali Nine gang, wait for their trial. The two were executed after the trial. Photo: AFP
In a joint statement with Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, Albanese also thanked the Indonesian government for its cooperation in facilitating the men's return to Australia "on humanitarian grounds".
"This reflects the strong bilateral relationship and mutual respect between Indonesia and Australia," the ministers said in a statement.
"The men will have the opportunity to continue their personal rehabilitation and reintegration in Australia."
The men are understood to have returned together on a commercial flight, but it is not known whether they have been reunited with their families, or where they are staying.
The men and their families have asked for privacy in a happy but also difficult time.
Albanese met with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto on the sidelines of APEC in Lima, Peru, last month when the pair discussed the return of the remaining Bali Nine members.
But the result is the consequence of years of prolonged advocacy by Australia from the prime minister down.
Subianto is understood to have wanted the men home by Christmas, aware of the lengthy sentences they had already served and their ageing families
The Bali Nine were caught attempting to smuggle heroin out of Bali after a tip-off from Australian Federal Police.
Their high-profile trials were closely followed by the media, and the decision to hand down death sentences for drug trafficking, an Indonesian first, was controversial and shocking.
When Chan and Sukumaran were sentenced to death, then-prime minister John Howard pleaded for other Australians not to take "terrible risks".
Their sentences were consistently opposed by the federal government, repeatedly delayed and put on hold, but the pair were executed by firing squad in 2015.
- ABC