The remaining members of the Bali Nine are returning to their home states for the first time following their transfer from an Indonesian prison.
After landing in Darwin on Sunday – touching down on Australian soil for the first time in 20 years – all five remaining members then flew to their home states of Queensland, NSW, and Victoria on Friday morning.
Bali Nine member Michael Czugaj arrives in Brisbane on Friday morning. Picture: Liam Mendes / The Australian
Mr Czugaj was wearing a cap and face mask on the flight home. Picture: Liam Mendes / The Australian
The eight men and one woman were arrested in 2005 for attempting to smuggle 8.7kg heroin into Australia.
The ringleaders of the drug smuggling plot were Andrew Chan, then 21, and Myruan Sukumara, aged 23 at the time of the arrest.
Accomplices included Matthew Norman, 18, Scott Rush, 18, Michael Czugaj, 19, Si Yi Chen, 20, Tan Duc Than Nguyen, 22, Renae Lawrence, 27, and Martin Stevens, 28.
After spending nearly 20 years behind bars in an Indonesian prison, the remaining five members returned to Australia on Sunday, following a top-secret deal between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto.
The men landed in Darwin on Sunday and spent several days in the Howard Springs quarantine facility, where they stayed until Thursday, ready for their flights back home.
Mr Czugaj was driven out of the airport. Picture: Liam Mendes / The Australian
Two of the five members landed in Brisbane in the early hours of Friday morning, another two touched down in Melbourne and the final member landed in Sydney.
Two other remaining members, Mr Chen and Mr Norman boarded a flight from Darwin to Melbourne at midnight, arriving shortly after 6.30am Friday.
Mr Czugaj was spotted boarding a flight from Darwin to Brisbane on Friday morning.
Wearing a mask, blue shirt and khaki trousers, flanked by AFP officers and refusing to speak to media, Mr Czugaj stood at the back of the plane, quietly sipping a beer
Mr Rush was also on the flight home to Brisbane. When he was arrested in 2005, Queensland Police issued a warrant for his arrest for allegedly stealing money from Commonwealth Bank.
It is not known whether he will be taken into custody when he arrives on Queensland soil.
The final member, Mr Stephens, is on the flight back home to Sydney, arriving this morning at Kingsford Smith Airport and surrounded by AFP officers as he walked off the tarmac and to his car.
Bali Nine members Scott Rush, Matthew Norman, Si-Yi Chen, Martin Stephens, and Michael Czugaj. Picture: Supplied
The remaining members of the Bali Nine came home on Sunday. Photo by Indonesia’s Coordinating Ministry for Law, Human Rights, Immigration and Corrections / AFP
The Bali Nine
In 2005, eight men and one woman were arrested for attempting to smuggle 8.7kg heroin into Australia, after the Australian Federal Police (AFP) tipped off the Indonesian police.
Those arrested included ringleaders Andrew Chan, then 21, and Myruan Sukumara, 23, and accomplices Matthew Norman, 18, Scott Rush, 18, Michael Czugaj, 19, Si Yi Chen, 20, Tan Duc Than Nguyen, 22, Renae Lawrence, 27, and Martin Stevens, 28.
The two ringleaders of the smuggling scheme, Mr Sukumara and Mr Chan, were given the death penalty and executed by firing squad in 2015.
The remaining members were given life sentences. Ms Lawrence, the only female member of the Bali Nine, had her life sentence commuted to 20 years’ jail, and was released in 2018. She was immediately deported back to Australia following her release.
Mr Nguyen died of stomach cancer at the age of 34 in a Jakarta prison hospital in May 2018.
The transfer of the remaining members was part of a top-secret deal between Mr Albanese and Mr Subianto. The Prime Minister confirmed there was no “payback arrangement” with the Indonesian government.