Drug prisoner's bid to save Bali nine member

IT has been revealed that drug prisoner Renae Lawrence has made a fresh confession about her role in heroin smuggling in an effort to prevent the execution of Scott Rush, the youngest of the nine Australians arrested in Bali in 2005.

Lawrence's testimony at Rush's final appeal that she made multiple courier runs to Bali will help lawyers argue that his death sentence is unjust under Indonesian law, because lighter sentences were given to other members of the group, Fairfax newspapers say.

Although Lawrence had made two drug runs to Bali before her arrest in 2005, she received a 20-year sentence, the least severe punishment imposed on any of the nine Australians.

Rush was making his first overseas trip when 3.4 kilograms of heroin was found strapped to his body at Denpasar airport in April 2005.

He had no knowledge of the extent of the drug syndicate that recruited him and, after initial denials, confessed his guilt and pleaded for mercy.

His death sentence has attracted controversy because Australian Federal Police reneged on a promise to his father, Lee Rush, to stop the then teenager travelling to Bali.

Instead, the police steered him into a trap knowing he could face execution under Indonesia's drug laws.

Rush and the group's convicted ringleaders, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, are the only members of the group who have been sentenced to death and are awaiting final appeals while on death row in Bali's Kerobokan jail.

The other six, including Lawrence, are serving jail terms.

Lawrence told Indonesian police after her arrest in 2005 that she travelled to Bali in October the previous year with Chan and that Sukumaran had strapped the pair with heroin, which they took back to Australia.

She also told police of a trip to Bali in December 2004 that was aborted because of difficulty obtaining money to buy the drugs.

But during her trial, Lawrence withdrew her police statements and was not questioned at length about them.

Fairfax says Lawrence has given a new statement to Rush's lawyers and is prepared to testify if asked to do so by a panel of Supreme Court judges set to consider Rush's appeal, which could begin in early April.

Source: AAP, January 11, 2010

Christmas celebration comes late for the Bali Nine

SEVERAL of the Bali Nine Australian drug traffickers were among about 150 Christian inmates who belatedly celebrated Christmas yesterday at Kerobokan jail with carol singing and prayers, mingled with symbols of Hinduism and Balinese dance.

The 10 churches involved in the service had been too busy at Christmas to give their time to Kerobokan.

Family and friends of the convicted Australian drug traffickers joined the three-hour Christian service, attended by Kerobokan prison chief, Suswanto, and culminating in a traditional Indonesian lunch of nasi campur (rice, meat and vegetables).

Scott Rush, on death row for his part in attempting to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin from Indonesia to Australia, appeared briefly, joining parents Lee and Christine Rush, while convicted drug trafficker Schapelle Corby did not appear.

Rush is yet to launch his final appeal, along with the two other Australian Bali Nine drug couriers facing death, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran -- both of whom attended the service yesterday. The cases are likely to be heard this year.

Ministering to most of the Bali Nine each Wednesday, the pastor of the United Pentecostal Church in Kuta, Thompson Manafe, said yesterday that Rush was extremely lonely.

"He feels empty -- that there is no hope. He says he's very scared and thinks about his death sentence but he does not believe he will be executed.

"When he says he's scared of dying I say your body is not eternal but your soul is."

Chan, sporting black cap, freshly laundered shirt and shorts, appeared in good spirits as he and his Indonesian girlfriend, Farah, clapped, sang and swayed to religious songs.

"I have been seeing her for a long time," he said, shyly. What did he get from his faith? "It's cathartic and helpful," he admitted, adding: "I was not a Christian before" his incarceration.

The Bali Nine have found great comfort in religion. Baptised in November, Martin Stephens, sentenced to life, got into spirit of the service with Indonesian girlfriend Christine Puspayanti and her daughter Laura, 11, who Stephens treats as his own.

Matthew Norman, also sentenced to life, and Renae Lawrence, serving 20 years, were more subdued.

Source: The Australian, January 5, 2010