The married inmate has penned a letter to The Australian and says Indonesian president Joko Widodo has given drug offenders like himself no hope of living a normal life. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Matthew Norman, the youngest member of the Bali Nine, met his future drug gang peers at the catering company Eurest, where Martin Stephens, Renae Lawrence and Andrew Chan also worked. I want to live and I want to get home ... for them and for myself.". Martin Stephens was one of the couriers caught in the 2005 heroin smuggling plot that has Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran now days away from execution. PM quizzed over covid support, Breathtaking moment daring diver jumps off 35-metre-high cliff, China's Loch Ness Monster? In a 2006 interview with ABC's Australian Story, Lee and Chris Rush said: "I feel very let down by our Australian Federal Police - we tried to lawfully stop our son leaving the country, it wasn't done.". In a letter to The Australian newspaper, Stephens says President Joko Widodo’s decision to refuse the pair clemency, despite their great strides in rehabilitation, makes him wonder what hope there is for freedom or redemption for other drug offenders, like himself. Nationwide News Pty Limited Copyright © 2020. Martin Stephens was arrested at Bali Denpasar airport where police found 3.3kg of heroin strapped to his body - and for that, he was sentenced to life in prison. Stephens said during his trial that he was threatened by ringleader Andrew Chan, his supervisor at the catering company where he worked, into going through with the smuggling plan. Find out more about our policy and your choices, including how to opt-out. But this wasn't enough to convince judges or Indonesian President Joko Widodo to spare their lives. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. Rush was sentenced to life imprisonment in February 2006, but an appeal in September that year saw his sentence surprisingly upgraded to the death penalty. His parents said they were assured that the AFP would tell their 19-year-old son he was under surveillance to discourage him from leaving. As the executions of Bali Nine masterminds Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukuraman loom, fellow convicted drug smuggler Martin Stephens loses hope for a second chance at life. But in 2008, Indonesian judges decided to downgrade the then-death penalties of Norman, Si Yi Chen, and Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen back to life sentences. The special mobile brigade (Brimob) police on Friday rehearsed the transport of the men under heavy security to Bali’s airport, where the military could then fly them to Nusakambangan, an island off central Java. 'It is more human to just take me out the back and shoot me like Andrew and Myuran,' Stephens said. In 2011, Stephens (pictured in 2006) married Javanese woman Christine Puspayanti who has a daughter from a previous marriage. The ache of playing a mum on TV when I cannot have children of my own: POOKY QUESNEL opens up about BBC... We all ought to be more Queen! A NOTE ABOUT RELEVANT ADVERTISING: We collect information about the content (including ads) you use across this site and use it to make both advertising and content more relevant to you on our network and other sites. In April 2005, nine Australians were caught attempting to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin out of Indonesia and into Australia. | The Australian, 'Give them a chance to live': Jakarta governor calls on Indonesian president Joko Widodo to spare Bali Nine pair - 9news.com.au. GRUESOME EXECUTION: The six minute countdown to death, FORMER INMATE: ‘Bali Nine smuggler saved my life’, Terrified ... Bill Stephens reading bible to his son Martin Stephens in a cell at the police station in Denpasar in 2005. "So when I got my sentenced reduced back to life sentence I said OK, look at it as God gave us a second chance to live.". But the newspaper reports he regrets not being able to properly support his wife Christine Puspayanti, whom he married while in prison, and is also sad about the executions of Sukumaran, 33, and Chan, 31. Fellow smugglers Matthew Norman, Michael Czugaj, Scott Rush, Martin Stephens and Si Yi Chen are staring down life sentences and are “losing hope”, Lawrence said. He is serving a life sentence. 'My daughter and I would at least like to know when Martin might come home,' she told News Corp. Schapelle Corby returned home in March last year: Si Yi Chen also experienced two years of thinking he was going to face a firing squad before learning he would spend the rest of his life in an Indonesian prison. And so became the Bali Nine – an infamous example of what can go wrong when messing with illegal drugs overseas. Pic: AFP PHOTO/Jewel SAMADSource:Supplied. Stephens has a good reason to want his life sentence reduced like Renae Lawrence, who is eligible for parole next year. Lost hope ... Martin Stephens (centre), at police headquarters in Denpasar after being arrested in Bali attempting to smuggle quantity of heroin to Australia.Source:News Corp Australia. news; Bali Nine member Martin Stephens gets married behind bars. … Bali police chief Albertus Julius Benny Mokalu says he’s still coordinating with the prosecutor, government agencies and the military regarding the transfer of Chan and Sukumaran to Nusakambangan — the execution site. EXCLUSIVE: 'She doesn't want to talk about John Leslie. 'It's a hit job!' As the oldest Bali Nine member Martin Stephens wrote just before Chan and Sukumaran's executions by firing squad three years ago, the Bali drug mules needed hope. For five years he sat, fearing the worst, until another appeal in 2011 saw his sentence reduced back to life. ', Stephens says the impending executions of Chan and Sukuraman makes him lose hope that he will never leave prison, The married inmate fears he will die in prison and never know what it would be like to live with his wife. 'If from inside [jail] they're still controlling drugs, then execute them immediately that day,' 9News reported Mr Tjahaja Purnama as saying. Cookies must be enabled. This week, however, Lawrence walked free after serving almost 13 years in Bali’s Kerobokan and Bangli prisons. "I miss them. She was visiting with a church group while Stephens was serving out his sentence in the Bali jail. It would be good to go home and start fresh.". Martin Stephens, 39 THEN: From Wollongong, former barman Stephens worked at Eurest and took part in the Bali Nine operation as a mule with Lawrence. In February 2006 he was sentenced to death by a firing squad. In 2017 he told ABC's Foreign Correspondent he had "complicated feeling" when his life sentence was first upgraded to death. And so became the Bali Nine – an infamous example of what can go wrong when messing with illegal drugs overseas.. "They threatened me. Pic: Gary RampageSource:News Limited, “What frightens me now is that the new policy of Jokowi has destroyed hope.”. Ms Puspayanti - who has a daughter from a previous relationship - said she was lonely without her husband at home with her. A high profile religious minister is calling for the Bali Nine to be brought home ... Martin Stephens and Si Yi Chen has inhumanely rough conditions. The following year ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were sentenced to death, Matthew Norman, Scott Rush, Si Yi Chen, Michael Czugaj, Martin Stephens and Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen were sentenced to life in prison, while Renae Lawrence received a 20-year sentence after a successful appeal. Mr Widodo's close ally, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, said he believed drug smugglers who have reformed themselves in prison, like Chan and Sukuraman, should be handed a life sentence instead of death. He experienced another blow when he was moved from Kerobokan prison to a prison in Java that he said is a far tougher place to live. Myuran Sukumaran was sentenced to death on the same day as his co-ringleader Andrew Chan. However, Nguyen did die while serving time. Norman, Lawrence, Martin, Stephens and Chan, a supervisor with the company, all worked for Eurest, which provided hospitality services to the Sydney Cricket Ground, where the group was employed… Stephens was one of the nine Australians who were imprisoned in Indonesia after trying to smuggle 8.3 kilograms of heroin from Bali to Australia. The 39-year-old has been sentenced to life and was moved from Kerobokan prison to Malang in East Java. After appealing to the Indonesia Supreme Court for his sentence to be downgraded, and a last-ditch appeal to the Indonesian president for clemency, failed, Chan and Sukumaran’s execution were carried out on 29 April 2015. "I don’t believe I would die in this place. It’s a terrifying thought,” he wrote. BALI Nine drug mule Martin Stephens says it would be more humane to be executed with Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, rather than die in jail. He is currently carrying out his sentence in a prison in east Bali after being transferred out of Kerobokan prison. Several of the Bali Nine were employed by Eurest Australia, a multinational catering company with more than 9,000 employees. Find out more about our policy and your choices, including how to opt-out. In a 2017 interview, he said he still misses Chan and Sukumaran. As Finnish PM Sanna Marin poses in a blazer with nothing... Lewis Hamilton's 'dangerous' vegan pet diet is criticised by experts after he claimed it helped cure his... 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