Bali Nine Member Martin Stephens: ‘It’s More Humane To Just Kill Me Like Chan And Sukumaran’
Bali Nine member Martin Stephens said Indonesian President Joko Widodo has killed hope for rehabilitating drug offenders. The 39-year-old Australian reckoned he will die in prison, saying it will just be more humane to kill him “like Andrew [Chan] and Myuran [Sukumaran].”
In a letter to The Australian publication, Stephens lamented on his bleak future under Mr Widodo’s regime. He referred to the president’s refusal to grant clemency to Chan and Sukumaran, the ringleaders of the media-dubbed Bali Nine gang.
Although he has made a new life inside the prison cells after marrying an Indonesian woman Christine Puspayanti in 2011, Stephens has lost hope that he would even make it out of prison alive.
“It is more humane to just take me out the back and shoot me like Andrew and Myuran,” he wrote, adding that the president’s new policy has “destroyed hope” for drug offenders like him. “Isn’t 20 years a bad enough penalty? But life means no hope. It means I will die in prison. Can you imagine having to live like that?”
Stephens is one of the nine Australians who attempted to smuggle drugs from Indonesia to Australia. He was arrested at the Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar in 2005 with a 3.3 kg of heroin taped to his chest. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2006. The sentence was upheld twice during appeals in 2006 and 2011. He initially served time in Kerobokan Prison but was transferred to Malang, East Java in 2014.
As the ringleaders of the group, Chan and Sukumaran were given death penalty. They are set to be transferred from Kerobokan prison to Nusakambangan Island, where they will be executed by firing squad. There has no date set yet for the transfer after the move was postponed in February, although it is expected to happen within days.
The five other members of the Bali Nine – Scott Rush, Matthew Norman, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, Michael Czugaj and Si Yi Chen – are all serving life sentences. The lone female member, Ranae Lawrence, has successfully had her life imprisonment sentence reduced to 20 years in 2006.
Jakarta Governor’s Stance
Meanwhile, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, the governor of Jakarta who had been Mr Widodo’s deputy for two years at city hall, has made his position about death penalty known to the president. He told Mr Widodo that death penalty should be removed and replaced with life in jail without remission.
“If from inside [jail] they’re still controlling drugs, then execute them immediately that day,” Purnama was quoted as saying. “But if people want to change, give them a chance to live. Maybe he can make other people more aware instead of punishing him with death … I don’t agree with the death penalty.”
