Senator Claire Moore WEEKLY UPDATE: 23rd November, 2018 Phone: (07) 3252 7101; email:
[email protected]; Web:www.clairemoore.net; Twitter: www.twitter.com/SenClaireMoore; www.facebook.com/SenatorClaireMoore; THIS WEEK: In 2005, nine young Australians were arrested , charged and sentenced for attempting to smuggle 8.3 kg of heroin out of Bali. There was extensive coverage of the arrest, and the seesawing court and appeal processes in Indonesia, with startling vision of the eight men and one woman paraded through re-enactments of the arrests at the airport, incongruously dressed in very distinctive holiday shirts , under which the heroin was concealed. There was no doubt that the group was guilty, and subsequently it was revealed that the arrests were the result of information provided by the Australian Federal Police. The penalty for drug smuggling in Indonesia is death, and over the next few years, through court hearings and appeals, the eight men faced the death sentence, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed in 2015, and the others live with the reality that the system can reverse their current life sentences back to the death penalty at any time. This week, the only woman charged, Renae Lawrence was released and returned to Australia, her twenty year sentence, reduced to thirteen for good behaviour. Again, the media has focussed on the tragic experiences of these Australians, raising the continuing questions about seriousness of the crime, the penalties, the role of the Australian Federal police providing Information from concerned family to the Indonesian government which led to the execution of two young men and what efforts have been made by our Government to raise the return of the remaining prisoners to Australia.