Bali Nine member returns to court

A member of the Bali Nine who spent almost two decades behind bars has avoided punishment over a historic charge of joyriding in a stolen vehicle.

Matthew Norman was convicted of attempted heroin trafficking and locked up in Bali’s Kerobokan Prison alongside eight others, two of whom were ultimately executed.

Following his release and return to Australia in December last year, the now 38-year-old was charged with riding in a stolen car, in March 2005, when he was 18.

On Tuesday, Norman pleaded guilty at Waverley Local Court in Sydney and the charge was dismissed with no conviction recorded.

Magistrate Michael Barko said he saw no utility in punishing Norman and noted it was unusual for an arrest warrant to stay active for so long.

He said police would often have applied to the court to revoke the warrant, given the passage of time and the circumstances.

“It’s now been 20 years since the offence was committed,” he said.

However, Barko said he did not take into account the time Norman had spent in jail in Indonesia in dealing with the existing charge.

“You do the crime, you do the time,” he said.

“Different jurisdictions have different policies and philosophies about how much time you should do.”

Another member of the Bali Nine, Renae Lawrence – who was the driver of the vehicle – was fined following her own release from Indonesian jail in 2018.

The pair were picked up by police while in the car about 4am, the court was told. Lawrence failed to pull over and police tried to stop the vehicle with tyre spikes.

That was  successful at its third attempt – after which Norman and Lawrence ran away. They were tracked down in scrub shortly after.

Following their arrests, the pair made full admissions with Lawrence saying she was the one who had stolen the vehicle.

Norman was charged at the time. He failed to appear for his court date because he had already been detained in Indonesia.

“The Australian public know why he failed to appear,” Barko said.

Norman was released from jail in Indonesia in December alongside Scott Rush, Martin Stephens, Si Yi Chen and Michael Czugaj, all now aged in their late 30s or 40s.

Less than a month after landing back home, he was arrested and charged with being a passenger in a stolen car

The court was told Norman had no previous criminal record, “in this country”.

While behind bars, Norman watched as two of the group’s alleged ringleaders, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, were executed by firing squad in 2015.

Lawrence was released in 2018, the same year Tan Duc Than Nguyen died of cancer.

The Australian and Indonesian governments finally struck a deal for the remaining prisoners’ release in December.

Indonesian senior minister for legal affairs Yusril Ihza Mahendra said was “reciprocal in nature”. Australian ministers have denied a quid pro quo agreement that would force the federal government to consider freeing Indonesian prisoners in the future.

The five men, who have not been pardoned, are banned from entering Indonesia for life.

-AAP