‘Time for compassion to prevail’: could the remaining Bali Nine members finally be coming home?

Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran refused blindfolds, and sang as they stood before a firing squad of 12 .

Mary Jane Veloso was granted a further amnesty: she will be repatriated to her native Philippines .

Last week it emerged the Australian prime minister and the new Indonesian president had reached an in-principle agreement to repatriate the five remaining Australian prisoners.

The Bali Nine were nine young Australians arrested on the island in 2005 , caught in a crude attempt to smuggle 8kg of heroin to Australia .

Prabowo is no human rights crusader and appears an unlikely candidate as emancipator of the convicted.

The issue of Indonesian citizens facing punishment, in particular execution, remains close to his heart, for reasons as much personal as political.

He visited Soik in prison, publicly championed her case, and privately agitated for her release.

In 2015 , the Indonesian government won the freedom of an Indonesian domestic worker, Wilfrida Soik , sentenced to death for murder in Malaysia .

Indonesia has not carried out an execution since 2016 .

An overhaul of the country’s criminal code, in effect from January 2026 , allows for death sentences to be conditionally commuted.