Townsville Bishop Timothy Harris DD has led a call for compassion for Michael Czugaj, and Scott Rush, two of the five remaining members of the Bali Nine who were released from prison and returned to Australia on 15 December.
Czugaj and Rush and their families lived in the bishop’s Townsville parish. They were arrested along with four others in 2005 for trying to smuggle more than eight kilograms of heroin out of Indonesia. They were only 19 years old at the time, and have spent the intervening years locked up the infamous Kerobokan Prison.
Ringleaders, Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan were executed by firing squad in 2015, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen died from cancer in 2018, and Renae Lawrence was released in 2018.
Now safely back home, the men will serve no further gaol time, and have been provided with short-term accommodation to assist with their reintegration into Australian society.
“I visited Kerobokan prison shortly after the boys were arrested,” the bishop told Channel Nine news. “I did that because Scott and Michael were parishioners of mine and had been at our Catholic schools.
“So, I was being the pastor. I simply reached out to the families and shortly afterwards I went to visit these two very young men.
“I’ve been to that prison and I’m glad they’ve left that prison. And my hope is that they can make some progress.”
The bishop said the whole ordeal had been “extraordinarily traumatic”, particularly for the families of the boys. He believes justice has well and truly been served.
“My view of it all is that there’s only so many times you can use a sledgehammer to crack a nut,” he said.
“They’ve learned their lesson, they committed a terrible crime all those years ago, and now we hope that they will be able to get back on track. But that will not be easy.
“What are they going to do? Is anyone going to employ them? Are they always going to carry the stigma for the rest of their lives? All that is ahead of them.”
The bishop hopes that Australians can show compassion towards the two men, who are now in their late 30s.
“They’ve paid for their crimes, and I hope that our system and our people and our attitude of compassion can surround these people now and say, look, you’ve come this far, however far that is, we want you to come further. And we will do what we need to do to help you in that journey. A journey that in some ways, has just begun.”
