Bali Nine member Renae Lawrence has been recommended to have her jail time cut by six months, which, if approved, would see her walk free by the middle of next year.
According to the head of Bali’s Legal and Human Rights Office, Maryoto Sumadi, the drug smuggler had been recommended for a six-month remission as part of Indonesian Independence Day celebrations on August 17.
“She was proposed to receive a six months remission,” he said on Wednesday, as quoted by AAP.
Lawrence was sentenced to 20 years in jail for her part in the 2004 Bali Nine heroin smuggling plot. The group’s ringleaders, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, were executed by firing squad in April 2015.
She is currently serving out her sentence in Bali’s Bangli prison on the island’s north.
Speaking with The Weekly in 2014, Lawrence detailed the fear, anger and boredom that has followed her time in jail.
“Sometimes you think about what life you did have and how fast it can be taken away from you because of your own stupidity,” she said.
“I think because I have a job in here I don’t have much time to feel sorry for myself. There’s no point feeling sorry for myself. I would only beat the sh*t out myself for being so stupid. I mean, I can understand why some people get depressed.”
“It’s hard to explain, but I have become adapted to jail life,” she said.
“I mean, I’ll probably walk out the door the day they set me free and be hit by a car.”
She added: “Who is going to give Renae Lawrence a job? What am I supposed to do when people recognise me and don’t want anything to do with me?”
Other prisoners recommended for reduced sentences include drug smuggler Edward Norman Myatt, pedophile Robert Ellis and former Perth developer Eric Bevan Gillet, jailed for fraud.
It’s not yet known whether Australian-woman Sara Conner, jail over her role in the death of a local policeman, had been recommended for remission.
