Father of Bali Nine member Scott Rush leaves poignant image exterior his dwelling after his son and 4 drug mule mates returned to Australia
The father of Bali Nine member Scott Rush appeared in high spirits as he left a poignant sign outside his house after his son was transferred to Australia.
Lee Rush gave a thumbs-up while talking with a woman outside his Brisbane home on Monday, which had a yellow ribbon tied around the letterbox.
Yellow ribbons are used as a welcome sign to returning soldiers and freed prisoners, as memorialised in the hit 1973 pop song Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree.
Scott, along with Matthew Norman, Martin Stephens, Si Yi Chen and Michael Czugaj were flown back to Australia on Sunday from Indonesia, where they spent 19 years behind bars for trying to smuggle heroin out of Denpasar Airport in April 2005.
Following the arrest of the nine Australians, it was revealed Mr Rush had tipped off the Australian Federal Police and requested they stop his son from leaving Australia, desperate to prevent him from getting involved in drug activity.
Scott’s lawyer claimed the AFP had reneged on promises to stop the group from leaving Australia, instead letting them fly to a country they knew could execute the drug smugglers.
Townsville Bishop Timothy Harris, who has been supporting the Rush family throughout the ordeal over the last 19 years, told the Courier Mail that Scott’s parents were ‘elated that their son is back’.
‘The thing that worries them is how are we going to receive Scott again,’ Bishop Harris said.
Lee Rush, the father of freed Bali Nine member Scott Rush was giving a thumbs-up while speaking to a woman outside his Brisbane home on Monday
Scott Rush (pictured left) with his dad Lee Rush, who tipped off the Australian Federal Police about his son’s drug smuggling plan
‘They are going to have to adapt too. How do you bring your son or daughter back into your family when all that stuff has gone on? The journey has just begun.’
Bishop Harris first got involved with the case when he was a parish priest in Brisbane and made a plea for compassion to be shown to the men, even though ‘no-one is condoning what they did’.
‘They have learnt a very hard lesson. It’s up to the Australian community now to embrace them and help them get back on their feet,’ he said.
‘Young people haven’t got their lives together, even adults haven’t. This is a journey of life for all of us.’
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese requested the transfer of the jailed Bali Nine members at a recent meeting with new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto at the APEC Summit last month.
The Indonesian leader agreed to let the prisoners return home on humanitarian grounds.
It’s believed there was no prisoner swap or any ‘quid pro quo’ with Indonesia as part of the men’s release.
Upon landing in Darwin on Sunday afternoon, the men we transported to a short-term accommodation facility at Howard Springs, which was previously a quarantine camp.
A yellow ribbon, which is used as a welcome sign to returned soldiers and released prisoners, was tied to Lee Rush’s letterbox on Monday
A Catholic bishop long been involved with the Rush family said they were ‘elated’ by Scott’s release. Pictured is Scott’s father Lee on Monday
Their loved ones were aware of their imminent return but were told by authorities that they couldn’t be there to greet them, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
It was understood that the lack of fanfare to be a sign of respect to President Subianto, who made the final decision for the men to be freed.
The released inmates will spend a short period of time here to continue their rehabilitation before reuniting with their families.
The men are not permitted to return to Indonesia in the future.
The men thanked those who had worked to secure their release in a joint statement released by their lawyers on Sunday night.
‘In both Australia and Indonesia, at both a senior level and in prison visits and personal assistance, over many years, DFAT have offered professional and enduring support. The men and their families will always be grateful,’ the statement read.
‘They look forward, in time, to reintegrating back into and contributing to society.
‘The welfare of the men is a priority, they will need time and support, and we hope and trust our media and community will make allowance for this.’
In 2015, the AFP denied that Lee Rush’s tip had caused the Bali Nine arrests saying Indonesian authorities were acting on more information about the group than just a tip-off from the worried dad.
‘I want to take the pressure off Scott Rush’s father,’ then AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin said at a press conference at the time.
‘A lot of the way it’s been reported is that his tip-off led to this. It didn’t. I feel for Mr Rush that it’s been portrayed that way.
‘The AFP was already aware of, and had commenced investigating, what we believed was a syndicate that was actively recruiting couriers to import narcotics to Australia at the time of Mr Rush’s contact with the AFP.’
Bali Nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed by firing squad in April 2015.
Also arrested was Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, who shared a cell a with Stephen Rush and died from cancer in 2018.
The Bali Nine’s only female member Renae Lawrence was released that same year after her life sentence was reduced to 20 years on appeal.
