A member of the Bali Nine has been left ‘speechless’ after winning his freedom following almost 20 years in one of the world’s most infamous jails.
Matthew Norman, 38, is one of the remaining ‘Bali Five’ to have touched down on n soil on Sunday from Indonesia, where they spent 19 years behind bars for trying to smuggle heroin out of Denpasar Airport in April 2005.
Norman, the youngest of the Bali Nine members at just 18 years old when they were caught, was keen to get his hands on ‘easy cash, fast cash’ when he was approached and offered $15,000 for a drug trafficking job.
It was a ‘reckless, callous’ decision that would ruin his life and see him face the death penalty.
But having been granted his freedom in recent days, Norman could not find the words to describe his joy.
‘Matthew said [in Indonesian], “I am overwhelmed. It’s happening so fast, I am out of words to say, I am speechless. I am happy I am going home”,’ Putu Murdiana, division head of Bali corrections, told the Sydney Morning Herald.
But it will doubtless be a bittersweet moment for Norman given he has a family in Indonesia he is now separated from.
He married his Indonesian girlfriend of four years Anita in February 2016.
The couple said I do in front of family and friends in the leafy grounds of Kerobokan jail, with Norman becoming stepfather to Aninta’s young daughter Stella, now 15.
The family were able to spend up to three hours a day together and turned the prison into a bizarre home from home.
Loving photos of the family show the smiling husband and wife celebrating special occasions, including Stella’s recent graduation in June and Norman’s birthday in September.
Norman’s devoted father Michael had also moved to Bali to be beside his son after packing up his life in Sydney over concerns for his son’s wellbeing while in jail.
It is unclear when, if ever, the couple can be reunited as Norman is banned from returning to Indonesia.
Their only hope would be for her to be granted an n visa but their unconventional relationship might not pass muster with the country’s strict entry requirements.
‘It is possible for a couple to be in a genuine spousal relationship for the purposes of the Migration Act even if they have never lived together,’ n crimmigration lawyer Perry Q. Wood previously told Daily Mail .
‘The issue would be whether it is possible despite this to demonstrate that the relationship is a genuine spousal relationship.
‘Taking into account evidence including the financial aspects, nature of the household, social aspects and the extent of the couple’s commitment to one another.’
‘This can be difficult if the couple have never lived together, however the assessment would ultimately be up to a delegate of the minister.’
Norman left school aged 16 because he wanted to work and make money rather than finish his HSC.
He later told ABC News that he had been ‘reckless, callous, wanted to cut corners in life’.
Just a naive teenager when he was first locked up in Kerobokan jail, Norman learnt his incarceration had a serious effect on his family back home. One of his sisters became anorexic, another was harassed and his parents received hate mail.
One of just two of the original Bali Nine who remained in Kerobokan until his release, Norman designed T-shirts, bags and posters and kept on applying for a sentence reduction.
But he admitted that every day was ‘just a struggle to keep doing good things’ amid the ‘chaos’ of prison.
Norman was sentenced to life at his February 2006 trial and like his co-accused Si Yi Chen confidently appealed for a reduction, with the shock result that both were handed the death penalty.
Norman was forced into making a full confession as to his role in the Bali Nine drug plot to have his original sentence of life reinstated.
Afterwards, his mother, Robyn Davis thanked the Indonesian Government.
‘Well, it’s better than being shot, I suppose,’ she said.
‘He’s okay. Hopefully they’ll keep on looking after him while I’m not here and when I return and spend a bit more time with my son.’
Norman was just 18 years old and keen to get his hands on ‘easy cash, fast cash’ when he was approached and offered $15,000 for a drug trafficking job.
He had left school aged 16 because he wanted to work and make money rather than finish his HSC.
He later told ABC News that he had been ‘reckless, callous, wanted to cut corners in life’.
He has seen one fellow inmate hang himself, and others go ‘mental … crazy’ and ‘I can’t fall into that’.
‘We are not getting any younger. It would be good to go home soon and start our lives again … start fresh,’ Norman said back in 2015.
Norman, along with the other Bali Nine members Scott Rush, Martin Stephens, Si Yi Chen and Michael Czugaj are currently being held in a Howard Springs facility near Darwin for an undisclosed period of time before they are allowed to rejoin their families.
The group will have to undergo rehabilitation in as part of the conditions for their release from Indonesia.