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The Bali Nine |
Four of the Bali nine drug smugglers have been devastated by the news that their applications for a reduction in sentence from life imprisonment to 20 years may have been rejected.
Martin Stephens and Matthew Norman both told Fairfax Media inside Kerobokan prison on Saturday that they had been told their application had been either rejected or delayed for months.
Bali nine prisoner Renae Lawrence has been recommended for a six-month reduction for good behaviour and a further two months for being a prison leader, but is subject to the same delay as Corby in having it confirmed.
But Bali nine members Stephens, Norman, Si Yi Chen and Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen face spending the rest of their lives in the jail if they cannot have their sentences reduced.
The Australian consulate in Bali has informed them that their applications have not been approved. It's unclear if they are the victim of the same backlog of cases in Jakarta, or if it's an outright rejection.
Norman said he had retained lawyers to try to find out. Stephens expressed his extreme frustration - the application has been rejected twice already.
"We've been here nine years already," he said. "Renae [Lawrence] gets her remission, Corby gets her remission, and just none of us on life and death gets remission or reduction.
Source: The Age, August 17, 2013