Bali Nine member Renae Lawrence has been released on bail after handing herself in to a NSW police station over outstanding 2006 arrest warrants.
The convicted drug smuggler, 41, landed back in Australia on Thursday for the first time after being released from Bali prison after 13 years behind bars.
Now, according to ABC News, Lawrence has fronted the Waratah police station near Newcastle where she was served with outstanding warrants and granted conditional bail.
It’s claimed it relates to outstanding charges she faces over an alleged car theft in 2005, and an alleged high-speed police chase.
“A 41-year-old woman reported to Waratah Police Station this afternoon in relation to outstanding warrants from 2005,” a NSW Police spokesperson told 9 News.
“The warrants have been processed. The 41-year-old was granted conditional bail and will face Newcastle Local Court on December 6, 2018.”
It comes after she was swarmed by reporters as she made her way through the gates at Brisbane Airport around 5am local time on Thursday with her mother Beverley Waterman and step-brother Allan Waterman, after being released from Bangli Prison in Bali after 13 years.
Lawrence refused to speak to reporters in Brisbane despite a steady stream of questions and one woman even pleading with her to give one statement so they could “leave her alone”. However, one photo captured a gold ring on her wedding finger as she walked past cameras, sparking rumours she may be either engaged or married – although she’s never confirmed so.
The Today show’s reporter described her appearance as “overwhelmed” as her family members tried to protect her, before they boarded a bus to the domestic terminal where she queued like everyone else to board an ongoing plane to Newcastle.
Lawrence was arrested in 2005 along with eight other Australians after the group attempted to smuggle more than 8 kilograms of heroin out of Indonesia.
She was one of four caught at the Denpasar airport carrying 2.6kg of the drug strapped to her body. Three other members of the group were arrested at a nearby hotel in possession of about 300 grams of heroin, while another two were arrested at the airport in relation to the trafficking.
Almost a year later, Lawrence was handed a life sentence in prison, despite claiming she had been forced to carry the heroin following threats her family would be killed.
Throughout her time in prison, Lawrence’s sentence was reduced and she was transferred from the notorious Kerobokan prison, to Negara prison, and finally to Bangli prison. However, her fellow members didn’t receive the same benefits with the operation’s ring leaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran executed in April of 2015.
Meanwhile fellow Bali Nine members Su Yi Chen, Michael Czugaj, Matthew Norman, Scott Rush and Martin Stephens remain in prison serving life sentences. The final member of the group, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, died of cancer in June this year.
Source: startsat60.com, Staff, November 24, 2018
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