Bali Nine member Scott Rush’s father appeared in high spirits as he left a touching sign outside his home after his son was transferred to Australia.
Lee Rush gave a thumbs up as he spoke to a woman outside her Brisbane home on Monday, who had yellow ribbon tied around her letterbox.
Yellow ribbons are used as a welcome sign for returning soldiers and freed prisoners, as remembered in the 1973 hit pop song Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree.
Scott, along with Matthew Norman, Martin Stephens, Si Yi Chen and Michael Czugaj returned to Australia on Sunday from Indonesia, where they spent 19 years behind bars for attempting to smuggle heroin out of Denpasar airport in April 2005.
Following the arrest of the nine Australians, it was revealed that Rush had notified the Australian Federal Police and asked them to prevent his son from leaving Australia, desperate to prevent him from becoming involved in drug activity.
Scott’s lawyer claimed the AFP had reneged on promises to stop the group from leaving Australia and instead allowed them to fly to a country they knew could execute drug traffickers.
Townsville Bishop Timothy Harris, who has been supporting the Rush family through the ordeal of the past 19 years, told the courier mail that Scott’s parents were “elated that their son was back.”
“What they are concerned about is how we are going to welcome Scott back,” Bishop Harris said.
Lee Rush, the father of released Bali Nine member Scott Rush, was giving a thumbs up as he spoke to a woman outside his Brisbane home on Monday.
Scott Rush (pictured left) with his father Lee Rush, who tipped off the Australian Federal Police about his son’s drug trafficking plot.
‘They will have to adapt too. How can you bring your son or daughter back to your family when all that has happened? The journey has just begun.’
Bishop Harris first became involved in the case when he was a parish priest in Brisbane and called for compassion to be shown to the men, despite “no one condoning what they did”.
‘They have learned a very hard lesson. “It is now up to the Australian community to embrace them and help them recover,” he said.
‘Young people don’t have their lives in order, not even adults. “This is a journey of a lifetime for all of us.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese requested the transfer of the imprisoned Bali Nine members in a recent meeting with Indonesia’s new President Prabowo Subianto at the APEC Summit last month.
The Indonesian leader agreed to allow the prisoners to return to their homes on humanitarian grounds.
It is believed that there was no prisoner exchange or ‘quid pro quo’ with Indonesia as part of the men’s release.
Landing in Darwin on Sunday afternoon, we transported the men to a short-term accommodation center in Howard Springs, which was previously a quarantine camp.
A yellow ribbon, used as a welcome sign for returning soldiers and released prisoners, was tied to Lee Rush’s mailbox on Monday.
A Catholic bishop long involved with the Rush family said they were “elated” by Scott’s release. Scott’s father, Lee, is pictured on Monday.
Their loved ones were aware of their imminent return, but authorities told them they could not be there to greet them, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
The lack of fanfare was understood to be a sign of respect to President Subianto, who made the final decision for the men to be released.
Released inmates will spend a short period of time here to continue their rehabilitation before reuniting with their families.
The men are not allowed 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 Sunday night.
‘In both Australia and Indonesia, both at senior level and in prison visits and personal assistance, for many years DFAT has offered professional and long-term support. The men and their families will always be grateful,” the statement reads.
‘They hope, in time, to reintegrate into society and contribute to it.
“The well-being of men is a priority, they will need time and support, and we hope and trust that our media and our community will take this into account.”
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 simply a tip from the concerned father.
“I want to take pressure off Scott Rush’s father,” AFP commissioner Andrew Colvin said at a press conference.
“It has been reported many times that his warning led to this. It wasn’t like that. I feel for Mr. Rush that he was portrayed that way.
“The AFP was already aware of and had begun investigating what we believed to be a syndicate that was actively recruiting couriers to import narcotics into Australia at the time of Mr Rush’s contact with the AFP.”
Bali Nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran They were executed by firing squad in April 2015.
Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, who shared a cell with Stephen Rush and died of cancer in 2018, was also arrested.
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.