Prisoner Exchange Pact a Possibility: Indonesia

It is great news for those Australians languishing in the hot and deplorable conditions of Indonesian jails, that Australia and Indonesia will finally sign an agreement pact on prisoner exchange.

The Herald Sun states that a transfer pact expected to be signed in Australia within months would allow some Australians convicted in Indonesia to serve their time back home. In exchange dozens of fishermen convicted of poaching in Australian waters could be sent back to Indonesia.

The deal is not expected to apply to Australians sentenced to death which would include the two Bali nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran. And it remains unclear if the deal will apply to those handed life sentences which include some of the Bali Nine.

But some of the others involved in the heroin smuggling ring as well as convicted marijuana smuggler Schapelle Corby, who were handed 20-year jail terms, could be eligible for transfer under the deal.

Kay Danes, an advocate for the Foreign Prisoners Support Services said she spoke to some of the mums of the Bali nine this morning and they were just over the moon. Ms Danes and her husband Kerry spent 10 months in a jail in Laos after being accused of embezzling sapphires from the mine where Mr Danes worked.

Ms Danes said the agreement should be retrospective, taking in people such people Corby and seven of the Bali Nine. She said the agreement would dramatically lessen the financial burden of the families who have to support their loved ones in jail in Bali and find money for airfares if they wanted to visit them.