A member of the Bali Nine is facing fresh criminal charges after spending Christmas with his family for the first time since being released from Indonesian prison.
Matthew Norman, 38, was arrested at Waverley police station on Monday and charged with being a passenger in a stolen car on March 16, 2005.
Police allege Norman knew the white Ford had been stolen when he was in it, just one month before he was arrested in Bali.
Norman spent almost 20 years locked in Bali’s Kerobokan Prison after being found guilty of attempting to traffic heroin, alongside Scott Rush, Martin Stephens, Si Yi Chen and Michael Czugaj, all now aged in their late 30s or 40s.
The men were released in December, closing a saga that up-ended their lives and tested Australia’s diplomatic relations with its northern neighbour.
Less than a month after landing back home, Norman faced court with fresh charges over the historical car theft.
He was granted bail and is set to reappear at Waverley Local Court on February 25.
Indonesia has some of the world’s strictest drug laws and sparked a diplomatic incident when Bali Nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed by firing squad in 2015.
Renae Lawrence was released in 2018, the same year Tan Duc Than Nguyen died of cancer.
Previous attempts to free the remaining Bali Nine members failed to gain traction, but the accession to power of President Prabowo Subianto in October renewed hope for their release.
The two governments finally struck a deal in December, which Indonesian senior minister for legal affairs Yusril Ihza Mahendra said was “reciprocal in nature”.
Australian ministers have denied a quid pro quo agreement that would force the federal government to consider freeing Indonesian prisoners in the future.
The five men, who have not been pardoned, are banned from entering Indonesia for life.
