How two decades of prison hell has taken its toll on the Bali Nine - with one unrecognisable from the fresh-faced youth locked up 19 years ago
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They have come home aged beyond their years after almost two decades incarcerated in squalid Indonesian jails, some with the threat of death hanging over them. The five freed Bali Nine traffickers look more like their fathers, with one of them, Scott Rush, unrecognisable from the handsome, fresh-faced youth locked up in 2005.
![[Scott Rush, 19, was expelled in Year 10 for a drug incident from a private Catholic boys school and was convicted in Brisbane of drug possession months before his arrest in Bali with 1.3kg of heroin strapped to his body]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/16/23/93178277-14195849-Scott_Rush_19_was_expelled_in_Year_10_for_a_drug_incident_from_a-a-1_1734391621707.jpg)
The five men now face a long rehabilitation after years of an institutionalised existence in which they were told when and what to do, where to go and if they were allowed to speak. Their learned obedience behind bars comes at a high risk of enduring trauma, given that all five saw two of their original co-accused taken off and shot dead by firing squad.
![[Michael Czugaj, then 19, quit his job as a glazier in Brisbane and flew to Bali where days later he was arrested at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar with 1.75kg of heroin concealed on his body]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/16/00/93178281-14195849-image-a-2_1734308874083.jpg)
Rush, who is now aged in his late 30s, perhaps looks the most aged of all the Bali Nine because for years he had the threat of execution hanging over his head too, until his death sentence was commuted. The five freed Bali Nine plotters, from left: Martin Stephens, Michael Czugaj, Scott Rush, Matthew Norman and Siu Yi Chen watch on as their releases are signed off by Australian and Indonesians officials.
![[Aged 18, 18 and 20, Michael Czugaj, Matthew Norman and Si Yi Chen are arrested for heroin at Denpasar airport in the grim beginning of their 19 year ordeal]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/16/12/93178271-14195849-Aged_18_18_and_20_Michael_Czugaj_Matthew_Norman_and_Si_Yi_Chen_a-a-56_1734353863828.jpg)
Scott Rush, 19, was expelled in Year 10 for a drug incident from a private Catholic boys school and was convicted in Brisbane of drug possession months before his arrest in Bali with 1.3kg of heroin strapped to his body. Michael Czugaj, then 19, quit his job as a glazier in Brisbane and flew to Bali where days later he was arrested at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar with 1.75kg of heroin concealed on his body.
![[Matthew Norman sits between Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen and Si Yi Chen of Sydney in a Denpasar District Courtroom for their sentencing in 2006. Nguyen later died of cancer in custody]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/16/23/93178283-14195849-Matthew_Norman_sits_between_Tan_Duc_Thanh_Nguyen_and_Si_Yi_Chen_-a-4_1734391622607.jpg)
