Madonna King is the co-author – with Cindy Wockner – of Bali 9: The Untold Story. I spoke to her on Thursday.

Fitz: Madonna, I know you know the story of the Bali Nine backwards. After the 2015 executions of two of their number, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, the rest of us have just about forgotten that most of the others remain in prison. Can we begin by you tightly summating the story, before we concentrate on the latest developments?

MK: This group of nine young Australians came to infamy in 2005 – less than a year after Schapelle Corby’s arrest – for trying to smuggle heroin out of Bali and into Australia. And they didn’t actually even all know each other. They were from Brisbane, Illawarra, Newcastle and Sydney.

Madonna King co-authored a book about the Bali 9. “Every single one of them … wanted to find this sense of belonging.”

Fitz: So, as a group, these were not hardened career criminals?

MK: Definitely not. Most of them just wandered into the whole thing. And these kids – for different reasons, on different promises – decided to get on a plane and go to Bali. After a week of holidaying, they were taken into a dingy hotel room and had packs of heroin plastered to their body, their thighs, their stomach, and five of them then set off for the airport in three different taxis. Two lots of mules were in the first two taxis and Andrew Chan, one of the organisers, without any drugs on him, was in a third taxi.

Fitz: Oh, the horror! We know what’s happened to Corby, just for smuggling marijuana, and here we are, with heroin strapped to our bodies, approaching Indonesian customs!

MK: Two of them – Renae Lawrence and Martin Stephens – were initially quite cocky. They passed a drug dog on the way in. They would have passed more than one sign warning of the death penalty for drugs. But they kept going, all the time while being monitored, and then – just before they climbed onboard – they were searched. All up they had more than eight kilograms of heroin strapped to their bodies. That’s a lot of heroin. In current terms, it amounts to 80,000 street deals worth $4 million. And suddenly, all of the swagger evaporated. One started crying. They knew they were in all sorts of strife.

Fitz: Did I mention the HORROR? And did we ever find out who was the Mr Big, or Mrs Big for that matter, behind the whole thing?

MK: There was a woman who police in Bali had their eyes on. They knew her name, they knew she was from Thailand, and they tried to get her, but somehow mysteriously, they never did and she was never charged. There were also several other people in Australia downstream who were later charged – with barely any publicity – most of them from Brisbane. They went to jail for various short periods and have now been out for years and years.

Fitz: In the meantime, on the ground, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were identified as the ringleaders?

MK: Yes. They were a couple of boys from Homebush High,........

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