Just after Australian Myuran Sukumaran was executed in Indonesia for drug trafficking, another convicted member of the Bali Nine group has come forward and is saying that Sukumaran could have thwarted arrest in Indonesia if he had not chose to stay behind and save others in his group.
Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, who was third in command of the Bali Nine under Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, is saying for the first time that Sukumaran acted selflessly when he found out about the arrest of four Bali Nine drug mules (Martin Stephens, Renae Lawrence, Scott Rush and Michael Czugaj). Even though Sukumaran could have bolted, he went back to try and save Si Yi Chen and Matthew Norman, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
“I wanna share something with all of you. In memory of Myu,” Nguyen wrote on Facebook.
“[It was] the fact that he cared and worried about the rest. Calm and collected. This is what I will always remember about him.”
“Myu could of panicked and left the country.”
Apparently Sukumaran’s true identity was not known at the time of his arrest. Indonesian authorities had him under surveillance but didn’t know his name, just tagging him as “the negro” or “the black one,” according to the SMH.
“Myu didn’t pack up and left the country. No. He went back to the hotel where the other two were waiting. Moved them somewhere else, and telling them the most important thing at the moment was getting them out of the country safely. Calming them down and be aware [sic] what’s happening,” Nguyen said, as quoted by the SMH.
Both Sukumaran and Chan were executed by firing squad on April 29, just after midnight.
Nguyen is serving a life sentence in Malang, East Java.
Photo: Friends of Myuran Sukumaran Facebook page
