ISABELLE MULLEN: Should we believe Prabowo Subianto was motivated by ‘compassion’ to release drug smugglers?

The Indonesian government has let five drug smugglers return home to Australia.

It’s hard to imagine why a country that imposes the death penalty for serious drug crimes would do something like this, but we’ll take it.

Anthony Albanese insists there’s “no quid pro quo” or debt Australia needs to pay back.

This was an act of “mercy.”

It sounds too good to be true.

Scott Rush, Matthew Norman, Si-Yi Chen, Martin Stephens and Michael Czugaj have been released from their life sentences.

Many people — including the Government — will say, they’ve done their time.

Some were only teenagers when they were jailed.

Their crimes got them almost two decades behind bars.

The Bali nine were made an example of by Indonesian authorities after they were caught in a botched heroin racket in 2005.

Eight kilograms of heroin was found strapped to their bodies and today, that amount of heroin has a street value of $3.4 million.

They weren’t political prisoners but after 19 years in an Indonesian prison there’s a degree of sympathy for them.

And now, they could be home with their families for Christmas.

The Government says, we should accept all of this at face value.

Anthony Albanese insists “this is an act of compassion,” and Indonesia doesn’t want anything in return.

Interesting.

I bet the five can’t believe their luck, having escaped a country where capital punishment for murder, corruption, and drug crimes is legal.

And there’s more good luck.

Australia doesn’t have a prisoner swap agreement with Indonesia, which means the framework for a transfer to an Australian prison doesn’t exist.

They won’t have to serve out the remainder of their life sentences.

Soon they will be home drinking beer with their family and friends.

Two of their accomplices weren’t so lucky.

Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan were shot and killed for the same crime.

And then there’s Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen who died of cancer in prison in 2018.

So what’s behind Indonesia’s change of heart?

The Prime Minister insists it’s just a favour, and Indonesia doesn’t want anything in return.

After all, 20 years is a long time.

Anthony Albanese secured the deal on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru earlier this year.

Indonesia’s newly elected President Prabowo Subianto granted clemency, the Prime Minister’s office insisting Anthony Albanese built a special relationship with him.

But last month, Indonesia’s Co-ordinating Law Minister Yusril Mahendra said Indonesia might need to call in a favour “in the future.”

“If the Indonesian Government asks the Australian Government to repatriate Indonesian prisoners in Australia, they have an obligation to consider it,” he said.

If that’s the case, why won’t the Government just say that?

Last month, Yusril Mahendra also asked for current figures of illegal Indonesian fishermen imprisoned in Australia.

Some Indonesians are also surprised by their Government’s decision.

Andreas Hugo Pareira — a key member of Indonesia’s parliamentary justice committee — has criticised the deal.

“This transfer of prisoners does not have a legal basis at all… it’s only based on a practical arrangement. What is this practical arrangement? Where does this practical arrangement sit in our legal system? The Government needs to explain to the public why… this transfer of prisoners ignores the Corrections Law.”

One thing’s for sure. There will be no explanation from the Prime Minister.

The release was a closely guarded secret, Indonesian and Australian authorities no doubt keen to avoid a repeat of the circus that surrounded Schapelle Corby’s release in 2014.

And so, the Bali five wait in a facility in Darwin, where they are undergoing medical checks and rehabilitation before they’re released back into the community.

With any luck they’ll be home by Christmas.

We might never know what — if anything — our Government agreed to.

Maybe they’ll be more forthcoming after the election.