One of Australia’s Bali Nine drug traffickers has died after 13 years behind bars, sources said.
Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, one of the seven remaining jailed members of the drug smuggling ring, was serving a life sentence in an Indonesian prison.
Daily Mail Australia understands the 34-year-old from Brisbane died in recent weeks following a battle with terminal cancer.
The son of Vietnamese migrant bakers, Nguyen had been serving time at Malang prison, in East Java, where he shared a cell with mule drug Martin Stephens.
Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen – known as the ‘forgotten Bali Nine’ prisoner – has died following a long battle with illness, sources said
Mr Nguyen (left, in police photo) had been diagnosed with a terminal illness, believed to be cancer. He wrote a powerful letter to supporters in 2015 (right)
Bali Nine: Nguyen (second from right), was arrested with fellow smugglers Matthew Norman and Si Yi Chen in April 2005
He was rushed to hospital in mid-2017 following an episode where a fellow prisoner had to carry him to a medical bay.
Supporters of the Australian prisoners, including pastor Rob Buckingham, knew Nguyen had been ill for some time.
Nguyen had been planning to transport heroin to Australia
Nguyen and two others – traffickers Matthew Norman and Si Yi Chen – were arrested at the Melasti Hotel in Kuta on April 17, 2005.
They had been planning to transport heroin to Australia.
In a message to supporters from prison three years ago, Nguyen wrote: ‘Am I guilty? Yes.
‘Am I sorry? More than anyone will ever know.’
In a previous interview with Daily Mail Australia, Nguyen said: ‘No one wishes death.
‘I have a life sentence, that means life in Indonesia.
‘That’s death by a different means’.
Mr Nguyen, above, was sentenced to death in Indonesia – but escaped with a life sentence
A letter written by Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen in 2015 where he asked for a ‘second chance’
Myuran Sukumaran (left) and Andrew Chan (right) were put to death by firing squad in 2015
Nguyen said his family visited when they could, but the years-long Indonesian ordeal had been hard on them financially.
The family spent their savings on Tan’s legal costs, he claimed, and the shame and stress he caused his family were one of his biggest regrets.
‘I live with that regret every single morning when I wake and every night in my noisy bare jail cell as I try to sleep,’ he said.
‘I tell you now, there isn’t any code of honour among drug dealers and in the end it will destroy you and everyone around you.
Two members of the Bali Nine, Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, were executed by firing squad in April 2015.
The other seven members were sentenced to jail terms.
Seven of the ‘Bali Nine’ appear in an Indonesian holding cell in December 2005
In 2006, Nguyen’s sentence was upgraded to death on appeal. But a further appeal restored his original life sentence.
Fellow smuggler Renae Lawrence expects that she could be released from prison this year.
After questions about Mr Nguyen’s death, a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) spokeswoman confirmed an Australian man had died from terminal illness in Indonesia.
‘(The department) has been providing consular assistance to the family of an Australian man who died of a terminal illness in Indonesia,’ the DFAT spokeswoman said.
Consular assistance may include support and guidance to families and liaison with authorities to assist with funeral arrangements or repatriation of remains. Mr Nguyen’s fiance declined to comment.