Bali Nine prisoner to marry in jail
A Bali Nine prisoner serving a life sentence in jail is set to marry a woman he met while behind bars.
Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen is now engaged to Lyudmyla Karpova, a 26-year-old from Italy, with whom he started corresponding with last December.
Ms Karpova who is an ambulance volunteer with the Red Cross and has a university degree in linguistic mediation, told Fairfax Media she thought Nguyen was “just a normal guy” when they began writing to each other.
It was only when the Bali Nine hit headlines again after President Joko Widodo rejected Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran's clemency bid, that Nguyen reveled his story to her.
"I wanted to tell her [who I was] but didn't know how," said Nguyen, whose death sentence was reduced to life imprisonment in 2008.
After learning that Ms Karpova was against drugs and the death penalty, he slowly revealed more details about his past.
“To say that was the most shocking and life-changing news she was ever told would be an understatement."
Ms Karpova said she had to read up about the Bali Nine on Wikipedia as no one in Italy know about the group who were bust for their plot to smuggle more than eight kilograms of heroin into Australia.
However hearing about Nguyen’s life sentence did not deter Ms Karpova, who travelled to East Java for a month in June to meet him.
"She was real, the feelings were real, and that was when we confirmed about everything," Nguyen told Fairfax Media.
It was during one of her many prison visits that Nguyen asked Ms Karpova to be his bride.
The couple have already set a wedding date – December 12 – but are well aware of the trials ahead.
"Being a wife of someone in jail is hard, being a wife of someone with a life sentence is the hardest thing ever," Ms Karpova said.
“Sure it would be easier to run away and find a normal, free guy but I can't. He is my soulmate."
Nguyen is not the first member of the Bali nine to find love behind bars.
Andrew Chan wed his fiancee Febyanti Herewila on Nusakambangan Island in a bittersweet ceremony on the day before he was executed.
Martin Stephens married Christine Puspayanti back in 2011, while Scott Rush was formerly engaged to London lawyer Nikki Butler.
Nguyen actually introduced his fiancee to Ms Butler and asked for advice on prison relationships.
"I guess for me every time I left [Rush] I felt a knife in my gut," Ms Butler said. "It never gets any better only worse. I can't make it better … I can't give him his life back."
However Nguyen who has already been in prison for more than a decade, says Ms Karpova has given him more hope than ever and has described her as "one in an eternity."
