Chan's wife had worked in S'pore
PUBLISHED ONApril 29, 2015 9:15 AMByChew Hui Min
Ms Febyanti Herewila, who married convicted drug smuggler Andrew Chan on Monday, worked in Singapore as a church worker for a number of years.
Pastor Jacub Suria, 47, who met her a few times while she was working here, said she came to Singapore around 2004. She worked in a church in the eastern part of Singapore, and helped Indonesian domestic workers here, Mr Jacub told The Straits Times.
She was a Christian worker in Indonesia and came to Singapore as the church "needed someone", he said.
"She was friendly and easy to talk to," he added.
Ms Febyanti, also known as "Feby", went back to Indonesia by 2008 and they did not keep in contact. He found out she wed Chan from news reports.
She spent time in Bali and Jakarta as a member of Gereja Bethel Indonesia, a group of Christian Pentecostal churches, The Daily Mail reported.
The British paper also said she was a Javanese princess, but Mr Jacub said she was born in Timor and moved to Java with her family later.
Ms Febyanti and Chan met in 2012 when she started to assist prisoners at Bali's Kerobokan prison, where Chan was serving time. She has described him as "one of the strongest, kindest people I have ever met".
Chan, 31, proposed to Ms Febyanti in February after he learnt that Indonesian President Joko Widodo had rejected his clemency bid.
He was convicted in 2006, along with fellow Australian Myuran Sukumaran, of trying to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia. They were identified as ringleaders of the so-called "Bali Nine" heroin trafficking gang.
Chan and Ms Febyanti got married on Indonesia's "execution island" of Nusakambangan, where Chan was imprisoned.
While admitting that her new husband does have his faults, Ms Febyanti noted that there are many good things about him too.
"I love him as he is. And I saw what he did for other people, which made me love him even more," she said, as quoted by Indonesian web portal jpnn.com.
chuimin@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on April 29, 2015.
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