Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran executions a 'black day' for AFP: Bob Myers

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The Brisbane-based lawyer for a Bali Nine drug courier spared the death penalty in Indonesia has described the executions of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran as a black day for the Australian Federal Police.

Bob Myers was asked by Lee Rush, the father of jailed drug smuggler Scott Rush, for help in stopping his son leaving Australia for Bali in April, 2005, when Mr Rush suspected Scott's involvement in the heroin importation plot.

When Mr Myers called a contact in the AFP to ask them to arrest Scott, he discovered officers already had wind of the scheme but instead of arresting the young Australians, it allowed them to leave the country.

It then tipped off its Indonesian counterparts.

Executed: Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan.Credit: Bagus Othman

Mr Myers said the Australian police handed the Bali Nine to Indonesian authorities, knowing they were subjecting the group to potential death by firing squad.

"This is a black day for the AFP, a day they deliberately exposed nine Australians to the death penalty," he said.

Asked if the AFP had blood on its hands over Chan's and Sukumaran's deaths on Wednesday morning, Mr Myers replied, "of course they do and it taints them forever".

"They knew of this plot, they knew of eight participants - they didn't know of Sukumaran at the time - and they didn't want to stop these people," he said.

Brisbane Bali Nine member Scott Rush.

"They wanted them to go through for reasons only known to themselves, which they haven't told us after 10 years."

Mr Myers theorised that the AFP tipped off Indonesian authorities to have the drug mules punished in a country where the penalties for drug crime are much more severe than in Australia to make examples of the Bali Nine.

Lawyer Bob Myers is a family friend of Bali Nine member Scott Rush.

There was also a theory that the AFP was attempting to curry favour with its Indonesian counterparts to heighten terrorism intelligence sharing between the two nations.

"There is certainly a view they allowed these young people to leave, knowing full well knowing of their crimes and of course knowing they advised the Indonesian authorities knowing full well that death, as far as one or more of the eight was concerned, was inevitable," he said.

He said the Australian authorities had ample opportunity to make their own arrests, either before they left the country or upon their return.

"They found out very early in the piece, sufficiently early to stop everybody or alternatively to seek the co-operatin of the Indonesian police to have these people come back to Australia and arrest them here, with perhaps the added advantage of finding Mr Big," he said.

Mr Myers alleged the passports of the eight known members had alerts placed on them by the AFP prior to the group's departure from Australia, which officers at the airport were instructed to ignore, in order to deliver the drug runners to Indonesian police.

In early March, after Chan and Sukumaran were transferred to the island they were executed on nearly two months later, AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin again answered the question that has dogged the authority for 10 years.

"Do we have blood on our hands? No," he said.

Commissioner Colvin said the AFP had been cleared of any wrongdoing in several court cases, judicial reviews and Senate inquiries.

A review of the AFP's involvement in the arrests of the Bali Nine resulted in a change in procedure, which compels officers to seek the Attorney General's nod before alerting authorities in other countries in similar circumstances.

Mr Myers said the AFP had never confessed to any moral culpability in tipping off the Indonesian authorities about the Bali Nine but its actions since the implementation of the new procedures in 2009 spoke volumes.

"It's quite clear from the way they behaved since the introduction of the new rules in 2009 ... they recognise they behaved improperly and they would certainly be feeling the brunt of that today," he said.

At a press conference in the wake of the killing of Chan and Sukumaran, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said it was not the time to examine the extent to which the AFP had blood on its hands.

Mr Myers disagreed.

"Of course we should talk about this, this is the time we should be talking about it," he said.

"This shouldn't have happened and neither the federal police nor the government should have permitted it to happen.

"They haven't made it clear to President Widodo why these people shouldn't have been executed and why all of the remaining Bali Nine shouldn't be brought back here.

"It's because of what the federal police did which was unprincipled and unauthorised.

"It's easy to say it wasn't illegal ... but they knew they were acting contrary to Australia's principles and they should never have done it."

Mr Myers said Chan and Sukumaran, described as the ringleaders of the plot, were merely bit players and their tragic deaths raised questions as to whether the AFP had any desire to find the so-called "Mr Big".

"These fellows, I term them lieutenants, they certainly weren't very far up the chain, you wonder if the AFP wanted to find Mr Big," he said.

He said the deaths of two men should now be used to lobby Indonesia to bring home Rush and other members of the drug syndicate who are serving life sentences in Bali's Kerobokan prison.

"They are in a hell hole for many, many years and none of them should be there," he said.

"By talking about this now, contrary to what the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister say, let's get the momentum moving and get these people back here.

"Go to president Widodo and seek the co-operation of a close friend and ally to bring them home.

"That's our next campaign. Bring home the remaining seven."