AFP denies it has blood on its hands over Bali nine death penalties

It is a question that has dogged the Australian Federal Police for 10 years. On Thursday, AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin answered it with one word.

"Do we have blood on our hands? No."

AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin at a hearing at Parliament House in December. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

With just days to go until Bali nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are executed, Mr Colvin was asked the question by a reporter during an address to the Lowy Institute.

It was eerily similar to the question lawyer Robert Myers has been asking since his friend's son, Scott Rush, was arrested at Denpasar airport on April 17, 2005, with 1.3 kilograms of heroin strapped to his body.

Myuran Sukumaran arrives at Cilacap airport on Wednesday.

Mr Myers, a friend of Rush's father, Lee, called a man he knew in the AFP in 2005, asking him to stop Scott leaving Sydney for Bali.

Lee Rush was worried his son may have been recruited to be a drug mule and in desperation he asked Mr Myers to do whatever he could to intervene.

Instead, the AFP tipped off its Indonesian counterparts that a heroin smuggling operation was being planned.

The men were arrested in Bali a week later and Rush was handed a life sentence, later increased to the death penalty on appeal before being reduced back to a life sentence in the country's Supreme Court.

Andrew Chan is transferred from Bali for execution.

In the midst of Rush's appeal, Mr Myers asked, if Rush was sent to the firing squad, would the AFP "have his blood on their hands"?

On Thursday, Commissioner Colvin responded.

Scott Rush was sentenced to life in jail. His father's fears that his son was a drug mule were passed on to the AFP.Credit: AP

"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.

"Much of the information that has been circulating doesn't accurately reflect our role and the work we did in 2005," he said.

He would not comment any further, saying it would be inappropriate to do so when appeals for clemency were still ongoing.

"Now is not the time."

He said the AFP did nothing wrong and went out of its way to help the Bali nine, with then-commissioner Mick Keelty giving evidence in an Indonesian court in an attempt to spare Rush's life.

The AFP was still trying to assist, Commissioner Colvin said. He had written a letter to his Indonesian counterpart recently, begging the Indonesians to show mercy to Chan and Sukumaran.

"For many months the AFP has been doing what it can to support the whole-of-government diplomatic efforts and today I would like to again add our voice to the Australian government's plea for mercy."

In 2006, the Rush family tried to sue the AFP for acting negligently by disclosing the information that led to the death sentences.

However, a judge found the AFP only had the power to refuse assistance in overseas death penalty cases if charges had already been laid.

Accordingly, Federal Court judge Paul Finn ruled that the AFP's conduct "fell squarely within the lawful functions of the AFP. Scott Rush and his colleagues were the authors of their own harm".

Mr Myers has again been vocal as Chan and Sukumaran inch closer towards the Indonesian firing squad.

Last month, he said he had only ever contacted the AFP because he thought they could help.

"I should have just said to Lee [Rush], 'mate get over there as fast as you can and get the young kid back here'," he told Triple M radio.

"They've got, as I've said in the past, blood on their hands because they they could've intercepted eight Australians here, they didn't know of Sukumaran.

"They had sufficient evidence to charge them with conspiracy to import narcotics into Australia."

"They would say we probably didn't have sufficient evidence.

"All that means is that the prosecutions would have failed.

"And that nine Australians, each of whom was exposed to the death penalty, would never, ever, ever, have been exposed to the death penalty."