Bali nine death-row convicts register fresh appeal

ANDREW Chan and Myuran Sukumaran must wait until at least Monday to learn if their bid for a review will delay their imminent executions.

A district court registrar in Denpasar displays the applications filed yesterday on behalf of death-row convicts Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran. Picture: Nashyo Hansel

ANDREW  Chan and Myuran Sukumaran must wait until at least Monday to learn if their last-chance bid for a review of their death sentences will delay the ­imminent executions.

The Attorney-General’s office in Jakarta is expected to decide next week the timing and ­sequence for the firing-squad executions of eight drug convicts ­including Sukumaran, 33, and Chan, 31.

Yesterday the Australians’ lawyers succeeded in having Denpasar District Court register their application for a judicial review of their sentences. The next step is for the head of the Denpasar court, Sugene Riyono, to accept the application, which would be sent to the Supreme Court.

A court spokesman said Mr Sugene would give a decision on Monday or Tuesday.

A review in 2011 failed to get the death penalties commuted. Since then the Constitutional Court has ruled multiple reviews are valid, and the two are seeking another review of their sentences.

However, the Supreme Court has advised lower courts against accepting such applications from death-row convicts who have ­already had hearings.

Since President Joko Widodo refused them clemency, another judicial review hearing is the last legal hope for them to stay alive.

Chan and Sukumaran were sentenced to death in February 2006 as ringleaders of the Bail Nine conspiracy to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin from the island to Australia the previous April.

Defence team leader Todung Mulya Lubis and the men’s Australian lawyer Julian McMahon accompanied court officials to Kerobokan jail yesterday morning to register the applications.

Everything now depended on whether the District Court accept­ed the application, Mr Todung­ said later. “We have to respect­ the legal process, so there should not be executions while legal process is going on,” he said.

However, a spokesman for the Attorney-General, Muhammad Pras­etyo, said last night the jud­icial review application “will not disturb the execution process”.

Spokesman Tony Spontana said he believed the Denpasar court would abide by the government’s January 9 decision, that once presidential clemency had been refused an execution would be conducted, and dismiss the judic­ial review application.

The basis of the review applic­ation is that the Supreme Court failed to verify Chan and Suku­maran had reformed during their decade in prison.

“They both have become ­really good people,” Mr Todung said. “They’re doing something posit­ive for the other inmates ­inside the prison and I believe everyone recognises that.”

The prisoners had admitted they broke the law but they did not deserve to die, he said. “It’s against the right to life under the constitution. We are not asking for freedom. We are asking for 20 years’ imprisonment.”

However, Mr Prasetyo insisted this week that the men would not be granted second reviews.

Bali chief prosecutor Imanuel Zebua said he did not know if the executions could be delayed by the registration but acknowledged it was possible the court would accept the application.