Jakarta lists Bali pair for execution

ANDREW Chan and Myuran Sukumaran have been marked for death in Indonesia’s imminent execution of eight drug convicts.

ANDREW  Chan and Myuran Sukumaran have been marked for death in Indonesia’s imminent execution of eight drug convicts.

That leaves only the slim hope that their lawyers will be able to register applications for a judicial review of their sentences — and that the registration is sufficient to delay the execution process.

“We are looking for the right time to do the next executions, citi­zens of France, Ghana, Spain, Brazil, Philippines, Australia and one Indonesian,” Attorney-General Muhammad Prasetyo told a parliamentary hearing yesterday.

He did not identify the condemned prisoners by name, but when earlier asked by reporters whether Sukumaran, 33, and Chan, 31, were intended for the Joko administration’s second round of executions this year, Mr Prasetyo replied: “Hopefully.”

He also indicated that the execu­tions would not take place in Bali, where the pair have been imprisoned under sentence of death since February 2006, but on Nusakambangan, the high-security prison island off Central Java. “Probably the place is Nusakambangan, we still view it as ideal,” Mr Prasetyo told MPs.

No date for the deaths by firing squad has been stated but, following the timeline from clemency rejection to execution of the six people killed on January 18, the sentences could be carried out within the next fortnight.

“I’m shocked,” said the Australians’ senior Indonesian lawyer, Todung Mulya Lubis, on hearing the news. “In our case the second PK (judicial review) is about to be launched.”

If the sentences are carried out, Chan and Sukumaran would be the first Australians executed by another country for drug offences since Melbourne’s Van Nguyen in Singapore in 2005.

Comment was being sought last night from Tony Abbott and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who have made several personal representations to Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, for mercy for Chan and Sukumaran.

However, Mr Joko has again this week flatly refused to grant clemency to any of about 60 drug convicts on Indonesia’s death row. “In one year, it’s 18,000 people who die because of narcotics,” he told CNN in an interview broadcast on Tuesday. “We are not going to compromise for drug dealers. No compromise.”

It was not clear last night if the Prime Minister had this week resumed his personal approach to Mr Joko. “We hope that they will extend the prerogative of mercy to these two Australians, who appear to be genuinely reformed characters,” Mr Abbott said last week. “But in the end, we do have to respect that Indonesia is a sovereign country.”

Mr Todung flew to Bali yesterday morning trying to get Denpas­ar District Court’s agreement to send a registrar into Kero­bokan prison to register the men’s appeal for a second PK to the Supreme­ Court.

In the PK applications, the defence team will argue that legal process for determining Chan and Sukumaran’s sentences is still active and the executions should be stopped until there is a determination.

The first judicial review of the death sentences imposed on the ringleaders of the 2005 plan to smuggle more than 8kg of heroin from Bali to Australia failed to convince the Supreme Court to commute their sentences to life imprisonment.

Their lawyers are seeking to argue that the Supreme Court failed in its duty in hearing the 2010 PK because the judges did not try to establish the defence’s main argument — that Chan and Sukumaran have reformed themselves during imprisonment and have substantially assisted other prisoners to reform.

However, there is a strong risk the Denpasar court will not accept the PK application because it “advised” lower jurisdictions this month against forwarding applications for sentence review by death row prisoners who have already­ been through one PK.

Families of the condemned men continued their gruelling visits to Kerobokan yesterday.

Andrew Chan’s mother, Helen, arrived about 9am with Chan’s brother, Michael. Wan and shaken, she left the gates at lunchtime, holding on to Mich­ael’s arm for support, then returned in the afternoon. It was her first visit since Chan’s clemency bid was rejected.

Sukumaran’s mother, Raji, spent most of the day at the jail until visiting hours ended at 3pm, while his brother Chinthu left at lunch time.

Victorian Supreme Court judge Lex Lasry QC paid a visit in the morning with the prisoners’ Australian lawyer Julian McMahon­. Mr Lasry did not comment on the remaining legal options, saying: “I was their lawyer before and I am interested in their welfare.’’ He acted for Suku­maran and Chan in 2005, after which Mr McMahon and a team of Victorian lawyers continued.

Human Rights Watch deputy director Phelim Kine called on Mr Joko last night to put aside Indon­esia’s hypocrisy on capital punishment and said the death penalty was not a crime deterrent.

“The Indonesian government should recognise its hypocrisy in seeking clemency for Indonesian citizens on death row in foreign countries, while turning a deaf ear to pleas from foreign governments … seeking clemency for  their citizens facing execution in Indonesia,’’ he said. “If Widodo is serious about making Indonesia a regional model of a modern, rights-respecting democratic state, he should start by joining the countries that have abolished capital punishment.’’

Additional reporting: Telly Nathalia