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Death-row prisoners Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati
no reprieve
Two of Australia's 'Bali Nine' drug smugglers just lost their death-row appeals
The pair face the firing squad in Indonesia after their convictions.
TWO OF AUSTRALIA’S “Bali Nine” drug smugglers have lost last-ditch appeals that would save the pair from an Indonesian firing squad.
The State Administrative Court in Jakarta today rejected appeals from ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, who tried to challenge President Joko Widodo’s refusal to answer their pleas for clemency.
The court threw out the case after ruling it didn’t have the authority to overrule decisions from the top official.
The pair have been kept in semi-isolation at Besi Prison on Nusakambangan awaiting their executions, although no date has been set for the event.
Both Chan and Sukumaran were sentenced to death in 2006 for trying to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia, however the pair’s lawyers tried to argue Widodo’s consideration of their clemency pleas should have taken into account their rehabilitation in jail.
Widodo recently rejected their bid for reprieve which typically marks Indonesian prisoners’ final chance to avoid the firing squad.
They are expected to be executed shortly with other drug convicts, including French, Brazilian and Filipino citizens, although some are waiting the outcomes of Supreme Court appeals before they can be put to death.
- With AFP
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