Indonesia to transfer 7 aliens for execution
Death row men come from Australia, France, Brazil, Ghana, Nigeria, PH
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Eight convicted drug smugglers, including seven foreigners, will be transferred to an Indonesian prison island this week for imminent execution despite international appeals for clemency, an official said on Monday.
Among the eight are Andrew Chan, 31, and Myuran Sukumaran, 33, the ringleaders of a group of nine Australians arrested in 2005 for attempting to smuggle 8.3 kilograms of heroin to Australia from Bali, Indonesia. The seven other members of the group — dubbed the “Bali Nine” by Australian media — have received prison sentences ranging from 20 years to life.
In addition to Chan and Sukumaran, five men from France, Brazil, Ghana, Nigeria and Indonesia, and a woman from the Philippines, will face a firing squad after being moved to Nusa Kambangan prison, Attorney General’s Office spokesman Tony Spontana said, without giving exact dates.
Six other drug smugglers, including five foreigners, were executed in January at the same prison, located off Indonesia’s main island of Java.
Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has rejected appeals by Australia’s government for clemency for Chan and Sukumaran, and vowed not to grant mercy to any other drug offenders because Indonesia is suffering a “drug emergency.”
Australia has abolished capital punishment and opposes executions of any Australian overseas.
Lawyers for the two Australians, who are currently being held at a Bali prison, filed a complaint in an administrative court last week to challenge Jokowi’s rejection of the appeals, arguing that it was made without consideration of their remorse and rehabilitation. A hearing on the complaint is scheduled for next week.
Spontana, however, said the executions would not be delayed.
“Their legal options were exhausted after their clemency was rejected by the president,” he said. “The next step is execution.”
In Australia earlier Monday, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he had personally appealed to Jokowi to stop the executions.
“Like millions of Australians, I feel sick in the pit of my stomach when I think about what is quite possibly happening to these youngsters,” he told reporters.
Abbott said his government has been trying to appeal to Indonesia’s sense of itself as a stable democracy under the rule of law.
“What I don’t want to do is turn this into some kind of test of strength,” he said. “I think we are much more likely to back the Indonesians into a corner than to get the result we want.”
Six former Australian prime ministers on Monday added their voices to calls to spare the Australians.
Former prime ministers Malcolm Fraser, Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, John Howard, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard issued statements in support of the pair published in The Australian national newspaper on Tuesday.
“As a deep, long-standing friend of Indonesia, I would respectfully request an act of clemency,” wrote Rudd, who was prime minister from 2007 until 2010, then again in 2013. (AP)