Jakarta Globe – AFP, Feb 24, 2015
Jakarta. A
Jakarta court on Tuesday dismissed a bid by two Australian drug traffickers on
death row to avoid execution by challenging the president’s rejection of their
pleas for clemency.
Myuran
Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, the ringleaders of the so-called “Bali Nine” drug
smuggling gang, were arrested for trying to traffic heroin out of Indonesia in
2005 and sentenced to death the following year.
Their
appeals for presidential clemency, typically a death row convict’s final chance
of avoiding the firing squad, were rejected by new President Joko Widodo in
recent months.
On Tuesday,
the State Administrative Court, or PTUN, in Jakarta dismissed the men’s
application to challenge Joko’s refusal to grant them clemency, a rare move
that was seen as having little chance of success.
Rejecting
Sukumaran’s application, presiding Judge Hendro Puspito said: “Clemency is the
prerogative of the president … the state administrative court has no right to
rule on the challenge.”
He also
rejected Chan’s application. The judge said that the pair had 14 days to lodge
an appeal, and their lawyers said they would.
The pair’s
legal team had earlier applied for a second judicial review of their cases, but
judges also rejected that application.
Authorities
originally said the pair would be put to death in February but last week
announced that their executions would be delayed by up to a month. They blamed
“technical reasons,” insisting that sustained diplomatic pressure from Canberra
had nothing to do with the decision.
The men’s
lawyers have launched a series of last-ditch legal moves in a bid to save the
pair, in their early 30s, from the firing squad, despite the government’s
insistence nothing more can be done for them.
Their legal
team have argued that they have been rehabilitated in prison and Joko had
failed to consider the cases properly.
It is not
clear when the pair will be put to death, although the head of the prosecutor’s
office on Bali, where the pair are in prison, previously said it is “very
likely” that they will be transferred this week to an island off Java where the
executions will take place.
Authorities
have to inform the men 72 hours before they are executed.
The looming
executions have dramatically heightened tensions between Australia and
Indonesia, fraying ties that were only just recovering from a spying row.
Chan and
Sukumaran are among seven foreigners — including citizens from France, Ghana,
Brazil and Nigeria — who have lost their appeals for presidential clemency, the
final hope of avoiding the firing squad.
Agence France-Presse
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