21, alone and on death row

Matthew Norman was 18 when he decided to become a heroin smuggler.

Today he turned 21, locked up on death row in Bali, aware that this birthday could be his last.

There was nothing resembling a celebration for the youngest member of the Bali Nine heroin ring.

Norman's twin sister Cheryl is in Bali to support him. But because Kerobokan jail does not allow visitors on Mondays, he spent the day alone.

There was no cake and no special privileges and he was allowed out of his cell for just one hour. As far as birthdays go, it's hard to imagine a bleaker scene.

Friends say Norman will get to see his sister and mother Robyn Davies tomorrow when they will go to the jail for a small celebration, marking the third birthday he has spent behind bars.

"Robyn had hoped to be able to bring a cake and some gifts, just something simple, but it will have to wait until tomorrow," said Ed Trotter, a Pentecostal minister from Australia who regularly visits Norman.

It has been a tough month or so for the young Australian who was arrested in a Kuta hotel on 17 April, 2005, for conspiring to smuggle 8.2kg of heroin from Bali to Australia.

In mid-August, Bali's Denpasar District Court - which heard Norman's final appeal, lodged together with co-conspirators Si Yi Chen and Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen - recommended the Supreme Court reject it because the trafficking bid was an extraordinarily anti-social act.

While the Supreme Court has the power to reject the lower court's recommendation, the news was a major blow for Norman.

"When the recommendation came through from the District Court judges in Denpasar to dismiss his appeal, that was pretty heavy news to take," Trotter said.

"That was pretty depressing, but he seems to have bounced back now. All things considered, he's pretty upbeat at the moment."

If the Supreme Court rejects the application, Norman's last hope of escaping the firing squad will be an unprecedented pardon from Indonesia's president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has never granted clemency to any drug offender.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Mon, 18 Sept 2007
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia -Web)
Copyright: 2007 AAP
Website: http://www.smh.com.au/

Bali nine lawyer confident judges will be independent

The lawyer for three members of the Bali nine says an opinion from three district court judges that rejects legal arguments against their death sentences is not critical to his clients' appeal.

The ABC has seen the judges' report, which will be presented to the Supreme Court before it makes its final decision.

The judges in Bali say that, in their opinion, the appeal by Mathew Norman, Si Yi Chen and Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen should be dismissed.

But their lawyer Erwin Siregar says that the Supreme Court judges do not have to take the opinion into account.

He says it is not good news for his clients, but the Supreme Court is totally independent.

"The judges' court, when they make a decision, nobody can influence them," he said.

"They are free to make a decision."

Three other members of the Bali nine on death row have chosen to launch a constitutional challenge rather than to go directly to the Supreme Court.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Wed, 15 Aug 2007
Source: Australian Broadcasting Commission (Australia-Web)
Reporter: Peter Cave
Website:http://www.abc.net.au

Judges urge court to reject Bali 9 appeal

Judges have advised Indonesia's Supreme Court to reject a final appeal by three members of the Bali nine against their death sentence, according to court documents.

Lawyers for Si Yi Chen, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen and Matthew Norman, on death row for attempting to smuggle heroin from the resort island of Bali, filed a request for a case review to the Supreme Court in June.

Aside from receiving a presidential pardon - not normally granted in drugs cases - the move is their final chance to have their sentences quashed.

But a panel of judges hearing the case "is of the opinion that the demand for a case review be rejected," according to a recommendation obtained by AFP that was sent to the Supreme Court on July 17.

The court has already reviewed the legal process against the three and the opinion of each judge on the steps so far was included in the document.

The Supreme Court is not obliged to follow the judges' recommendations, and it has yet to make a decision.

Lawyers for the three men had argued in their demand for a review that the decision by the Supreme Court to mete out the death penalty was flawed.

They said prosecutors had not recommended the sentence and the verdict was dramatically different from lower court decisions.

They also said the trio were tried on the basis of drug possession but the sentence related to exporting drugs.

Since Norman was arrested before he was 18, the lawyers have argued that executing him would breach international law.

They were arrested in a hotel room in Bali with a small quantity of heroin in 2005, shortly after others in the group were picked up at Bali's airport.

Three other members of the group are also on death row for attempting to smuggle the heroin but are arguing their case in the constitutional court.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Wed, 15 Aug 2007
Source: The Australian Broadcasting Commission (Australia -Web)
Website: http://www.abc.net.au

Lawyer hopes Bali heroin three will be spared

A DEFENCE lawyer says Indonesia's Supreme Court could still save three members of the Bali Nine heroin ring, despite a panel of judges recommending their death penalties be upheld.

Three judges from the Denpasar District Court have advised the Supreme Court to reject a last-ditch appeal by Australian drug smugglers Matthew Norman, Si Yi Chen and Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen.

But the trio's lawyer Farhat Abbas insists the Supreme Court is under no obligation to take the lower court's opinion into consideration.

A decision on the appeal, known as a judicial review, is not expected for at least several weeks.

"The decision makers are the judges at the Supreme Court," Abbas said today.

"The opinion from the district court has nothing to do with the case because they can only hear it, but they cannot make a decision.

"It will not affect our case."

The trio launched the appeal earlier this year.

In emotional appeals to the Denpasar District Court in June, they finally admitted their roles in the failed bid to smuggle heroin from Bali into Australia.

During the hearings, defence lawyers argued they should have faced charges under drug possession laws, which carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail, rather than drug export laws, which allow for death.

The appeal is the trio's final bid to beat the death penalty, other than an appeal to Indonesia's president for clemency.

Three other Australians facing the death penalty over the plot - Scott Rush, 21, and ringleaders Andrew Chan, 23, and Myuran Sukumaran, 26 - have also launched challenges, arguing Indonesia's Constitutional Court should scrap the death penalty because the nation's constitution affords life as a basic right.

The case is due to resume in Jakarta next week, with a decision some weeks away.

Meanwhile, there could also be some movement in the cases of the remaining three members of the Bali Nine who are not facing death.

Lawyers for Michael Czugaj, 22, and Martin Stephens, 31, said they would soon make a decision on whether to launch a final appeal against their life sentences.

"Next week I'm going to meet (Stephens's) family in Bali, and I'm going to see the situation for the judicial review," his lawyer Wirawan Adnan said.

Czugaj's lawyer Frans Passar also confirmed his client was also weighing an appeal.

The only female in the group, Renae Lawrence, has ruled out an appeal against her 20-year term, but could have her sentence shaved by one or two months to mark Indonesia's Independence Day holiday on Friday.

Under the Indonesian system, all prisoners are eligible for remission on Independence Day and some religious holidays, if they have served at least six months of their sentence and are not sentenced to either life in prison or death.



Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Wed, 15 Aug 2007
Source: The Herald Sun (Australia -Web)
Copyright: 2007 AAP
Website: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun

Clemency commitment for all Australians facing death penalty

The Queensland Government has secured the Australian Government’s commitment to seek clemency for any Australian facing the death penalty overseas, including members of the so-called “Bali Nine”.

Queensland Attorney-General Kerry Shine said Attorneys-General from across Australia unanimously agreed to the resolution he moved on the death penalty at the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General ( SCAG ) meeting in Canberra.

“Australia has abolished the death penalty. Indeed, Queensland was the first to do so in 1922,” Mr Shine said.

“Australia is a signatory to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty.”

Mr Shine said it had been argued, and SCAG agreed, that countries like Australia which had abolished the death penalty there was an “obligation not to expose a person to the risk of its application”.

“Australia has abolished the death penalty. Our responsibilities extend beyond our borders. We should ensure our citizens are not exposed to death penalty overseas, and we should encourage other countries to abolish the death penalty,” Mr Shine said.

Mr Shine said he took the issue to the SCAG meeting after meeting with Lee and Christine Rush, the parents of young Brisbane man Scott Rush who has been convicted for trafficking illicit drugs and is now under the sentence of death.

The Rush family maintains the Australian Federal Police ( AFP ) were informed prior to their son traveling to Bali, and they were of the understanding the AFP would prevent him from leaving Australia.

“The Queensland Government deplores drug trafficking and those who profit from it. The Queensland Government also respects the sovereignty of other nations,” Mr Shine said.

Mr Shine said SCAG agreed to:

( a ) REAFFIRM Australia’s opposition to the death penalty as a signatory to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty;

( b ) REAFFIRM Australia should comply with the United Nations Human Rights Committee’s conclusion that “for countries that have abolished the death penalty, there is an obligation not to expose a person to the real risk of its application”; and

( c ) REAFFIRM the Australian Government should, on behalf of all jurisdictions, seek clemency for all Australian citizens under the sentence for death, whether as a result of agencies working on our country’s behalf failing to observe ( b ) or not.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Mon, 16 April 2007
Source: Media Newswire(Australia -Web)
Website: http://media-newswire.com

Bali nine members lodge application to challenge Indonesian Constitution

Bali Nine members Scott Rush, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, convicted in Indonesia of an attempt in 2005 to smuggle more than 8kg of heroin into Australia, have all lodged applications with Indonesia's Constitutional Court, claiming the country's death penalty is unlawful. The court will hand down its decision soon, but some law experts say that even if the applicants win they may not be saved from the firing squad.

The Director of the Asian Law Centre at Melbourne University, Professor Tim Lindsey, said the applications of the "Bali Three" were part of a legal process that will decide if the death penalty is unconstitutional under Indonesian law, however, he says that even if they manage to convince Constitutional Court judges to amend the constitution they may still face the firing squad.

"There are six members of the Bali nine facing the death penalty, three of them have opted to go to these courts (to) argue whether the right the to life, which is contained in article 28i of the Indonesian constitution, means that the death penalty is now unconstitutional. If they succeed the courts make a declaration that from the moment of its decision onwards the death penalty is unconstitutional because it breaches that right to life. But that will not necessarily affect the existing sentences - the death sentences - imposed on those six," he said.

Prof. Lindsey explained why those currently serving time on Indonesia's death row may still face the death penalty.

"Constitutional Courts, like Indonesia's, often took the view that the decisions apply forward in time from the moment of their decision so all existing convictions will stand.

Prof. Lindsey said that the decision that the Constitutional Court reaches will be final and that while the amendments may not be retrospective he says the court's ruling may allow President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to grant the death row members of the Bali Nine clemency.

"That might be enough for him to step back from his firmly held position that he wouldn't exercise his power of clemency in favour of drug smugglers. He could argue that the Constitutional Court's decision has altered the circumstances so dramatically that he'd be entitled to do so... It's critical because Constitutional Court decisions are binding and there's no appeal from them so it will be a once and for all time decision... The Constitutional Court decision, if they win it and they may not, would really add a great deal more optimism to any assessment of their chances."

Prof. Lindsey said he is unsure of when the court will hand down its decision, but he expects it to be soon. He said the interpretation of the constitution will ultimately decide the fate of all of those waiting on Indonesia's death row.

"We don't know when it will hand down its decision but it is not a court that is subject to a great deal of delay. The only caution in this is that the words 'right to life'... there's no certainty that that will be interpreted to mean that executions are prohibited. Those words have been interpreted in other countries to allow executions to go ahead... the argument could go either way."

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Mon, 6 April 2007
Source: Australian Broadcasting Commission (Australia-Web)
Reporters: (on air ) Alex Sloan and (online) Nicholas Kittel
Website:http://www.abc.net.au/canberra/

Save Bali Nine

A FORMER federal minister under investigation by the Australian Federal Police has backed a petition accusing the force of "delivering up" up the Bali Nine to the death sentence.

Member for Moreton Gary Hardgrave tabled a petition in Parliament this week from the Brisbane parents of Scott Rush, who has been sentenced to death for his part in a plot to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin into Australia.

The petition, signed by more than 1500 people, condemns the AFP for tipping off Indonesian police instead of waiting to charge them in Australia.

Mr Hardgrave told Parliament: "As this petition outlines, it acknowledges the gross error of judgment by the AFP in delivering up to the Indonesian National police nine young Australian citizens, when they knew that the inevitable consequence of their action would be to expose each of these young people to a death sentence."

Mr Hardgrave is one of three Liberal MPs in Queensland embroiled in federal police investigations into alleged abuse of electoral allowances.

His Sunnybank office was raided by federal police at the start of the month. But Mr Hardgrave yesterday said his sponsorship of the petition was unrelated to his own dealings with the federal police.

"I am trying to be straight up and down with Parliament. They have come to me with a petition and I have tabled it," Mr Hardgrave said.

"The petition itself is quite critical of it (the AFP), and I can understand why they are making the criticisms."

Mr Hardgrave said he was confident of being cleared of any wrongdoing by the AFP, claiming the issue had been given too much coverage.

"That will go away, and it will disappear, because there is nothing I have done that is incorrect," he said.

The Government has been reluctant to criticise the AFP's handling of the Bali Nine case.

Federal Commissioner Mick Keelty has also rejected accusations the AFP was to blame for the group's plight.

"Whilst we do have sympathy for those innocent people involved with the Bali Nine, we have to look to the greater good and apply the law without fear or favour, affection or ill will: and that is what we have done," he said last year.

Rush, 21, is one of six young Australians condemned to death by the Indonesian Supreme Court last year for heroin trafficking.

A challenge has been launched in the country's constitutional court claiming the death penalty is unconstitutional.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Fri, 30 Mar 2007
Source: The Sunday Mail.com (Australia-Web)
Reporter: Lachlan Heywood
Website: http://www.news.com.au/sundaymail

Lethal jab plan for Bali Nine

AUSTRALIAN members of the Bali Nine heroin smuggling gang, now on death row, could be executed by lethal injection rather than firing squad under changes being considered by Indonesia's Attorney-General.

Abdurrahman Saleh said yesterday he had already discussed the plan with the Indonesian Doctors Association, the country's peak medical body.

"We have had several meetings with them on this matter, and we would like to change the method of execution," Mr Saleh told a bench of nine judges considering constitutional challenges against the death penalty brought by Bali Nine members Scott Rush, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumuran. "Injection is considered more humane."

Narcotics police chief I Made Mangku Pastika said Indonesia had put only three people to death for drug-related crimes. The three, executed in 2004, were an Indian and two Thais convicted of heroin smuggling.

Indonesia has 59 people on death row after drug-related convictions, including the Australians, and General Pastika said, "People are always asking me (when they will be executed)".

The police chief said the small number of executions meant there was little deterrent effect in the punishment.

But Mr Saleh insisted that retaining the death penalty was crucial to fighting narcotics crime. "Indonesia absolutely needs capital punishment - if we do not have it, the fear is that Indonesia will give the wrong message to drug distributors and potential users," the Attorney-General said. "Drug syndicates from Singapore, for example, could all come here."

However, Rush's lawyer, prominent human rights campaigner Todung Mulya Lubis, accused public officials of corruption in the way they manipulated the criminal process.

"Most people who are arrested are just small players - there's always bigger players behind them, like a mafia," Mr Lubis said. "And it's not possible these would exist without the co-operation of the TNI (army), police, prosecutors, judges and lawyers - just like in a novel."

Mr Saleh revealed President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono did not believe Rush's appeal in the constitutional court was valid, as he was not an Indonesian citizen.

"Because the petitioner is an Australian, I say on behalf of the President that Scott Rush is not qualified to test the Indonesian constitution," Mr Saleh said.

The appeals of Chan and Sukumuran have been presented jointly with those of two Indonesian drug convicts, and so have not attracted the same objection from the Government.

However, Mr Lubis said the constitution's guarantee to life was "not about citizen's rights, but about human rights".

The constitutional court, a relatively new body whose powers remain to be fully tested, is also considering appeals by convicted Bali bombers Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, Imam Samudra and Ali Ghufron, alias Mukhlas, against their death sentences.

A draft revision to the criminal code now under way could restrict the possibility for multiple death-row clemency appeals, General Pastika revealed after yesterday's hearing.

"I have suggested the execution process be sped up so people have faith in the system," he said.

Mr Saleh said some death-row prisoners were repeatedly applying for pardons and sentence reviews, although the constitution allowed only one plea for review and one for pardon.

"Executions are often delayed because of actions by law-enforcement officials who, in fact, are acting in contravention of the constitution," he said.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Wed, 28 Mar 2007
Source: The Australian (Australia-Web)
Reporter: Stephen Fitzpatrick
Website:http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au

Tim Lindsey: Appeal may not help drug runners

Can the Bali Nine beat the death penalty

BALI Nine members Scott Rush, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, convicted in Indonesia of an attempt in April 2005 to smuggle more than 8kg of heroin into Australia, await execution by firing squad or lethal injection. They are now running cases in that country's Constitutional Court, claiming that the death penalty is unconstitutional.

The bitter irony is that even if they win, it may not be enough to save them. The reasons for this relate to major differences about how courts in different jurisdictions enforce their constitutions. In most British tradition common law countries, the power to hear appeals and the power to review statutes against the constitution are effectively fused in one court, as in our High Court or the US Supreme Court. But in European tradition civil law systems - the vast majority of legal systems in the world today - this has not always been the case.

In some European-tradition systems, the authority of constitutional courts has often been tightly restricted to constitutional review, sometimes preventing them from hearing appeals from other courts or reversing their decisions. Indonesia's judicial system was inherited on independence in 1945 from the former colonial rulers, the Dutch, who in turn developed their legal system from the Napoleonic model, so Indonesia's Constitutional Court fits squarely into this category.

This means the current cases are not, in fact, appeals, as claimed in some reports, but "in principle" challenges to the constitutionality of statutes - in this case, the drugs legislation under which the Bali Nine were convicted.

This is why the Constitutional Court has been questioning the Australians' lawyers as to whether they should even be heard at all. Should the right to interpret Indonesia's constitution be restricted to citizens? This problem doesn't arise for Chan and Sukumaran, because their lawyers joined two Indonesian death row inmates to their action, neatly short-circuiting the "standing" issue. But it has been an issue for Rush. The consequences of the absence of an appeal jurisdiction in Indonesia's Constitutional Court go well beyond problems of legal standing.

If the "Bali Three" do win, the court will probably declare the death penalty to be contrary to Article 28I of the constitution, which provides that the right to life "cannot be diminished under any circumstances whatsoever".

But this may not help them, because the Constitutional Court says that its judgments cannot be applied to earlier decisions of other courts.

Although from the moment of decision the death penalty would become unconstitutional, existing sentences would not be altered. This approach is intended to give certainty to court decisions and prevent constitutional reviews from becoming de facto appeals.

This was made clear in a 2003 case, involving Masykur Abdul Kadir, a conspirator on the fringes of the first Bali bombing in 2002. The Constitutional Court accepted his claim that it was unconstitutional to apply Indonesia's tough new anti-terror laws to the Bali bombing, because they were retrospective, something also banned by Article 28I of the constitution. Judges, prosecutors and police complied from then on, but Kadir, although convicted under those same anti-terror laws, stayed in jail. His (now unconstitutional) conviction remained intact because it was made before the Constitutional Court decision. The Bali Three are now in the same position as Kadir, only facing a far more severe penalty.

So will there be any benefit for the six Australians facing death if the Bali Three win? Maybe. A Constitutional Court declaration would probably be used in final Supreme Court appeals, although Chief Justice Bagir Manan has already said it would not be proper grounds for appeal to his court.

But, although a finding that the death penalty is unconstitutional would technically not void any existing sentences, there might be an argument that the Government can no longer carry out the executions. And it would be difficult politically for the Government do so: an international outcry would be inevitable. The decision might form strong grounds for a clemency application to Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to substitute imprisonment for execution. It could even be enough to persuade him to break his longstanding promise not to use his powers to help convicted drug offenders. There is another catch. Bali bombers Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra have been dodging execution since 2003. If the Bali Nine escape death, they might rely on the same grounds to also avoid the death penalty. There can be no doubt that Jakarta is well aware of this and that creates another twist in the already complex array of factors that will ultimately determine the fate of the Bali Nine. The Indonesian Government has waited years for the Bali bombers and has only executed a few drug offenders in recent years.

Fifty-nine more languish on death row. Jakarta is likely to let every possible legal avenue be exhausted, including litigation and clemency.

The Constitutional Court is neither a quick fix, nor the end of the road.

Tim Lindsey, an Australian Research Council Federation fellow, is a director of the Asian Law Centre at the University of Melbourne.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Wed, 28 Mar 2007
Source: The Age(Australia-Web)
Reporter: Tim Lindsey
Website:http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au

Report warns against Lombok Treaty

A new security treaty with Indonesia could hamper Australia's ability to speak out about human rights abuses, a Sydney University report warns.

Australia and Indonesia last year signed an historic security pact, known as the Lombok Treaty, which is currently being examined by a parliamentary committee.

The wide-ranging treaty - which covers cooperation in areas such as defence, law enforcement, counter terrorism and intelligence - is the first formal security agreement since Indonesia tore up the previous pact during the 1999 East Timor crisis.

The agreement, signed last November, signalled relations between the two neighbours were back on track after a row earlier in the year when Australia granted protection to 43 Papuan asylum-seekers.

The treaty is yet to be ratified by the Australian parliament.

As part of the treaty, both countries pledge not to support "in any manner" any activities which threaten the "stability, sovereignty or territorial activity" of the other, including separatist groups operating in their own territories.

A report from the West Papua Project at Sydney University's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies warns that the pact in effect has Australia colluding with Indonesia in an "undeclared war" against the Papuans.

It says that Australia will be providing training, funding and material aid to Indonesian forces who are engaged in what many Papuans believe is genocide against their people.

The report says ratifying the treaty may even impinge on Australian democracy by hampering Australians' ability to speak out about human rights concerns.

"It is a right, and arguably a duty, to speak out on behalf of our neighbours who are being severely repressed, dispossessed and marginalised, yet this treaty, at least in the eyes of official Indonesians, would make such concern criminal," the report says.

"We would be unable to openly criticise Indonesian military excesses without being branded separatists.

"Worse still, those people who believe that West Papua is entitled to independence could be subject of government surveillance or punishment here in Australia.

"The treaty will, in effect, give Indonesian generals the right to determine what Australians can do and say."

A number of submissions to the parliamentary inquiry have already warned that the treaty lacks sufficient human rights safeguards.

In its submission, the Human Rights Law Resource Centre said: "The HRLRC is concerned that the broad scope of the treaty in respect of defence, law enforcement, counter terrorism and intelligence cooperation in particular does not include sufficient human rights safeguards, and that such safeguards present in related domestic legislation and international agreements are noticeably absent from the treaty."

It highlighted the case of so-called Bali Nine, a number of whom face the death penalty, as an example of how cooperation between Australia and Indonesia could work to the detriment of Australians.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Tues, 27 March 2007
Source: The Age (Australia -Web)
Copyright: 2007 AAP
Website: http://www.theage.com.au

Attorney General defends capital punishment

Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh has defended the government's decision to keep capital punishment in the country's legal system, saying it was a deterrent to crime.

"On the request filed by several Australians to have (capital punishment) reviewed, the Justice Minister, the National Narcotics Agency head and I will keep fighting to keep the death penalty here," Abdul Rahman told a media conference Friday.

Two Australians sentenced to death for attempting to smuggle drugs into their country from Bali recently made an unsuccessful push for a judicial review of capital punishment in the Constitutional Court.

"We encourage not only prosecutors and police to retain the death penalty here, but everyone, especially for drug-related crimes," the attorney general said.

He cited the many foreigners who continued in their attempts to smuggle drugs into the country as a reason for his stance.

"People assume that Indonesia is only playing around with capital punishment. People don't get scared anymore by death sentences," Abdul Rahman said.

"Unlike neighbors Singapore and Malaysia, which are consistent in their harsh laws against drug use and smuggling, Indonesia is lenient with dealing death sentences, as several convicts had escaped the death penalty after they were granted presidential clemency. They could also get their cases reviewed."

Abdul Rahman said around half of those serving time in the country's prisons were found guilty of drug-related crimes. "In several prisons, the number of drug criminals has reached 60 percent."

The Attorney General's Office currently lists more than 90 people on death row.

The Constitutional Court recently rejected lawyer Todung M. Lubis's attempts to do away with the death sentence for narcotics related crimes in a judicial review.

Todung represents Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, the two Australian ringleaders of the Bali Nine group.

Todung argued that the right to life was protected under Article 29 of the 1945 Constitution, and could not be reduced under any condition or by any party, including the state. This made the death penalty unconstitutional, he said.

Todung said Indonesia adheres to the UN Human Rights Declaration and has a moral responsibility to eradicate capital punishment. (07)

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Sun, 25 March 2007
Source: The Jakarta Post (Indonesia-Web)
Reporter: Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo
Website: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/

Indonesia considers lethal injections over firing squads

Indonesia is considering abandoning firing squads in favour of lethal injections to carry out death sentences.

Six members of the Bali nine and three Bali bombers are imprisoned in Indonesia, sentenced to death by firing squad.

Before Indonesia's Constitutional Court, Attorney-General Abdul Rachman Saleh argued that as foreigners, the Bali nine's Scott Rush, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were not entitled to have their constitutional case against the death penalty considered because they were not Indonesians.

Speaking at the first formal hearing of Scott Rush's constitutional challenge to his death penalty, Mr Saleh also said he wanted to replace death by firing squad with death by lethal injection as Indonesia's preferred means of execution.

He said lethal injection was more humane.

He argued all forms of punishment, including detention, are against human rights but are legal because the law says so.

Mr Saleh said the Government was discussing the proposed changes with Indonesia's Doctors' Association, but added that he was committed to execution as a punishment for serious drug offences.

"If we abolish the death penalty now in Indonesia we will send a wrong message to the drug traffickers, all drug traffickers will come here," he said.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Thur, 15 Mar 2007
Source: Australian Broadcasting Commission (Australia-Web)
Reporter: Geoff Thompson
Website:http://www.abc.net.au/

Rush's death penalty unconstitutional, says lawyer

The lawyer for convicted drug mule Scott Rush says a two-pronged appeal will be mounted in Indonesian courts from today.

Darwin-based Colin McDonald QC says the first appeal to Indonesia's Constitutional Court starts today and runs for a month.

Mr McDonald will argue that as a recent signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Indonesia should reserve the death penalty for the most serious crimes, like murder.

"There is plenty of international jurisprudence to say that middle-ranking, drug-related crime is not in the most serious category," he said.

"Therefore, at least in relation to middle-ranking drug crime, the death penalty is unconstitutional."

Rush's life sentence for his role in the Bali nine heroin smuggling ring was upgraded in September last year to death by firing squad.

He says the legal team also has a strong case to put before the Supreme Court.

"That will relate to the reasons given by the Supreme Court for the imposition of the death penalty," he said.

"We are quietly confident that that particular avenue has very strong legal grounds for success."

Mr McDonald is confident the appeals can save Rush from the death penalty.

He says recent visits to Bali's Kerobokan prison have convinced him that Rush is a reformed character.

"You come away with a very profound sense that to execute young people, at least for the mules certainly, that this punishment really doesn't fit the crime," he said.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Thur, 15 March 2007
Source: Australian Broadcasting Commission (Australia -Web)
Website: http://www.abc.net.au

Bring them all home

IF YOU are relieved by the suggestion from the Howard Government that it has cut a deal with the Bush Administration to return home Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks by Christmas, then spare a thought for about 180 other Australian citizens, including high-profile cases such as Schapelle Corby and the Bali Nine, who are languishing in overseas prisons, and in some cases facing the death penalty.

Hicks can count himself lucky that he is an exemplar of the power of lobbying. The campaign to return Hicks to Australia has been so successful because it has started to hurt the Howard Government politically.

That is the only reason Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock and Prime Minister John Howard have jumped on the Hicks bandwagon.

But if one considers the facts in the Hicks case then there is no reason why other individuals such as convicted drug smugglers Corby and the Bali Nine should not also be allowed to serve their sentences in Australian prisons.

And Melbourne man Van Nguyen, who was hanged for drug trafficking in Singapore in 2005, could have been returned to Australia and still be alive today.

What Corby, the Bali Nine, Van Nguyen and many others have in common with Hicks is that they are facing and, in some cases, have been found guilty of serious criminal offences, the punishment for which is a lengthy term of imprisonment or the death penalty.

Like Hicks, Corby, the Bali Nine and Van Nguyen, many of these prisoners are subject to legal processes which, by the exacting standards of fairness and the rights of the accused we apply in this country, could be described as less than satisfactory.

In common with Hicks, who is being held in physically and psychologically inhumane conditions at Guantanamo Bay, Corby and the Bali Nine are being held in the notoriously tough Indonesian jail system.

Just as Hicks has family and friends in Australia desperate to see him return to this country, Corby and the Bali Nine similarly have strong family ties to Australia. There was also strong community and family support in Melbourne for Van Nguyen.

So why haven't our politicians been fighting for the return to Australia of Corby and the Bali Nine – or fought in Van Nguyen's case – on similar terms to those agreed with the Americans about Hicks?

In the case of Van Nguyen, there is no doubt Howard and Downer lobbied their Singaporean counterparts hard not to execute him. But why didn't they try to reach an agreement with the Singapore Government about allowing this 25-year-old to serve any prison sentence back in Melbourne?

As a prominent Melbourne barrister Peter Vickery QC has noted, despite the fact high level and strong legal advice was given to the Howard Government that it had the power to demand the extradition of Van Nguyen, Justice Minister Chris Ellison and Ruddock were intransigent and refused to alter their chosen course, offering no rational reason for doing so.

In the cases of Corby and the Bali Nine, campaigns by their families and supporters to allow them to return to Australia have fallen on deaf ears.

The Hicks campaign has attracted former prime ministers, church leaders, judges, politicians and community support from across the political spectrum, and that is why the Howard Government has acted to remove it as a potential negative in the lead-up to the federal election.

Now is the time for this same group of Australians to press our politicians to ensure that similar arrangements as those made with the Americans for Hicks should be reached with other countries such as Indonesia, Singapore, China, and Thailand where Australian prisoners are in as invidious a position as Hicks.

In many cases prisoner exchange treaties with other countries have been talked about or are being negotiated – but it is all taking far too long. If it's good enough in the case of Hicks, why not everybody else?

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Tues, 20 Feb 2007
Source: The Courier Mail (Australia -Web)
Reporter: Greg Barns
Website: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/

Open judicial reviews to all, says top lawyer

The right to file a request for a judicial review should not be limited only to Indonesians, because equal treatment before the law is a basic human right, a lawyer said Wednesday.

Lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis made the statement in revised arguments submitted to the Constitutional Court asking for the abolition of the death sentence in the 1997 Narcotics Law.

"Everyone should have the right to defend oneself," he told reporters after submitting the revised arguments.

"The Amended 1945 Constitution says everyone is equal before the law. Only narrow-minded people believe that only Indonesians have the right to ask for a judicial review," he added.

Todung is representing Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, members of the so-called Bali Nine drug ring, who were sentenced to death by the Denpasar District Court in February 2006 for attempting to smuggle 8.2 kilograms of heroin to Australia.

Two of Todung's other clients, Indonesians Rani Andriani and Edith Y. Sianturi, received death sentences from the Tangerang District Court in August 2000 and December 2001, respectively, for trafficking heroin.

The Bali and Banten High Courts and the Supreme Court have rejected the appeals of the four convicts.

Todung held a preliminary hearing with the Constitutional Court on Feb. 1. Presiding judge Mukhtie Fajar, however, said article 51 of the 2003 Law on the Constitutional Court stipulates only Indonesians have the right to file for a judicial review.

The judge suggested that the lawyer make a request to review that article.

Under the 1997 Narcotics Law, drug traffickers can be sentenced to death, life in prison or 20 years in prison.

Todung filed for a judicial review to abolish capital punishment last month after the Supreme Court upheld the death sentences of the four drug traffickers.

Shortly after Todung filed the judicial review, lawyer Denny Kailimang, who represents another member of the Bali Nine, Australian Anthony Rush, also asked the Constitutional Court to review the Narcotics Law.

Todung said the death penalty should be removed from all the country's laws that carried it.

Other laws punishable by death are the Law on Corruption, the Law on Terrorism and an emergency law on the possession of firearms and explosives.

Todung said the enactment of the death sentence here violated a 1966 international convention on politics and civil rights, which Indonesia had signed, and degraded Indonesia's status as a signatory to the UN Human Rights Declaration.

He argued the death penalty did not deter crime.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate:Thur, 15 Feb 2007
Source: Jakarta Post (Indonesia -Web)
Website: http://www.thejakartapost.com/

Bali Nine ringleaders in new challenge

Lawyers for the two Bali Nine ringleaders have lodged a fresh legal challenge against the death penalty in Indonesia's Constitutional Court.

When lawyers for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran initially submitted their challenge to the Constitutional Court on February 1, chief judge Mukhtie Fadjar said only Indonesian citizens could challenge the country's law.

However, lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis on lodged a revision of their petition, adding an argument against the limitation of the law.

"We hope that the judges would be convinced that anyone, regardless of their nationality, should be able to file judicial review," Lubis told reporters.

"And they should be given every legal right to defend themselves," he said.

"Regardless of their citizenship, they (foreigners) should have a right to challenge the constitution under any circumstances."

Chan and Sukumaran, both from Sydney, were among nine young Australians arrested in Bali by Indonesian authorities on drugs charges in April 2005, following a tip-off from the Australian Federal Police.

Separate Supreme Court appeals by the two men were thrown out in September, when the court also upgraded the punishment of four other Bali Nine members from life sentences to death.

Lubis said he was optimistic the pair could defend themselves at this judicial stage.

"We are very optimistic, very upbeat that this ... could be accepted by the Constitutional Court."

Additional witnesses and arguments have been added to the petition to add weight to the challenge, he said.

An Indonesian MP involved in a drug law amendment, a professor of criminology from Oxford University and a death penalty expert will be presented in the next hearings.

The next hearing date has not been set.

Bali Nine drug mule Scott Rush has followed Chan and Sukumaran's example and is fighting his death sentence in a separate challenge to the Constitutional Court.

Lubis said there was a possibility the separate cases would be joined. "If the judges decided that they have to combine this petition then we will go ahead with it."

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Wed, 14 Feb 2007
Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia -Web)
Copyright: 2007 AAP
Website: http://www.smh.com.au/

Bali Nine condemned could get 10-year reprieve

DEATH-ROW members of the Bali Nine heroin-smuggling gang could avoid a firing squad under radical changes to Indonesia's criminal code being considered by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The wholesale revision of the Crimes Act would retain the death penalty for selected crimes, including drug smuggling, but would give convicts the opportunity to have their sentences commuted after 10 years' good behaviour.

Australians sentenced to death could then serve their time in Australian jails under a prisoner-exchange program being finalised between Jakarta and Canberra.

"The 10-year review concept, which is in the draft, means that if someone's behaviour is good enough, eventually the Justice Department can give a remission - for example, anything from 20 years in jail to life," legal researcher Wahyu Wagiman, from Jakarta think tank the Policy Research and Advocacy Institute, told The Weekend Australian yesterday.

"But whatever their behaviour - good or otherwise - during that 10 years, they could not be executed."

The 10-year review provision would require a further act of parliament allowing it to be applied retrospectively, if it were to save the lives of the six young Australian gang members convicted last year of trying to export 10kg of heroin from Bali to Sydney.

Three more of the nine are serving terms of between 20 years and life.

The draft law, which has been on Dr Yudhoyono's desk for at least seven months - while he considers an article dealing with the crime of "offending the president" - is described by some legislators as running a "middle path" between excising the death penalty altogether and retaining a tough approach to crime.

"So the death penalty in this draft would be applied to very selective cases," said Harkristuti Harkrisnowo, the Justice Ministry's Director-General for Human Rights.

Separately, Bali Nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran and courier Scott Rush have cases running in Indonesia's constitutional court arguing that the death penalty breaches the right to life guaranteed under the country's 1945 constitution.

Their chances of success in that case appear to hinge on a law that says foreigners may not bring cases before the constitutional court. Changing that law would also require an act of parliament.

Justice Department spokesman Suharyono said yesterday there was a general feeling that Indonesia should move away from the death penalty, but that the constitutional court cases against the penalty would have a stronger chance for success if they were not brought by the Bali Nine members.

"If it were only Indonesians bringing this case it would certainly be easier, because they wouldn't have to deal with Article 51 (preventing non-Indonesian petitioners)," Mr Suharyono said.

However, Mr Wahyu suggested yesterday that most members of the criminal code drafting committee, and many politicians, believed Indonesia should retain its capital punishment statutes.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Sat, 10 Feb 2007
Source: news.com.au (Australia -Web)
Reporter: Stephen Fitzpatrick
Website: http://www.news.com.au

Proposed death law changes may aid Bali Nine members

The draft of a new Indonesian criminal code being considered by the country's President includes amendments under which the death penalty could be avoided.

The latest draft of Indonesia's new criminal code grants a faint new hope to the six of the Bali Nine heroin smuggling ring now facing the death penalty in Indonesia.

Under the proposed changes, those sentenced to death would receive 10 years' grace after which good behaviour would be rewarded by commuting the condemned's death sentence to life in prison.

The draft law has been considered by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for the past seven months and even if approved, a separate act of Parliament would be needed for the changes to operate retrospectively.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Sat, 10 Feb 2007
Source: Australian Broadcasting Commission (Australia -Web)
Reporter: Geoff Thompson
Website: http://www.abc.net.au

Rush seeks to join Bali Nine challenge

Lawyers for Bali Nine drug mule Scott Rush have asked that his legal challenge against Indonesia's death penalty be joined with a similar appeal by the two ringleaders of the failed heroin smuggling ring.

Rush, 21, and ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, have lodged separate challenges with Indonesia's Constitutional Court, arguing the country's constitution enshrines their right to life.

They are challenging the constitutional validity of the narcotics law under which they were sentenced.

However, early doubts have already arisen over their legal right as foreigners to challenge the laws of another country.

Chief judge Mukhtie Fadjar told a preliminary hearing of Rush's case on Tuesday that he needed to hear a stronger argument on "whether a foreign citizen could challenge the legal policy of a country".

The judge raised similar doubts last week at the first hearing of the Chan-Sukumaran challenge, which also names two Indonesian death row inmates.

The Constitutional Court does not have the power to overturn their death sentences.

Instead, any ruling in their favour will be used to add legal weight to their planned last-ditch appeal against their executions to the Supreme Court, known as a judicial review, later this year.

Rush's lawyer Harry Ponto told the court that Rush had the right to challenge the laws, as he was being punished with the death sentence under them.

"He's sentenced under the Indonesian jurisdiction, by Indonesian law, which originated from the constitution and that's why, anyone who's sentenced in Indonesia could submit the challenge," Ponto said.

"We acknowledged that there's been previous requests lodged by two Indonesian citizens and two foreign citizens and we asked that this request to be joined as a group with the same interest.

"When the constitution admits that the right to live is a non-derogable right, then the death penalty is no longer applied in Indonesia."

Chan and Sukumaran, both from Sydney, were among nine young Australians arrested in Bali by Indonesian authorities on drugs charges in April 2005, following a tip-off from the Australian Federal Police.

Separate Supreme Court appeals by the two men were thrown out in September, when the court also upgraded the punishment of four other Bali Nine members from life sentences to death.

Rush, the only Bali Nine drug mule on death row, was caught at Denpasar airport carrying 1.3kg of heroin divided between two bags strapped to his legs.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Tues, 6 Feb 2007
Source: The Age (Australia -Web)
Copyright: AAP
Website:http://www.theage.com.au/

Bali Nine ringleaders' appeal hits hurdle

Two Bali Nine ringleaders appear to have hit an early stumbling block in their fight against the death penalty in Indonesia's Constitutional Court.

Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran have lodged a test-case challenge seeking the protection of Indonesia's constitution, which they say affords life as a basic human right.

They are challenging the constitutional validity of the narcotics law under which they were sentenced.

But a preliminary hearing of the court today, sitting in Jakarta, heard only Indonesian citizens were eligible to submit a challenge to Indonesian law.

"Regarding the two foreigners who submit the legal challenge, you have given a brief argument about this," chief judge Mukhtie Fadjar said.

"Basically the court's opinion will be reflected in the court decision.

"But you must give a stronger argument that foreigners can submit a law challenge in a country."

The pair's lawyer, prominent human rights lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis, said that while the two were not Indonesian citizens, they still had legal rights.

"This is about human rights, not about citizen's rights," he said.

After the hearing, Lubis said he would lodge a challenge to the article of law that stated only Indonesian citizens could submit a Constitutional Court challenge to the law.

The court gave Lubis 14 days to submit the documents.

The judge also indicated the challenge would be joined with a similar separate appeal by Bali Nine drug mule Scott Rush, lodged earlier this week.

The Constitutional Court does not have the power to overturn their death sentences.

Instead, any ruling in their favour will be used to add legal weight to their planned last-ditch appeal against their executions to the Supreme Court, known as a judicial review, later this year.

Chan and Sukumaran, both from Sydney, were among nine young Australians arrested in Bali by Indonesian authorities on heroin smuggling charges in April 2005, following a tip-off from the Australian Federal Police.

Separate Supreme Court appeals by the two men were thrown out in September, when the court also upgraded the punishment of four other Bali Nine members from life sentences to death.

Rush, the only Bali Nine drug mule on death row, was caught at Denpasar airport carrying 1.3kg of heroin divided between two bags strapped to his legs in April 2005.

Justice Minister Chris Ellison refused to say whether the Federal Government would help fund the appeals.

"They have an avenue of applying for legal assistance," he said in Darwin today.

"We don't divulge normally whether we give people legal aid or not. That is a matter of privacy.

"It's a matter for them to apply to the attorney-general for assistance. We have provided assistance to people overseas in relation to their legal matters and there is a funding allocation for that."

Asked if he thought their applications would get approved, he said: "It's assessed on its merits".

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Thur, 1 Feb 2007
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia -Web)
Copyright: AAP
Website: http://www.smh.com.au

Bali nine trio dealt court blow

A blow has been dealt to challenges lodged by three Australians seeking to have their death penalties ruled illegal under Indonesia's Constitution.

Indonesia's Constitutional Court does not have the power to quash the death sentences faced by the Bali Nine's ringleaders, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, or drug mule Scott Rush.

But the drug smugglers hope that an argument that their death penalties are illegal under Indonesia's constitution, which protects the right to life, would help to get their sentences overturned.

The court has quashed that argument, saying it is not legally enabled to consider cases filed by foreigners, a claim disputed by Chan and Sukumaran's lawyer, Todung Mulya Lubis.

"Where you deal with human rights, not simply dealing with citizen rights, foreigners should be allowed to file judiciary review," he said.

Mr Lubis has been given 14 days to prepare stronger arguments.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Thur, 1 Feb 2007
Source: Australian Broadcasting Commission (Australia -Web)
Reporter: Geoff Thompson
Website: http://www.abc.net.au

Bali Nine mule Rush launches new appeal

Bali Nine drug mule Scott Rush has launched a fresh legal bid to escape the death penalty, seeking protection under Indonesia's Constitution.

Rush's legal team lodged a challenge in the Constitutional Court in Jakarta on behalf of the 21-year-old, arguing the Indonesian Constitution protects life as a basic human right.

It comes a fortnight after a similar unprecedented challenge was lodged by Bali Nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.

All three are challenging the constitutional validity of the narcotics law under which they were sentenced.

Lawyer Harry Ponto said he was "quite confident" of success.

"It's in our constitution that we guarantee the right of life," Ponto said.

"It's stated quite clearly.

"There are still capital punishments in some of our laws.

"However, based on our constitution, it's supposed to be null and void.

"Here we are trying to challenge that and we do hope we can be successful."

The prominent Jakarta-based human rights lawyer representing Chan and Sukumaran, Todung Mulya Lubis, has said he hoped the test case challenge would, if successful, eliminate the death penalty from other Indonesian laws, not just its narcotics law.

Ponto expected the court would bundle the two separate Bali Nine challenges together, as they were "more or less the same".

A preliminary hearing on Rush's case is expected in two weeks.

He said the Australian had the right to seek protection under Indonesia's constitution because he was being punished under Indonesia's laws.

"It's my understanding that no one can prohibit him to use any legal way to get out of this," Ponto said.

"The law they used to punish him is based on our constitution."

Rush was one of four Bali Nine members who had their life sentences upgraded to the death penalty in a shock move by the Indonesian Supreme Court last September.

Rush, the only Bali Nine drug mule on death row, was caught at Denpasar airport carrying 1.3kg of heroin divided between two bags strapped to his legs in April 2005.

His legal team last week received a boost when Indonesia's top drug enforcement official told reporters he was surprised the sentences had been upgraded to death, and believed the earlier punishments were already sufficient.

There are six Australian members of the Bali Nine heroin smuggling ring on death row after the failed bid to smuggle eight kilograms of heroin from Bali to Sydney in April 2005.

It is understood lawyers for the remaining three death row inmates will meet in Bali on Wednesday to discuss a possible similar constitutional challenge.

The Constitutional Court does not have the power to overturn their death sentences.

Instead, any ruling in their favour will be used to add legal weight to their planned last ditch appeal against their execution to the Supreme Court, known as a judicial review, later this year.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Tues, 30 Jan 2007
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia -Web)
Copyright: AAP
Website: http://www.smh.com.au

Nationality 'no barrier to Bali Nine'

The nationality of two Australians seeking the protection of Indonesia's constitution to beat their death sentences should not be an issue, their lawyer says.

Bali Nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran have lodged a test case in Indonesia's Constitutional Court challenging their death sentences over the failed heroin smuggling ring.

Their lawyers argue that Indonesia's constitution affords life as a basic human right, regardless of nationality.

Prominent Jakarta-based human rights lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis said he hoped the unprecedented challenge, if successful, would eliminate the death penalty from other Indonesian laws, not just its narcotics law.

Chan and Sukumaran, sentenced last February to die by firing squad, are challenging the constitutional validity of the narcotics law under which they were sentenced.

Lawyers for Bali Nine death row drug mule Scott Rush are expected to lodge a similar challenge next Tuesday.

Their lawyer Lubis on Thursday released more details of the challenge, which will begin in the Constitutional Court on February 1.

It is expected to run for three to four months.

He declined to comment on whether the Australian government was contributing funding to the challenge.

Asked if foreigners were protected by Indonesia's constitution, Lubis said "human rights belong to everyone".

"It applies to everyone, not only Indonesian citizens," Lubis said.

"I believe everyone should be entitled to file a judicial review (appeal) petition if it affects their life.

"I don't think nationality should prevent someone from fighting for their rights, fighting for their life."

Lubis will call at least four expert witnesses, including Australian scholar Philip Alston, one of the world's leading human rights experts.

The Indonesian government was expected to be represented by the Minister for Justice and Human Rights Hamid Awaludin, he said.

"These two young boys from Sydney, these two naughty boys who are frequently involved in things, they didn't come from a class of affluence in society," Lubis told reporters.

"I always believe that 99 per cent of crime is the product of poverty.

"I don't accept that the death penalty is the answer to societal injustice."

The Constitutional Court does not have the power to overturn their death sentences.

Instead, any ruling in their favour will be used to add legal weight to their planned last-ditch appeal against their executions to the Supreme Court, known as a judicial review, later this year.

Chan and Sukumaran, both from Sydney, were among nine young Australians arrested in Bali by Indonesian authorities on drugs charges in April 2005, following a tip-off from the Australian Federal Police.

Chan, 23, was removed from a commercial flight as it was about to depart Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport. Police found three mobile phones but no drugs in his possession.

Sukumaran, 25, was caught with three others at the Melasti Hotel, at Kuta Beach, with five mobile phones and 350g of heroin.

He denied any involvement in the heroin operation at the airport.

Separate Supreme Court appeals by the two men were thrown out in September, when the court also upgraded the punishment of four other Bali Nine members from life sentences to death.

Those four - Matthew Norman, Si Yi Chen, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen and Scott Rush - are also planning higher legal challenges to their death sentences.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Thur, 25 Jan 2007
Source: moora news (Australia -Web)
Reporter: Karen Michelmore
Copyright: 2007 AAP
Website: http://moora.yourguide.com.au/