Jakarta court dismisses death row Australians’ legal challenge

An Indonesian 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 Indonesian President Joko Widodo in recent months.

The first thing I need to say firmly is that there shouldn’t be any intervention towards the death penalty because it is our sovereign right to exercise our law.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo

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 Jakarta’s insistence nothing more can be done for them.

Clemency is the prerogative of the president… the state administrative court has no right to rule on the challenge.

Judge Hendro Puspito

Asia-Pacific Bali Nine