Australia vows to exhaust all options to save Bali drug smugglers
17 Feb 2015 11:47 PM GMT
Australia will pursue all legal options to save two of its citizens from execution in Indonesia, Prime Minister Tony Abbott vowed on Monday amid reports the death penalty judges asked for bribes.
“I don’t want to peddle false hope but I do want everyone to understand... we are straining every fibre to help these people in a difficult position,” Abbott told reporters.
Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, on death row since 2006, face execution by firing squad as ring leaders of the so-called Bali Nine group trafficking heroin from Indonesia’s Bali island into Australia.
The pair recently lost their final appeals to Indonesian President Joko Widodo for clemency despite arguing that they had rehabilitated themselves in prison.
No date has been announced for their executions, but governments with death row prisoners in Indonesia have been invited to the foreign ministry later today for an explanation of the process after a clemency appeal is rejected.
“I don’t want to peddle false hope but I do want everyone to understand... we are straining every fibre to help these people in a difficult position,” Abbott told reporters.
Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, on death row since 2006, face execution by firing squad as ring leaders of the so-called Bali Nine group trafficking heroin from Indonesia’s Bali island into Australia.
The pair recently lost their final appeals to Indonesian President Joko Widodo for clemency despite arguing that they had rehabilitated themselves in prison.
No date has been announced for their executions, but governments with death row prisoners in Indonesia have been invited to the foreign ministry later today for an explanation of the process after a clemency appeal is rejected.
Next Story
