Jakarta court dismisses Australians' plea for clemency
An Indonesian court has dismissed a last-ditch legal bid by two Australian drug traffickers on death row to avoid execution.
Australian nationals Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were arrested in 2005 and sentenced to death the following year for trying to smuggle heroin out of the Indonesian island of Bali into Australia.
Their appeals for presidential clemency have been rejected by Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
Judge Hendro Puspito said on Tuesday that the Administrative Court was not authorized to overrule the Indonesian president’s right to decide on clemency.
"According to the judge, the president's rejection of (the) clemency petition is not an administrative act so this court does not have the jurisdiction to accept our case," said Todung Mulya Lubis, a lawyer for the two convicts.
The judge said the pair had 14 days to lodge an appeal. Their lawyers said that they would do so.
“We do have a right to challenge that. The judge told us we have 14 days to lodge our challenge and we will file our challenge against the stipulation of the court. Hopefully we will get a hearing to examine, to go into more detail,” the lawyer said.
Indonesian authorities originally said the two convicts would be put to death in February, but announced last week that they would delay the executions to allow the pair more time with their families.
Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has warned Indonesia of a tough diplomatic response if Jakarta executes the two convicted Australians.
“If these executions go ahead, and I hope they don’t, we will certainly be finding ways to make out displeasure felt,” Abbott said on February 15.
AR/GHN/HMV
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