Religious leaders plead for mercy for Bali Nine duo facing firing squad

Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher and Grand Mufti Ibrahim Abu Mohammad ask Indonesian president to spare Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran

 Bali Nine pair Andrew Chan (left) and Myuran Sukumaran. Photograph: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images

Australian Associated Press -Sunday 8 February 2015

High-profile religious leaders have pleaded for mercy for Bali Nine pair Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, who are facing imminent execution in Indonesia.

“Our request today is for clemency or a commuted sentence for Andrew and Myuran so as to allow them to be further rehabilitated and to execute would prematurely end these lives, robbing both of them and our communities of the opportunity for ongoing repentance and rehabilitation,” the pair said in a statement to journalists.

Fisher said neither he nor the Grand Mufti questioned the men’s guilt, the seriousness of their crime or the legitimacy of the verdicts against them.

Mohammad said the Sydney men have had more than a decade to think about their crime, and have shown remorse and repentance for their role in attempting to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin into Australia.

“By all accounts Andrew and Myuran have come to appreciate clearly the gravity of their crimes,” the Grand Mufti said.

“These Sydney-born men have had a long time to think about what they have done while in Kerobakan prison – and on death row.”

He said he is considering travelling to Indonesia to meet with religious leaders in the coming days to discuss the imminent execution.

Fisher said the role of the Australian federal police in the Bali Nine arrest, and Sunday’s report in Fairfax newspapers that the men’s lawyer, Mohamad Rifan, wants to introduce new evidence in a bid to spare the men “are extra reasons for us to take it seriously”.

Jokowi argues Indonesia is in the grips of a drug crisis that needs the “shock therapy” of the death penalty.

Prime minister Tony Abbott has urged Jokowi to show mercy to the two “well and truly reformed” Australians. Bali court officials last month confirmed presidential clemency had been denied to Chan, two weeks after his fellow Bali Nineringleader, Sukumaran, received the same news.

The announcement all but extinguished their last hope of being spared the death penalty for the 2005 heroin trafficking plot.