Bali nine: Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan lose appeal

Jewel Topsfield-April 7, 2015

akarta: The Indonesian Attorney-General has vowed there will be no more delays to the executions after Bali nine organisers Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan lost their last-ditch legal  appeal to save them from the firing squad.

The Australians’ lawyers have vowed to keep on fighting and will this week take legal action in the constitutional court.

However Attorney-General H. M. Prasetyo said the legal process was already done.

Decision: The Chief Judge of a three judge panel bangs his gavel after ruling on an appeal by lawyers for two of the Bali Nine drug smugglers. Photo: Getty Images

Asked about the planned challenge to the Constitutional Court, Mr Prasetyo told Agence France Presse there would be no more delays to the executions.

“This proves that they are simply trying to buy time. We can say they are playing with justice,” he told AFP.

The State Administrative Court of Jakarta threw out the appeal on Monday afternoon on the grounds it did not have jurisdiction to rule on presidential decrees. The prospect of Chan and Sukumaran’s lives being spared is now extremely bleak.

Out of options: Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran have lost their last-ditch appeal. Photo: Firdia Lisnawati

Their lawyer, Leonard Arpan Aritonang, said he was disappointed by the result but it would not stop the legal team’s efforts to win clemency. They will ask the constitutional court to clarify the Indonesian president’s obligations in relation to clemency.

The action will be in collaboration with human rights organisation KontraS and other non-government organisations.

Asked if the constitutional court action would postpone the execution, Mr Aritonang said : “We hope the government respects the ongoing legal process.”

However human rights lawyer Professor Todung Mulya Lubis earlier told Fairfax Media that any decision made by the constitutional court would not be retrospective and therefore would not affect the outcome for Chan and Sukumaran.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the Australian government was disappointed by Monday’s decision by the State Administrative Court.

“We understand that the legal team for Mr Chan and Mr Sukumaran is considering other legal options,” Ms Bishop said.

“Both men have undergone extensive rehabilitation and I will continue to make representations to my counterpart, just as Australia will continue to use all diplomatic options to seek a stay of execution. Again, the Australian Government respectfully requests the President to review their pleas for clemency.

"It is important that all legal processes are allowed to run their course. We respect the decision of the Indonesian Government to await the outcomes of ongoing legal challenges.”

Chan and Sukumaran will remain in semi-isolation in Besi Prison on Nusakambangan until the outcomes of the legal cases of other death row inmates are known. No date has yet been set for the execution.

The Indonesian government has vowed to kill the 10 drug felons simultaneously, because, it says, staggering the executions would affect the psychological state of the inmates.

Chan and Sukumaran’s lawyers had hoped to challenge in the Administrative Court Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s refusal to grant 64 drug felons mercy on the grounds that Indonesia is facing a drug emergency. They said he should have examined Chan and Sukumaran’s clemency pleas on an individual basis and taken into account their rehabilitation.

However, Chief Justice Ujang Abdullah upheld an earlier decision on February 24 that the court did not have jurisdiction over presidential clemency.

Professor Mulya told Fairfax Media before the decision was brought down that the legal team would have to think “outside the box” if the appeal failed: “We will have to find our way and ground to launch another legal action.”

The Judicial Commission is also investigating claims by the men’s previous lawyer that the judges who sentenced the men to death offered lighter sentences in exchange for bribes. However, that investigation is unlikely to affect the executions.

The Attorney-General’s Office is now waiting for the Supreme Court’s decision on case review requests filed by Serge Areski Atlaoui of France and Martin Anderson of Ghana.

Lawyers for Indonesian man Zainal Abidin will lodge a request for a judicial review into his case next week.

The Supreme Court says it will expedite the cases of those on death row.

Filipina maid Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso had her judicial review request rejected in days, when the process normally takes up to three months.

The Attorney-General has said that Brazilian Rodrigo Gularte is mentally fit to be executed, even though he has been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

with Karuni Rompies