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| The port at Cilacap, where boats leave for Nusakambangan prison island. |
Just two weeks ago, it appeared that a total of 10 people convicted by Indonesian courts of drug-related offenses — all but one of them foreigners — would soon face firing squads, a situation that drew protests from Australia and elsewhere. But a flurry of 11th-hour legal challenges has delayed the executions indefinitely.
Indonesia has come under intense international pressure since putting five foreigners to death in January for drug offenses. Those executions, the country’s first since 2013, came after President Joko Widodo’s government declared narcotics a “national emergency” and vowed to speed up executions of dozens of condemned drug offenders, most of them foreigners.
On Thursday, the State Administrative Court in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, gave lawyers for Andrew Chan, 31, and Myuran Sukumaran, 33, until March 25 to prepare their legal challenge against Mr. Joko’s rejection of their requests for clemency.
Two Nigerians among the group of 10 scheduled for execution are also challenging Mr. Joko’s rejection of their clemency rejections, while a Frenchman and a Ghanaian are asking the Indonesian Supreme Court to review their convictions.
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court agreed to a judicial review of the death sentence handed down to the one woman in the group of 10, a convicted drug smuggler from the Philippines.
Source: The New York Times, March 19, 2015
Bali Nine clemency appeal adjourned
Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan's lawyers will return to court next week in their appeal against a decision to throw out their death row challenge.
Their legal team wants to argue President Joko Widodo didn't properly assess their case, including their well-documented rehabilitation.
The State Administrative Court last month wouldn't hear the case on jurisdictional grounds.
They appealed, and the same court on Thursday adjourned until Wednesday, when they will return with supporting evidence including expert witnesses.
Lawyers for the state will respond on the following Monday.
In court on Thursday they argued that the challenge against the dismissal of the men's clemency was not within the jurisdiction of the administrative court, and challenged the authority of the president
Judge Ujang Abdullah set a final hearing for April 1, with a decision to be announced shortly afterwards.
Lawyer for Chan and Sukumaran, Leonard Arpan, said after the hearing they would have to wait until Wednesday to see what evidence their team would bring.
"Actually their response is not apples to apples with ours," he said, meaning the state hadn't countered all of the issues in the appeal.
Mr Arpan would not discuss what further legal appeals may be planned for the Australians, who are already incarcerated on the island where Indonesia plans to execute them for their role in a 2005 drug smuggling plot.
Meanwhile Australia's new ambassador to Indonesia, Paul Grigson, on Thursday presented his credentials to Mr Joko at the State Palace in Jakarta.
Mr Grigson replaces Greg Moriarty who served from 2010.
New ambassadors for New Zealand, Hungary, the Philippines, Iran and Panama also met Mr Joko and Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi.
Jakarta is indicating it would prefer to wait for the legal appeals of some of the 10 death row drug convicts it plans to kill to clear, in order to leave "no problems behind" afterwards.
Seven of the 10 have appeals of some sort, and the attorney-general plans to execute them simultaneously.
The executions would take place on Nusakambangan island, Central Java, where Chan and Sukumaran are now jailed in quarantine cells.
Source: AAP, March 19, 2015
Recommended reading:
- Indonesia must clean its house first, AsiaOne, Zubaidah Nazeer, The Straits Times, March 17, 2015 (local time).
Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan's lawyers will return to court next week in their appeal against a decision to throw out their death row challenge.
Their legal team wants to argue President Joko Widodo didn't properly assess their case, including their well-documented rehabilitation.
The State Administrative Court last month wouldn't hear the case on jurisdictional grounds.
They appealed, and the same court on Thursday adjourned until Wednesday, when they will return with supporting evidence including expert witnesses.
Lawyers for the state will respond on the following Monday.
In court on Thursday they argued that the challenge against the dismissal of the men's clemency was not within the jurisdiction of the administrative court, and challenged the authority of the president
Judge Ujang Abdullah set a final hearing for April 1, with a decision to be announced shortly afterwards.
Lawyer for Chan and Sukumaran, Leonard Arpan, said after the hearing they would have to wait until Wednesday to see what evidence their team would bring.
"Actually their response is not apples to apples with ours," he said, meaning the state hadn't countered all of the issues in the appeal.
Mr Arpan would not discuss what further legal appeals may be planned for the Australians, who are already incarcerated on the island where Indonesia plans to execute them for their role in a 2005 drug smuggling plot.
Meanwhile Australia's new ambassador to Indonesia, Paul Grigson, on Thursday presented his credentials to Mr Joko at the State Palace in Jakarta.
Mr Grigson replaces Greg Moriarty who served from 2010.
New ambassadors for New Zealand, Hungary, the Philippines, Iran and Panama also met Mr Joko and Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi.
Jakarta is indicating it would prefer to wait for the legal appeals of some of the 10 death row drug convicts it plans to kill to clear, in order to leave "no problems behind" afterwards.
Seven of the 10 have appeals of some sort, and the attorney-general plans to execute them simultaneously.
The executions would take place on Nusakambangan island, Central Java, where Chan and Sukumaran are now jailed in quarantine cells.
Source: AAP, March 19, 2015
Recommended reading:
- Indonesia must clean its house first, AsiaOne, Zubaidah Nazeer, The Straits Times, March 17, 2015 (local time).
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