Bali Nine: One Last Chance for Australian Convicts Chan & Sukumaran, Court Decides on April 6
Indonesia may give one last chance to Australian Bali Nine convicts to place their defence. It will be decided on Monday, April 6 if the convicts will have their last legal attempt to avoid execution.
While Indonesian President Joko Widodo has so far refused to grant clemency to any of the 58 convicts on death row, three judges in the Jakarta Administrative Court will decide on Monday if the court is ready to hear the Australians out for one last time.
This will be the last available legal effort for the Bali Nine pair. Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, aged 31 and 33 respectively, are among a group of 10 drug criminals who may be executed later in April. They have appealed against a previous decision by the chief justice of the Administrative Court. There are two other convicts, Frenchman Serge Atlaoui and Ghanaian Martin Anderson, who have been appealing for judicial reviews against the Supreme Court sentences.
According to the lawyers of Chan and Sukumaran, Widodo did not review individual cases before refusing to grant clemency for them. They argued to the Administrative Court that the Indonesian president had failed in his responsibility to give the clemency applications thorough considerations. Chan and Sukumaran were transferred to the Nusakambangan island prison from Central Java in March.
While the Indonesian court earlier claimed that it did not have the authority to hear a challenge against the presidential verdict. However, Dr Otong Rosadi, said that the court was the right place to ask for a review of the president’s decision. The dean of Law from Ekasakti University testified as an expert witness for the Australian convicts.
According to Rosadi, Widodo’s decision to refuse the clemency plea was an administrative process. Therefore, it is possible to challenge the decision of the president who happens to be the head of administration in Indonesia. The representative of Chan and Sukumaran, Leonard Arpan, said that he was satisfied with the evidence.
Meanwhile, Chief Justice Ujang Abdullah warned against banking heavily on the expert witness. He said that expert witnesses did not always end up being right.
Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au
