Indonesia ‘Will No Longer Wait’ For Bali Nine Chan, Sukumaran; Executions To Be Set After Asia-Africa Conferences

Indonesia will wait no more for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran. Attorney-General HM Prasetyo said time has run out for the Bali Nine pair, but the Australians will have to wait until the end of an international conference in the county before they face the firing squad.

Chan and Sukumaran’s appeal to the administrative court has recently been rejected. Their lawyers argued that President Joko Widodo did not review individual cases when he imposed a clemency ban on the execution of 64 drug offenders. The administrative court upheld the decision handed out by a lower court, saying it did not have jurisdiction on the matter.

The appeal was supposed to be Chan and Sukumaran’s last legal recourse to avoid their impending execution. Their lawyers are not giving up, though. They are now planning to take the case to the constitutional court in a bid to buy more time for the condemned duo.

Prasetyo is having none of that. He called the legal team’s plans as delaying tactics, saying the outcome of their new court case doesn’t wouldn’t matter because it won’t apply to Chan and Sukumaran’s current case.

“What we respect is the legal process, not the ones challenging it,” he told reporters. “I hear they’re going to challenge to the constitutional court. Go ahead! That’s their business, but we’re not affected by that.”

He added that even if the constitutional court agrees to take the case, it wouldn’t affect the pair’s looming execution because it would only apply to future cases. “We will wait no longer,” Prasetyo warned.

They might not want to wait for Chan and Sukumaran, but it turns out Chan and Sukumaran would have to wait until after the Asia-Africa Conferences. Prasetyo said the executions have been delayed until the end of the month when the event, which will be held in Jandung and Jakarta from April 18 to 24, closes. He explained he does not wish to cause unease to the high-profile international delegates of the event by having the prisoners shot while it is ongoing.

“There is no fear involved in this decision, but you wouldn’t execute people during a high-profile government event with lots of visitors,” Prasetyo said, denying reports some leaders would cancel their attendance if the executions would be held at the same time.

The delay was also not a direct order from Mr Widodo, Prasetyo claimed. The prosecutors are waiting on the conclusion of the legal processes of Serge Areski Atlaoui from France and Sylvester Obiekwe from Nigeria. They are included in the batch of inmates set to be executed this year.

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