Indonesian Court Dismisses Bali Nine Chan and Sukumaran’s Appeal Challenging Clemency Refusal

The last hope of Bali Nine pair Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran has been trampled in administrative court. An Indonesian judge has rejected the appeal from the Australian duo’s lawyers on Tuesday.

Chan and Sukumaran’s legal team filed an appeal in the administrative court to challenge President Joko Widodo’s blanket ban on clemency that affected 64 death row inmates, including the two Bali Nine ringleaders. Their lawyers, led by top Indonesian lawyer Todong Mulya Lubis, argued that the president should have reviewed individual cases on their merits as each required. Mr Widodo allegedly failed to follow the due process by denying all appeals all at once.

However, Justice Hendro Puspito denied their application, saying the administrative court does not have the jurisdiction to try the case. How the president bestows clemency is not an administrative dispute heard in the same court.

“According to the judge, the president’s rejection of (the) clemency petition is not an administrative act so this court does not have the jurisdiction to accept our case,” Lubis said. He added, though, that the fight isn’t over yet.

They have two weeks to file an appeal. “If the law is respected, the execution should be postponed until the legal process is over.”

Lubis said he had asked Attorney General HM Prasetyo to acknowledge that the legal process is on-going, and therefore Chan and Sukumaran’s execution must be at least delayed until it is completed.

The Bali Nine drug smugglers were scheduled to be transferred to Kerobokan prison to Nusakambangan Island last week but was delayed, allegedly due to technical reasons. Prasetyo insisted that despite the delay, the execution of Chan, Sukumaran and the nine other inmates will take place. There is no announced date for the transfer yet.

Meanwhile, Mr Widodo once again showed his resolve on his decision not to grant clemency to drug offenders. “The first thing I need to say firmly is that there shouldn’t be any intervention towards the death penalty because it is our sovereign right to exercise our law,” he told reporters.