Lawyers ‘Very Sure’ Bali Nine Pair Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran’s Execution Won’t Proceed
Despite reports that Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran would be transferred to Nusakambangan Island this week, the lawyers for the Bali Nine pair are confident that their execution would at least be delayed. The two Australians’ legal team have been summoned to appear at the administrative court on Feb. 24.
Chan and Sukumaran’s lawyers have lodged an appeal to the administrative court to challenge President Joko Widodo’s presidential decree that denied the duo and other death row drug offenders clemency. The lawyers are arguing that president imposed a blanket ban on clemency when he was supposed to judge individual cases on their merits as required.
The pair’s Indonesian lawyer, Todong Mulya Lubis, told reporters in Jakarta on Monday that they have been sent a letter to meet with the head of the administrative court next Tuesday. With the case appears to have a green signal, the execution cannot move forward.
“I hope this legal process will be respected by the attorney general and all parts of the government,” the lawyer said. “So they cannot move them, not to mention execute them, while the legal process is going on.”
It has been announced that Chan and Sukumaran, along with the others who are included in the second batch of execution, will be moved from Kerobokan prison to the Nusakambangan Island, where the first group of execution was held, any time this week. The transport will not be reported until the prisoners have reached the destination.
A spokesman for Attorney-General HM Prasetyo said that the plans to transport the prisoners for the “D-Day,” or the execution date, are moving ahead as scheduled. However, lawyer Peter Morrissey said that moving Chan and Sukumaran to the venue would go against the rule of law in the country.
They are “very sure” that the Indonesian government will not execute the pair, at least not yet until they get a proper hearing in court.
Lubis, meanwhile, refuses to comment on their allegations that the six judges who gave Chan and Sukumaran death penalty in 2006 asked for bribes in return for lighter sentences. However, he urged the judicial commission to investigate the matter.
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Bali Nine Judges Asked For Bribes In Exchange For Lighter Sentence: Lawyers