Indonesia rejects Australian's death row appeal

Andrew Chan (left)

An Australian drug smuggler sentenced to death in Indonesia has lost his appeal against the punishment, his lawyer said on Friday.

His lawyer said he did not know the grounds for the rejection or why it took five weeks for Andrew Chan, 27, to become aware of his fate.

'I'm very disappointed about this decision because I don't think Andrew deserves the death penalty. I'm very sad,' he said.

It was not clear if Chan would be able to seek any further judicial review of his sentence, his lawyer said.

Chan was a member of the so-called Bali 9 drug gang that attempted to smuggle 8kg of heroin into Australia from the Indonesian resort island of Bali in 2005.

Another member of the gang who is facing the firing squad, Myuran Sukumaran, also has an appeal pending.

A third member, Scott Rush, won an appeal against his death sentence last month, and is now serving life in jail. Six other gang members are serving lengthy jail sentences.

Source: Agence France-Presse, June 17, 2011

Death sentence shock

The death sentence of Bali Nine member Andrew Chan has been upheld by Indonesia's Supreme Court, leaving his family and lawyers reeling.

The verdict, revealed in a short notice posted on the court's website yesterday afternoon, means the Sydneysider faces death by firing squad, unless he can convince Indonesia's president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to grant him clemency.

Dr Yudhoyono has shown little inclination to pardon drug smugglers on death row in the past.

Informed of the decision by The Saturday Age late yesterday, Chan's brother Michael was calm but clearly stunned.

"I don't know how Mum and Dad will take it. I don't know how [Andrew] will take it," said Mr Chan.

"We thought we had a good crack at it but it seems it wasn't meant to be."

Chan was an organiser of a syndicate of nine Australians that was caught with 8.1 kilos of heroin at Bali's airport in 2005.

It is understood Chan had been informed of the verdict last night.

He has faced death ever since he was first sentenced, only admitting guilt and asking for forgiveness during this final appeal.

Chan, who has become a devout Christian and is studying to be a minister, was backed in the appeal by the governor of Kerobokan prison Siswanto, who said Chan was a model prisoner who worked hard to rehabilitate himself and others.

"He doesn't deserve the death sentence," said Chan's Indonesian lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis. "This is shocking. It's a devastating decision".

His Australian counsel, Julian McMahon, said: "If the report is accurate, my response is this: reformed prisoners should not be shot."

As recently as this week, Chan's lawyers had been told by Australian embassy officials in Jakarta that no decision appeared to have been made in the case, Mr Lubis said.

The decision to condemn Chan to death by firing squad was actually made on May 10 but mysteriously kept secret.

There was no judgment attached to the notice but a source at the Supreme Court outlined the reasons for the verdict.

The source said the court rejected Chan's bid for a 20-year sentence because no errors had been made in his earlier court cases, the crime of drug smuggling was proven and the offence carried the death penalty under Indonesian law.

"It was serious crime, it was an organised crime," the source said.

Oddly, a decision by the same court to commute the death sentence of another Bali nine member, Scott Rush, to life was also made on May 10. The Rush verdict was revealed more than a month ago.

In a previous interview with The Age, Chan was fatalistic about his destiny.

"Even if [the appeal] doesn't happen, it not going to stop me doing what I need to do," he said. "I look at it on a day to day basis. I look at it as taking every day as it comes."

The other Bali nine member on death row, Myuran Sukumaran, lodged his appeal at the same time as Chan. But a Supreme Court spokesman said no decision had been made on his case because the judges are in Mecca for the minor Haj.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, June 17, 2011
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