Bali nine executions: Julie Bishop offers prisoner swap to spare lives of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran
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| Andrew Chan, Myuran Sukumaran |
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has raised the prospect of a prisoner swap in a last-ditch attempt to spare the lives of two Australians on death row in Indonesia.
Ms Bishop confirmed on Thursday she brought up the idea with her Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi during a phone call on Tuesday evening.
"What we are seeking to do is have an opportunity to talk about options that might be available in the area of prisoner transfer, a prisoner swap," Ms Bishop said in Canberra.
"Absolutely no details [were discussed] but we are seeking an opportunity to explore every option that might be available, every avenue that might be available to save the lives of these two men."
Later, Ms Bishop told the ABC she hoped Indonesia and Australia could sign a memorandum of understanding should a prisoner swap occur.
"I didn't go into any specific detail but I did note there were Australian prisoners in Jakarta and there were Indonesian prisoners in Australia and that we should explore some opportunity, a prison swap, a transfer, whether that could be done under Indonesian law," she said of the phone call.
The Foreign Minister said she was waiting to hear back from her counterpart, who promised to take the idea to President Joko Widodo.
The deal could involve three Indonesians in prison in Australia over their role in an infamous 1998 drug bust.
Kristito Mandagi, Saud Siregar and Ismunandar were the captain, the chief officer and the engineer of a boat carrying 390 kilograms of street-ready drugs and a loaded Glock pistol to a beach near Port Macquarie, NSW.
At the time, the haul found in 31 designer sports bags was Australia's largest drug bust. The drugs, of which the pure heroin component weighed 252.3 kilograms, was worth $600 million on the street.
Their heroin importation was 47 times bigger than Chan and Sukumaran's.
The men were caught in 1998 in an operation that involved 76 federal, NSW and Customs officers, a Polair helicopter, two police vessels, the naval frigate HMAS Bendigo and two Customs ships.
All three pleaded not guilty, but Mandagi was sentenced to life with a non-parole period of 25 years. The other two men received 20-year sentences - the same as Schapelle Corby for her boogie board bag of 4.7 kilograms of marijuana.
Eight other Indonesians on the boat were never tried, and were sent home, because police could not prove they knew of the drugs. Mandagi appealed and had six years knocked off his sentence.
He will be eligible for parole in October 2017. The other two can apply a year later.
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, March 5, 2015
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