Death Penalty News

Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were brutally executed in ‘Indonesia’s Alcatraz’. But they remained defiant until the end. The five remaining members of the infamous “Bali Nine” drug smuggling gang in Indonesia may now be coming home after the Indonesian government appeared to agree for them to be repatriated back to their native Australia this week. The news came following a meeting between Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Law, Human Rights, Immigration and Correctional Institutions, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, and Australia’s Home Affairs Minister, Tony Burke, during which the Indonesian authorities reportedly provisionally green-lit the proposal – which Mr Burke said was “a significant step forward and shows significant goodwill”.

The new Indonesian president – who came to office with a questionable human rights record – has emerged as an unlikely champion for a prisoner swap deal In the dark of the early morning of 29 April 2015, two members of Australia’s so-called Bali Nine were each tied to a stake in a floodlit field on the Indonesian prison island of Nusakambangan. Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran refused blindfolds, and sang as they stood before a firing squad of 12. They were killed at 12.35am.

The news comes after a request from Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. The five remaining Bali nine* prisoners currently serving life sentences in Indonesia for drug trafficking are set to return to Australia at the request of Anthony Albanese. The Prime Minister made the plea during talks with new president Prabowo Subianto at the APEC conference in Peru, The Australian reported on Friday.

Today is the 9th anniversary of the deaths of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, executed by firing squad in Indonesia, alongside 6 other people. We remember them, along with every person who has died at the hands of a retributive state, and the families and friends left mourning them. May they rest in peace.

A district court in West Java has handed death sentences to a gang of more than a dozen drug traffickers, including an Iranian couple and a Pakistani man, the prosecutor's office said. A total of 13 suspects -- three Iranians, a Pakistani and nine Indonesians -- were ordered to be executed by firing squad for the gang's role in smuggling about 400 kilogrammes (880 pounds) of methamphetamine, according to authorities. The ruling was delivered by videolink late Tuesday in West Java's Sukabumi city, where members of the drugs ring were caught last June, due to Covid-19 restrictions. RELATED |  Indonesia, Singapore | Drug Smugglers Are Being Sentenced to Death via Zoom Iranian Hossein Salari Rashid led the smuggling plot, said Bambang Yunianto, head of the Sukabumi prosecutors' office. "There are 4 foreigners in the group with (Rashid) the mastermind of the crime. He was sentenced together with his wife," Bambang said. Tuesday's ruling was a record for the num...

Indonesian authorities recently announced that Francois Abello Camille, 65, a French national arrested in Jakarta last month for allegedly molesting over 300 underaged girls , could be sentenced to death before a firing squad. The news spread on social media and sparked a public debate about the issue of capital punishment, with the majority of Indonesia netizens expressing their wish to see the Frenchman given the death penalty. While human rights organisations, such as Amnesty International, continue to call for the abolition of the death penalty in Indonesia, its prospect, at least in the near future, does not look bright. The Indonesian public tends to see the threat of the death penalty as a panacea against crimes deemed to be “heinous”. A 2015 public poll revealed that the majority of Indonesians believe that threatening drug dealers with the death penalty would act as a deterrent. The survey of 1,200 people across all 34 provinces found that 84.9 % of Indonesi...

New Indonesian Attorney-General flags resumption of death penalty Indonesia's global reputation will be severely damaged if an unofficial moratorium on the death penalty ends and executions restart, human rights groups have warned. On Friday, President Joko Widodo's new Attorney-General Sanitiar Burhanuddin said - just three days after being appointed - executions would "certainly" resume in Indonesia though he did not specify if they would re-start this year or next year. "There are some cases that have not been inkracht . Certainly we will [carry out] the executions," Burhanuddin told state newsagency Antara, adding the Attorney-General's office was collating information on the legal status of all death row inmates and would ensure all legal avenues for appeal were allowed. People who are sentenced to death in Indonesia can appeal to the High Court, then to the Supreme Court to overturn their sentence. If those appeals fail, the Supr...

A new documentary that tracks Myuran Sukumaran's final 72 hours before he was executed in Indonesia is about to be screened in Taiwan, a country that still has the death penalty. Co-writer and producer Maggie Miles says she "worked very closely with Raji Sukumaran," Mr Sukumaran's mother, in making the documentary about her son. Myuran Sukumaran was a member of the Bali Nine and became an accomplished artist who was "fully rehabilitated" at the time of his execution in 2015. Ms Miles says Taiwan is the first country in which the death penalty still exists that the film will be shown. "I was concerned about the censorship process... but I think our cultural considerations in making the film enabled us to get through that censorship process. We focus on the beauty of Myuran's art and his incredible spirit which really exists way beyond his life." The screenings in Taiwan align with the 40th International Federation for Huma...

✔ Click here to Google translate this story into your own language Condamné à 19 ans de prison pour trafic de drogue, le Français Félix Dorfin va être placé dans un complexe de haute sécurité. Actuellement incarcéré à la prison de Mataram, sur l’île de Lombok en Indonésie, l’homme de 35 ans a tenté pour la seconde fois de s’évader, indique le chef de l’établissement pénitentiaire. Le Français Félix Dorfin, détenu en Indonésie pour trafic de drogue, va être transféré dans un complexe pénitentiaire sous haute sécurité, après avoir tenté de s’échapper pour la deuxième fois, a indiqué ce vendredi le responsable de sa prison. L’homme de 35 ans, originaire de Béthune, avait été condamné à la peine de mort après avoir été interpellé l’an dernier à l’aéroport de Lombok, une île touristique proche de Bali, avec trois kilos de drogues dans une valise à double fond. Sa peine a été ramenée à 19 ans de détention en août par la Haute cour de Lombok. Un trou dans sa cellule Alert...

Julian McMahon is a barrister working in criminal law, often in homicide and terrorism matters. In 2002 Julian was working in Melbourne when a distraught mother was brought to his office. The woman’s son, Van Tuong Ngyuen, had just been sentenced to death, by a judge in Singapore. Van had been found with a few hundred grams of heroin in his possession as he travelled between Vietnam and Australia. Julian quickly gathered a team to represent Van.  Van was executed in 2005.  Since then Julian has worked on many death penalty cases, the most well-known is that of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran of the Bali 9.  He was with the Australians in Indonesia in 2015 when they were taken to be executed. Julian is the President of Capital Punishment Justice Project, an organisation working to have the death penalty abolished worldwide; and was 2016 Victorian Australian of the Year. ➤ Click here to download the audio file (mp3, 25 MB) ➤ Click h...

Four kilometres from Canggu, known for its wholefood cafes and beachfront bars, lies a “living hell“. A wall, covered in off-white chipped paint, is all that stands between idyllic Balinese beaches, which surf people travel halfway around the world for, and Kerobokan prison. The complex, only ever designed to hold 300 prisoners, now houses over 1400 – more than quadruple its limit. Some inmates sleep on hard tiled floors in 40 plus degree heat, their limbs entangled with the limbs of strangers. On July 19, two Australian tourists, William Cabantog, 35, and David Van Iersel, 38, were allegedly found in possession of 1.12 grams of cocaine inside a Canggu nightclub, following a police raid. Urine samples determined that the Melbourne men had both used the substance. The offence could be enough to sentence the two men to a maximum of 12 years imprisonment. If that happens, they’ll be sent to Kerobokan prison, referred to by locals as ‘Hotel K’. Police chief ...

The Melbourne pastor who witnessed the shooting execution of Bali Nine ring leaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran says Aussie travellers have learned little from the pairs' tragic mistake. As two former Melbourne nightclub promoters face months inside a squalid Denpasar police cell, Christie Buckingham has urged the Australian Government to do more to ensure young people don't fall into the same trap. She has warned it is only a matter of time before another unlucky traveller faces the firing squad. She said warnings on Etickets and inflight videos could be one tangible step to ensure visitors jetting to Indonesia understood the risks. Australian tourists account for 1.2 million of the four million annual visitors to Bali. "Australia may not have the death penalty but eight of our neighbouring countries do," Pr Buckingham told 7NEWS.com.au. RELATED |  New film is a gut-wrenching look at Bali Nine execution "Unless the laws change,...

Where is the outrage over the capital punishment sentence for ISIS fighter and Australian citizen Ahmed Merhi? Opposition to the death penalty has a long and quite public history in Australia. Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan of the so-called “Bali Nine” drug smugglers received support from artists, singers, actors, media personalities and sports stars, while a crowd of about a thousand people gathered in Sydney’s Martin Place calling on the Indonesian government to halt the executions. The then human rights commissioner and now federal MP Tim Wilson even went so far as to say: Capital punishment is never the answer, and the Indonesian government should be showing mercy to these two people, who shouldn’t be facing death at the hands of the state. In 2005, the Australian Nguyen Tuong Van was hanged for drug trafficking in Singapore. Vigils and protests were held for him, hundreds turned out in support at Martin Place and a group of Melbourne lawyers held a minute’s silenc...