Supreme Court urged to deny Bali Nine appeal

The Denpasar Prosecutor's Office has urged the Supreme Court to reject a judicial review launched by Australian citizen Martin Eric Stephens, one of nine defendants known as the Bali Nine.

Prosecutors argued the court's decision to refuse a judicial review was final.

Prosecutor Eddy Arta Wijaya said during a court session on Thursday that new evidence proposed by Stephens' lawyer lacked relevance.

Stephens got a life sentence for trafficking heroin from Bali to Australia in 2006.

Stephens, along with eight other Australians, were caught with a total of 12 kilograms of the drug strapped to their bodies at Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport.

Four other people identified as Chen, Nguyen, Norman and Czugaj got life sentences.

Three others - Scott Rush, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran - received death sentences.

The only woman in the group, Rene Lawrence, received the lightest sentence, 20 years, for cooperating with police and for being deemed as only a courier.

Stephens's lawyer Wirawan Adnan earlier proposed as evidence a written statement issued by the Australian Federal Police dated April 1, 2009.

The letter notes the minor role of Stephens as a courier in the drug trafficking syndicate.

By proposing the new evidence, Wirawan expected the Supreme Court would again review its 2006 decision on Stephens' life sentence.

However, Eddy insisted, "The Australian Federal Police statement can't be used as new evidence to lighten Stephens' sentence."

During a series of hearings at Denpasar District Court and legal reviews at the Supreme Court, the notion that Stephens acted only as a courier was rejected by the courts.