Andrew Chan (JP/Zul Tri Anggono)

Two Australian drug smugglers on death row, Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, will face a firing squad as they have lost their bids for clemency. They are now among those on the list to be executed after President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo officially rejected their appeals.

After signing a decree rejecting Sukumaran'€™s clemency plea on Dec. 30 last year, Jokowi has now, on Jan. 17, signed a decree rejecting Chan'€™s clemency plea.

On Thursday afternoon, an official from the State Secretariat went to Denpasar District Court to deliver Presidential Decree No. 9/G 2015 rejecting Chan'€™s clemency bid.

'€œAfter carefully considering the clemency pleas from the convicts listed in this presidential decree, we have assessed that there is insufficient reason to give clemency to those convicted,'€ was stated in the two-page decree.

The decree was received only two weeks after the one rejecting Sukumaran'€™s bid was received by Denpasar District Court on Jan. 7.

'€œWe received the presidential decree rejecting Andrew Chan'€™s clemency plea this afternoon, at around 1:30 p.m.,'€ Denpasar District Court spokesperson Hasoloan Sianturi said.

With the failure of his bid for clemency, the two Bali Nine members are likely to face the firing squad soon.

Attorney General HM Prasetyo said that his office was ready to proceed with the executions of the two Australian drug convicts as his office completed the necessary paperwork.

'€œBut please don'€™t emphasize the execution, focus on the attempt to eradicate narcotics in this country,'€ Prasetyo said on Thursday.

According to Prasetyo, the duo will be executed at the same time and place since they committed the crime together. '€œThe execution will be conducted as soon as possible, as we have received the outcome on Chan'€™s clemency plea,'€ he said, declining to disclose the exact date for the execution .

Sukumaran, 33, and Chan, 31, have been detained at Kerobokan Penitentiary for almost 10 years.

They are two of nine Australians convicted for an attempt to smuggle about 8 kilograms of heroin from Bali into Australia in 2005. Besides Chan and Sukumaran, one other of the group known collectively as the Bali Nine, Scott Anthony Rush, had initially faced the death sentence, but it was revoked for a life sentence after a case review. Five other members of the drug syndicate '€” Martin Stephens, Matthew Norman, Michael Czugaj, Si Yi Chen and Tan Duc Than Nguyen '€” are also serving life sentences. One other Bali Nine member, Renae Lawrence, is serving a 20-year sentence.

The pair'€™s lawyer, Todung Mulya Lubis, said they would lodge a case review to try and save his clients from execution. '€œWe are planning to file the review next week. We are now preparing everything needed for it,'€ Todung said.

Todung, who met the pair along with their Australian lawyer, Julian McMahon, said both Sukumaran and Chan were very hopeful that they could lodge a second case review, although an earlier one had been lodged and failed in 2010.

'€œThe Constitutional Court decided that a second review was allowed. This means that the Constitutional Court realized that, to get justice, the maximum chance should be provided. Indeed, the conflict is between justice and legal certainty. The Supreme Court said that there should only be one case review, but convicts should have the chance for justice.'€

Popular

Democracy’s slippery slope

Palm oil expansion in Papua raises eyebrow

Indonesia sends first direct shipment of frozen durian to China