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Mercy campaign to save Bali Nine duo gains traction
Sunday service at the C3 Church Bali in Denpasar felt different
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unday service at the C3 Church Bali in Denpasar felt different. During the service, all parishioners who attended recited a prayer for two Australian drug smugglers on death row, Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan.
'We pray for Myuran and Andrew. May the will of God happen. We believe that the will of God is grace. It is compassion and wisdom,' said pastor Geoff Collins, who led the prayer.
Sukumaran, 33, and Chan, 31, have been detained at Kerobokan Penitentiary for almost 10 years. They are two of nine Australians, the so-called Bali Nine, convicted for an attempt to smuggle about 8 kilograms of heroin from Bali to Australia in 2005.
They are now awaiting execution, as their clemency pleas were officially rejected by President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo. The Attorney General HM Prasetyo, however, has yet to schedule the event. Their lawyer, Australian Julian McMahon, has said his clients will lodge a second appeal for a case review (PK) to cancel the death sentences. However, it is not known whether the second PK will be accepted, as they had lodged a PK in 2010 that was rejected.
'We also prayed for the President of Indonesia to get wisdom for deciding: make the right decision. We prayed that he can know God's mind, so that he can make the correct decision,' Collins said after the service.
After the service, all parishioners were given stickers upon which was written, 'Hope mercy; #keephopealive. Mercycampaign.org: sign the petition to save Myuran and Andrew'. The stickers were subsequently applied to their cars or motorbikes.
Launched on Jan. 20 by the Melbourne-based non-profit organization, the petition is aimed at convincing President Jokowi to grant the convicts pardons and commute their death sentences into imprisonment.
Receiving an overwhelming response, the petition had to be redirected temporarily from Mercy Campaign's website to change.org. As of Sunday, the number of people signing this petition had exceeded 4,000 and it has kept increasing.
The Mercy Campaign was established in Melbourne after a group of volunteers decided to set up a social media campaign to assist in the clemency applications of Chan and Sukumaran.
'I know that Indonesian people are compassionate and easily forgive with sincerity. So, we all want to see Andrew and Myuran given a chance to live. They benefit our country,' Collins said.
