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Bali Nine lawyer urges AGO to delay execution
Lawyers for the two Australian drug smugglers on death row have asked the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to delay the execution, saying the attorney general should respect the ongoing legal process
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awyers for the two Australian drug smugglers on death row have asked the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to delay the execution, saying the attorney general should respect the ongoing legal process.
Noted lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis said on Wednesday that Attorney General HM Prasetyo would violate the law if he insisted on carrying out the convicts' death sentences during the ongoing legal process.
"He will take an extremely big risk if he does not respect the legal process. If the attorney general doesn't respect the legal process, who will respect it?" Todung said after visiting his clients, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, at Kerobokan penitentiary in Bali.
Following the Jakarta State Administrative Court's (PTUN) decision to reject their lawsuit challenging a presidential decree on clemency rejections, the lawyer team has decided to lodge an appeal of the decision.
Todung said that the appeal could be submitted within 14 days of the PTUN hearing on Tuesday.
"The legal process will go on for about one month. And I hope the attorney general will respect the ongoing legal process," he said.
Todund said Indonesia was a state based on the law, as had been repeatedly stated by President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo.
"There is no way the attorney general can ignore the legal process. He has to respect the legal process because Indonesia is a state based on laws," Todung said.
"I do respect the attorney general. But the attorney general needs to respect the ongoing legal process,"
He said the world would laugh at Indonesia if the country moved forward with the planned executions despite the ongoing legal process. "The world will see it as a brutal violation of the legal process. And if the attorney general violates it, the world cannot accept that," Todung said.
Todung said both Chan and Sukumaran were informed of the PTUN decision on Tuesday. "We still have hope because there is a challenge to be filed within 14 days. And they understand that. They are also hoping that the outcome of the challenge will be in line with our demands," Todung said about his client.
Meanwhile, the two Australians of the so-called Bali Nine drug ring were also visited by their Australian lawyer, Julian McMahon.
After visiting his client, McMahon said he fully respected Indonesia's sovereignty. However, he said he hoped the Indonesian government did not see their fight to save the lives of Chan and Sukumaran as an attack on Indonesian sovereignty.
"This case is not about sovereignty. [...] It is simply not about those things. This case really is about humanity. And humanity crosses borders. Humanity is not constrained by sovereignty," McMahon said.
Both Sukumaran and Chan were sentenced to death for trying to smuggle about 8 kilograms of heroin from Bali to Australia in 2005. After a request for a second case-review was rejected by the Denpasar District Court, the pair faces execution that could happen any day. The second review was lodged after the pair's clemency pleas were officially rejected by President Jokowi.
The lawyer team has also filed a lawsuit challenging Jokowi's decree rejecting their clemency request with the Jakarta PTUN. The court, however, decided on Tuesday it could not proceed with the lawsuit, as clemency was a prerogative right of the president. The pair's lawyers have said they will appeal the decision. They have been given two weeks to submit the appeal. (++++)
