GUILTY Bali - Bali Nine, Australians arrested for heroin trafficking, 2005

[SouthAussie]

The delay came hours after Foreign Minister Julie Bishop for the first time sent a public warning to Indonesia over Chan and Sukumaran, suggesting tourism to the country might be threatened if the men’s executions go ahead as planned.

Ms Bishop said this morning Australians might be moved to boycott Indonesia if the executions were carried out.

“I think the Australian people will demonstrate their deep disapproval of this action, including by making decisions about where they wish to holiday,” she said.

“We’re asking for clemency, we’re asking for mercy for two Australian citizens who have been rehabilitated.”

She said the government would leave no stone unturned in its bid to secure a stay on the Bali Nine members’ executions.

“Executing these two young men will not solve the drug scourge in Indonesia,” she told Fairfax radio on Friday. “It’s a very tense situation.”

Ms Bishop told parliament that since Chan and Sukumaran were convicted, more than 55 personal representations at ministerial and prime ministerial level have been made to Indonesia.

High profile Australian officials and members of the business community have made discreet overtures to their influential Indonesian contacts.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nat...rns-julie-bishop/story-fn59niix-1227218199126

 

[Brightbird]

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

http://m.theage.com.au/world/death-...gpin-gets-reprieve-20150213-13dp7u.touch.html

I'd support cutting aid $ to Indonesia over stuff like this. I'd love to think people would have the conviction to boycott Bali, but a year on I think most will have moved on sadly. My friend is planning a trip to Bali and I was all like "I wouldn't go just out of protest" to which she was like "They're guilty. Who cares."

 

[Vinny]

Executing people over drugs is draconian.

 

[Snoods]

Two Bali nine judges sacked for corruption, manipulation

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/wor...-corruption-manipulation-20150212-13btyd.html

WTF! Quote from your article SA:

Two Indonesian judges involved in the Bali nine case have since been sacked for corruption or manipulating cases, calling into question a legal system that seems determined to put Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran to death.

Achmad Yamanie, an Indonesian Supreme Court judge, was a member of the judges panel that in 2011 rejected appeals by Chan and Sukumaran and reconfirmed their death sentences. But just a month later, the panel ruled in another case, against one of Indonesia's worst drug criminals, that the death penalty ran contrary to the defendant's constitutional right to life. They commuted it to 15 years' imprisonment.

Mr Yamanie was dishonourably discharged from the court after he then falsified the court documents in the case to reduce the sentence even further from 15 years to 12 years.

This is ridiculous and makes me so incredibly angry! Once again I will state the Indonesian court system is a cruel joke.

 

[SouthAussie]

Myuran Sukumaran is painting his final destination: the penal island of Nusakambangan, where he will be shot dead.

The condemned man can no longer sleep as he braces for the knock at his prison cell that means his transferral is underway to the island dubbed "Indonesia's Alcatraz".

But he is still painting - a self-portrait of himself transposed onto Nusakambangan.
"Someone has given him an image of the location and he is making a big self-portrait with a very stormy sky," said artist Ben Quilty who visited him on Thursday.

"There have been preparations made so they can be taken in the night," Quilty said. "The night before they searched his room - I think they were preparing to move him. That night he really couldn't sleep."

"That's the first time I properly said goodbye," Quilty said. "In the past he wanted me to stay strong. He was very direct about not saying goodbye but yesterday he said goodbye."

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/wor...-island-of-his-execution-20150213-13dr6v.html

 

[Mrs G Norris]

Australians know that trafficking drugs in many asian countries carries a death sentence, there are signs to that effect all over Bali and it is drummed into our heads, we cannot expect to traffic drugs in Indonesia then miraculously appeal to our government to pressure the Indonesian government asking for clemency, it is just not possible. I actually don't really understand what people expect our government to do, Indonesia is a sovereign nation. I am against the death penalty and think is is barbaric, but I think all Australians know that can be the consequence of the actions these two took. Also isn't religious conversion or taking up art almost cliche for people on death row, if these two hadn't been caught they'd have kept going until they were IMO, Andrew Chan had made a couple of similar trips before he was caught according to his mule Renee Lawrence, although she retracted that admission.

 

[newone]

Australians know that trafficking drugs in many asian countries carries a death sentence, there are signs to that effect all over Bali and it is drummed into our heads, we cannot expect to traffic drugs in Indonesia then miraculously appeal to our government to pressure the Indonesian government asking for clemency, it is just not possible. I actually don't really understand what people expect our government to do, Indonesia is a sovereign nation. I am against the death penalty and think is is barbaric, but I think all Australians know that can be the consequence of the actions these two took. Also isn't religious conversion or taking up art almost cliche for people on death row, if these two hadn't been caught they'd have kept going until they were IMO, Andrew Chan had made a couple of similar trips before he was caught according to his mule Renee Lawrence, although she retracted that admission.

bbm: I wondered about that too. Somehow this case seems different. There seem to be many supporters even from within the jail itself. MOO

 

[Mrs G Norris]

bbm: I wondered about that too. Somehow this case seems different. There seem to be many supporters even from within the jail itself. MOO

They seem like likable men, I'm sure they are popular in prison and with people who have worked with them, their families haven't acted badly like the Corby's either, it really could just be that .. They are rehabilitated because being caught was the wake up call, or they are just 'working it' with all they have left .. Who knows, maybe not even them, but I wonder at the message potential drug traffickers are getting from the 'it's so unfair' stance our media has taken.

 

[SouthAussie]

I started reading Snowing in Bali by Kathryn Bonella last night. Her book consists of info from tons of interviews with drug dealers in Bali, and is very enlightening.

What a racket! It has been going on for years and years and years. The transportation methods change, the players change, the mules change, the game never changes. This is by no means an isolated incident, and they are by no means the only people who have done it/are doing it.

Andrew and Myuran are neither the mules (they were not arrested with any drugs on them at all), nor the ‘big men’. They were in the position to recruit the mules, receive the drugs from the supplier, ensure the drugs were safely harboured by the mules in a capacity that was deemed best, get the mules onto the planes, follow the drugs (mules) on a later flight to Australia, retrieve the drugs at the other end, and hand them off for payment to the big guys in Australia. Then everyone got their slice of the money.

The drugs mostly originate in Peru, Colombia, Brazil … travel to Bali via another country to disguise their point of origin (they used to travel directly to Bali) … then travel on to Australia. Australia is deemed to be the country in which to secure the maximum profit for the drugs, more than any other country.

The dealers live very large in Bali, police know who they are. One prison boss was relieved of his duties after he took several drug dealer prisoners out of Kerobokan for the night .... nightclubs, girls, drugs .... and returned them before daybreak. They did it every week, till their driver (in a govt car) was caught selling drugs.

 

[SouthAussie]

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has stepped up calls for Indonesia to show mercy to the two Australians facing execution in Bali for drug smuggling.

Mr Abbott has again urged for clemency for the pair, saying Australia expects Indonesia to respond to its request the same way it expects other countries to respond.

"We abhor the death penalty, we regard it as barbaric and expect Indonesia to respond to our requests the same way Indonesia expects other countries respond to its requests," he told News Corp's Saturday Telegraph.

Mr Abbott said the Government would find ways of making its displeasure known if the executions go ahead.

He also warned that Australians would be angry considering the aid money given to Indonesia following the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-...peats-chan-sukumaran-clemency-request/6097920

 

[SouthAussie]

Just on TV news. There are fears that Andrew and Myuran will be moved as soon as tonight. Australian consulate officials have been summoned to a meeting on Monday, along with officials from Ghana, France, the Philippines and Nigeria — who also have citizens facing execution this month.

There are fears that this may indicate the start of the 72 hour notification period.

Here is some just-released MSM about the impending meeting. During the last recent executions of foreign nationals, the meeting happened on the day before the execution date was announced.

http://www.news.com.au/world/asia/a...affairs-ministry/story-fnh81fz8-1227219633180

 

[SouthAussie]

Ban Ki-moon makes plea to Indonesia over executions

http://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ls-on-indonesia-not-to-execute-bali-nine-pair

 

[Mrs G Norris]

So if that meeting is on Monday, that means the 72 hour notice will likely start Tuesday is that right, meaning a Friday execution? Can you imagine how scary that would be for them, you'd have to sedate me, I think if some kind of opiate wasn't available I'd go bonkers in my cell until I was injected with something calming, I can't imagine how that would feel .. the knowing of it.

 

[SouthAussie]

A MEETING between two members of the Indonesian parliament and condemned Bali Nine prisoner Andrew Chan at Kerobokan jail could take place tomorrow or Tuesday, after having been originally scheduled for yesterday. It was thought Myuran Sukumaran who, with Chan, is awaiting his impending execution, would also be included in the meeting. The purpose of the meeting was unknown.


Meanwhile, Garuda Indonesia Airlines, whose representatives attended a meeting on Thursday with authorities to discuss aspects of the prisoners’ transfer, has stated it will not be involved in it.
“With reference to news on Friday 13 February 2015 regarding the planned transfer of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, Garuda Indonesia would like to state the airline will not be involved with this matter and will not be transferring Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran on our aircraft.’’

It is understood the airline wanted to avoid a possible boycott.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nat...han-in-kerobokan/story-fn59nm2j-1227220193941

 

[Brightbird]

Australians know that trafficking drugs in many asian countries carries a death sentence, there are signs to that effect all over Bali and it is drummed into our heads, we cannot expect to traffic drugs in Indonesia then miraculously appeal to our government to pressure the Indonesian government asking for clemency, it is just not possible. I actually don't really understand what people expect our government to do, Indonesia is a sovereign nation. I am against the death penalty and think is is barbaric, but I think all Australians know that can be the consequence of the actions these two took. Also isn't religious conversion or taking up art almost cliche for people on death row, if these two hadn't been caught they'd have kept going until they were IMO, Andrew Chan had made a couple of similar trips before he was caught according to his mule Renee Lawrence, although she retracted that admission.

I would perhaps agree if it weren't for all the double standards and hypocrisy. How can Indonesia ask for clemency for their own citizens sentenced abroad and ignore other countries when the tables are turned? How can they apply such inconsistent standards to people convicted of the same crime? Many Australians have been convicted of drug trafficking in Indonesia and none have ever been executed. Most end up having their sentence reduced to life and even that gets whittled down. Most of the Bali bombers had less harsh sentences than Chan and Sukumaran. I think it's a bit rough to question their motives for doing good things with their time in prison. It seems like they've had a positive effect on other prisoner's live and that's the main thing to me.

Fellow prisoners in the jail say the bengkel – the Indonesian word for workshop – was a meth lab before it was used for Sukumaran and Chan's rehabilitation projects. They are terrified the programs will be abandoned when the two men are killed and the bengkel will be taken over by drug lords.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/bali-9-...myuran-sukumarans-honour-20150214-13etyu.html

 

[Mrs G Norris]

I guess I just don't get all this outpouring of support for organized criminals, also I doubt that Australia reduces sentences for Indonesians in our jails. I feel much more sympathy for people who's lives are ruined by drugs. Also Tony Abbott saying they made a 'mistake' is ridiculous, they set off on a career in crime and are now paying the ultimate price, but it was a risk they were well aware of and willing to take.

 

[PrimeSuspect]

I guess I just don't get all this outpouring of support for organized criminals, also I doubt that Australia reduces sentences for Indonesians in our jails. I feel much more sympathy for people who's lives are ruined by drugs. Also Tony Abbott saying they made a 'mistake' is ridiculous, they set off on a career in crime and are now paying the ultimate price, but it was a risk they were well aware of and willing to take.

I don't believe in the death penalty and I'm sick of Australia bending over backwards for everyone else. That's my two reasons for kicking up a stink.
It's at crisis point now and Indonesia are our neighbours, if we can't ask them to spare these guys lives, what kind of relationship do we have with them? It saddens me that we have to beg and that it's the almighty dollar that speaks in Indonesia. What kind of justice system is it where money can buy freedom?
Chan and Sukumaran are criminals, they knew the risk but took it anyway. I agree they deserve a long sentence in prison as punishment.

 

[Mrs G Norris]

I don't think their politicians would survive long if they gave clemency to foreigners over nationals, I get the outrage at the DP, but I do think our politicians are playing silly buggers with us over this issue. If Tony Abbott was serious he'd cancel the 1 billion dollar loan in the pipeline.

 

[Brightbird]

Both foreigners and nationals get clemency in Indonesia, some for far worse crimes than drug trafficking. According to their own constitutional court, Chan and Sukumaran should have their sentences reduced to life or 20 years. Other Bali 9 prisoners had their death sentences overturned. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to who gets the DP, who gets the DP commuted and who gets clemency. The new president wants to look tough and I bet Australia's response will be piss weak.

 

[Brightbird]

:thud:

The six judges who handed down the death penalty to the Bali nine pair on death row offered to give them a lighter sentence in exchange for money, the men's Indonesian legal team allege.

The sensational allegation is contained in a letter sent by the legal team of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran to Indonesia's judicial committee, claiming there had been a breach of ethics.

The letter says the judges received pressure from "certain parties" to hand out the death penalty.

The lawyers, led by human rights advocate Todung Mulya Lubis, also told the judicial committee that all six judges who brought down the death sentence had breached ethics. The letter says the judges received pressure from "certain parties" to hand out the death penalty.

http://www.theage.com.au/world/bali...ghter-sentence-new-claim-20150215-13fe14.html