2015/08: The Bali duo: should Indonesia execute foreign nationals convicted of drug smuggling?





Introduction to the media issue

Video clip at right:
Below: In March, 2015, a 7 News bulletin outlined the extraordinary military presence during the transfer of the two Australians to the island where they were scheduled to be executed. Besides a huge army contingent, a Sukhoi jet fighter from the Indonesian air force escorted the prisoners' aircraft all the way from Bali.




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What they said...
'Jokowi is seen as pursuing populism to strengthen his position with the legislature'
Barry Jones, Professorial Fellow at University of Melbourne

'There's no forgiveness for drug dealers'
President Joko Widodo

The issue at a glance
On April 25, 2015, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, two Australians convicted of drug trafficking in Indonesia, were told that they could be executed within 72 hours.
The two were part of a group, generally known as the Bali Nine, who arrested on 17 April 2005 in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, for planning to smuggle 8.3 kg of heroin valued at around A$4 million (3.1 million from Indonesia to Australia.
In February 2006 Chan and Sukumaran, as the group ringleaders, were sentenced to death by firing squad. Despite appeals against their sentences and an appeal to the Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, for clemency, the executions appear likely to go ahead.
There have been representations made on behalf of the two men from the Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, the Australian foreign minister, Julie Bishop, and many others to have the men be granted clemency. Each man is acknowledged to have made remarkable changes in his life while in prison, with one now an artist and the other a pastor.
The men's impending deaths have raised major questions about the value of the death penalty and the limits of diplomacy. It has also provoked debate about the fate of foreign nationals at the hands of criminal justice systems overseas.