Australian officials spent 10 weeks helping Indonesia mount a case against nine Australians who could now face the death penalty following their arrest for allegedly trying to smuggle heroin out of Bali, the government said yesterday.
"People have to know that trafficking in heroin and trafficking in drugs brings the death penalty in many countries, particularly in Asia," Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told Australia's Nine TV network. "If people don't understand that, they certainly will now."
Prime Minister John Howard said he strongly endorsed the joint operation that netted the arrests -- in a government response that has been in stark contrast to its appeals to help Australian drug suspect Schapelle Corby.
The 27-year-old former beauty school student could be executed by a firing squad if she is convicted of attempting to smuggle 4.1kg of marijuana into Bali last October.
Her trial has received widespread attention in Australia, with defense lawyers claiming she was the unwitting victim of a gang who used her luggage to transport the drugs on a domestic Australian flight but failed to remove it before she headed onward to Bali.
Australia's government has appealed to Indonesian prosecutors not to seek the death penalty in the Corby case, and also has worked to make available an Australian inmate with potentially helpful testimony for the defense. Howard said last month that the government was doing "everything we can" to help Corby's case.
The latest case involves eight men and one woman, aged 19 through 27, who were arrested in Bali this week while allegedly trying to smuggle nearly 11kg of heroin out of Indonesia.
Five of them, including the alleged ringleader, were arrested as they attempted to board a flight to Sydney with heroin strapped to their bodies with tape, The Australian daily reported yesterday.
Four others were detained with smaller quantities of the drug in Bali at a budget hotel, the newspaper and Indonesian officials said.
Australian officials had gathered information about the group for about 10 weeks, and handed it to Indonesian police two weeks ago, federal agent Mike Phelan said.
Downer said Australia would always seek clemency when its citizens faced possible death sentences, but could not guarantee a successful outcome.
"What we can't do and no Australian government could ever do is change the law in other countries. That is impossible," Downer said.
Justice Minister Chris Ellison said that the nine suspects remained in custody without charge and that arrangements were being made to get them lawyers. He said Australia would not approach Indonesia about the potential penalty before charges are filed.
"I think that talk of a firing squad is really at this stage rather premature," Ellison said.
Packed crowds in India celebrating their cricket team’s victory ended in a deadly stampede on Wednesday, with 11 mainly young fans crushed to death, the local state’s chief minister said. Joyous cricket fans had come out to celebrate and welcome home their heroes, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, after they beat Punjab Kings in a roller-coaster Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket final on Tuesday night. However, the euphoria of the vast crowds in the southern tech city of Bengaluru ended in disaster, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra calling it “absolutely heartrending.” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said most of the deceased are young, with 11 dead
By 2027, Denmark would relocate its foreign convicts to a prison in Kosovo under a 200-million-euro (US$228.6 million) agreement that has raised concerns among non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and residents, but which could serve as a model for the rest of the EU. The agreement, reached in 2022 and ratified by Kosovar lawmakers last year, provides for the reception of up to 300 foreign prisoners sentenced in Denmark. They must not have been convicted of terrorism or war crimes, or have a mental condition or terminal disease. Once their sentence is completed in Kosovan, they would be deported to their home country. In
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
LOST CONTACT: The mission carried payloads from Japan, the US and Taiwan’s National Central University, including a deep space radiation probe, ispace said Japanese company ispace said its uncrewed moon lander likely crashed onto the moon’s surface during its lunar touchdown attempt yesterday, marking another failure two years after its unsuccessful inaugural mission. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join US firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace as companies that have accomplished commercial landings amid a global race for the moon, which includes state-run missions from China and India. A successful mission would have made ispace the first company outside the US to achieve a moon landing. Resilience, ispace’s second lunar lander, could not decelerate fast enough as it approached the moon, and the company has
RSS