Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop yesterday called on the Indonesian government to show the same mercy to two Australian drug traffickers on death row as Jakarta seeks from countries where Indonesians face execution.
Bishop moved a motion in parliament calling for clemency for Australians Myuran Sukumaran, 33, and Andrew Chan, 31. The opposition party supported the motion, in a show of bipartisan support for saving the heroin smugglers.
Indonesia said last week it was preparing to execute by firing squad eight drug smugglers, including the two Australians.
Bishop said the Indonesian government was committed to seeking the release of more than 200 Indonesians facing execution overseas.
According to the Indonesian non-governmental organization Migrant Care, up to 360 Indonesians face the death penalty overseas, including about 230 on drug charges.
“We urge the Indonesian government to show the same mercy to Andrew and Myuran that it seeks for its citizens in the same situation abroad,” Bishop said.
Australia has abolished capital punishment and opposes executions of any Australian overseas.
The two Australians were the ringleaders of a group of nine Australians who were arrested in 2005 for attempting to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin to Australia from Bali.
Indonesian authorities yesterday announced that the pair would be executed outside Bali, and a letter approving their transfer from jail had been signed by the minister of justice.
The head of Bali’s prosecutors office, Momock Bambang Samiarso, said the pair would soon be transferred from Kerobokan prison to their place of execution, though the exact timing was not yet decided.
“The sooner the better,” he told reporters in Bali.
He did not say where they would be sent.
Indonesian officials previously said they plan to execute the Australians, as well as several other foreigners on death row, on Nusakambangan Island, which is off Java and home to a high-security prison. Six drug convicts were executed on the island last month.
Additional reporting by AFP
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