Last weekend Indonesia ended the lives of five foreign men and one Indonesian woman when they were executed by a firing squad. They had been convicted of drug smuggling and the regime of new Indonesian president Joko Widowo has signalled that he intends to enforce his country's strict crackdown on drugs. He has made it clear that he will not be granting any appeals for clemency.
That is bad news for two Australian men on death row. Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan were convicted and sentenced to death in 2006 when they were the ringleaders of a group attempting to smuggle drugs taped to their bodies. This was clearly a commercial quantity and the penalty is posted on billboards for all to see. There is no ambiguity about the penalty for drug smuggling in our near neighbour.
Both of these men appear to have been model prisoners. It is claimed that they have undergone rehabilitation and the Australian government has appealed on their behalf, but it seems inevitable that the death penalty will be carried out as soon as a last appeal for clemency from Andrew Chan receives a formal reply from the Indonesian president. It is Indonesian policy that those convicted together face execution together, and Myuran Sukumaran's appeal has already been formally rejected.
The Australian government has made it quite clear that while it will ask Indonesia to spare our citizens from execution it will not let the issue unsettle the good relations between the two nations. We will not recall our ambassador or take any action that would be detrimental to trade. While Australia no longer applies the death penalty it accepts that crime and punishment is an internal matter for other countries to decide. It is not a matter in which we have a right to become involved.
Perhaps the publicity surrounding executions in Indonesia may help to persuade some reckless young people that the risk of getting caught is simply too great - and cause them to desist from making foolhardy attempts to smuggle drugs out of that country. It is quite possible that the long running Shapelle Corby imprisonment convinced some people that the death penalty was really a bluff. Shapelle became something of a celebrity in Indonesia, constantly on the cover of Australian magazines and leading a prison lifestyle that many saw as glamorous. It was big news when she escaped the death penalty - and eventually she gained release and seems to be living a luxury lifestyle in paradise. It helped that she was an extremely attractive young woman !
It may also have helped to soften the image by the time factor between getting caught and facing that firing squad. In some countries, that can be a matter of days - and sometimes just hours, but in Indonesia the court system and various appeals to higher courts has resulted in prison time that has run into years. As a result, elections in that country has installed a new president - and consequently a new outlook on how justice will be administered. The prospect of clemency has been dangling just out of reach - until now !
It is totally unreasonable to expect the Australian government to do more than make a formal application for clemency. There is no doubt that the two accused broke Indonesian law and that the penalty for that breach was made clear to all who enter that country. Now that the execution of others from foreign countries has taken place, it would be out of step for Indonesia to make an exception for Australians.
Sadly, it seems that the fate of these two young men is sealed !
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