Indonesia | Court rejects appeal by Australian drug smugglers

Leonard Arphan, a lawyer of two Australians on death row Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, is mobbed by the media after a hearing at the High Administrative Court in Jakarta, Indonesia

An Indonesian court yesterday rejected appeals by two Australian drug traffickers who challenged President Joko Widodo’s decision to refuse them clemency and spare their lives.
The complaints by Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan were tried separately with the same three-judge panel at the Jakarta High Administrative Court, which agreed with a lower court that the case is out of their jurisdiction since clemency is the prerogative of the president.
“The object of the dispute is not part of the jurisdiction of the Administrative court,” said presiding judge Ujang Abdullah.
Sukumaran and Chan are among 10 drug smugglers whose planned executions last month were adjourned due to last-minute appeals from six inmates.
The other foreigners among the 10 include three Nigerians and four men from Brazil, France, Ghana and a Filipino woman.
Two of the foreigners — Serge Areski Atlaoui from France and Martin Anderson of Ghana, are still waiting for the outcome of their request for judicial reviews by the Supreme Court.
Last month, the country’s highest court rejected judicial reviews by Filipino Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso.
The planned executions have soured relations between Indonesia and other countries, especially Australia and Brazil, but Widodo has vowed not to grant mercy to drug offenders because he says Indonesia is suffering a “drug emergency.”
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said in a statement that the government was disappointed the petitions by Sukumaran and Chan failed and that Australia “respectfully requests the President to review their pleas for clemency.”
Jakarta executed six drug convicts including five foreigners in January, brushing aside last-minute appeals from Brazil and the Netherlands. AP