By Jill Fraser
MELBOURNE, Australia
The barrister for two Australians facing the firing squad in Indonesia has told The Anadolu Agency that their legal team will make further appeals to have their sentences commuted.
Michael O'Connell, who represents Andrews Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, said: "There has to be somewhere where we can get the authorities to genuinely consider Andrew’s and Myuran’s application for clemency."
Having exhausted other legal channels -- the pair’s appeals to Indonesia’s Administrative Court was turned down Monday when the court ruled it could not adjudicate on President Joko Widodo’s decision to deny clemency -- O'Connell said the "next logical step" was to take their case to the Constitutional Court.
He said it was apparent the Indonesian authorities had not taken Chan and Sukumaran’s rehabilitation since they were arrested in 2005 for trying to smuggle heroin through Indonesia to Australia as the leaders of the Bali Nine drug gang.
"In 2007, the Indonesian Constitutional Court declared that if a person on death row could demonstrate over a period of 10 years that they had engaged in praiseworthy conduct then they should be entitled to have their sentences commuted to either life or 20 years," O'Connell said.
Later this week, an application will be filed with the court and a preliminary hearing is expected a week or two later, O'Connell added.
One problem confronting Chan, 31, and Sukumaran, 33, is that the court does not usually accept applications from foreign nationals. O'Connell said a challenge to that arrangement would be part of the legal team’s arguments.
He also highlighted the current investigation being conducted into claims that Chan and Sukumaran were offered lesser sentences in return for bribes by members of the Indonesian judiciary.
Asked if the executions would be delayed whilst the investigation is ongoing, O'Connell said: "Our position would be that it would be unthinkable to execute two people in circumstances where there’s an ongoing inquiry into whether or not sentences that were imposed were tainted by corruption."
However, Indonesian Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo said Tuesday there would be no more delays and a pending appeal to the Constitutional Court would not halt the executions.
Prasetyo dismissed the constitutional court challenge as a delaying tactic and accused the convict’s lawyers of "playing" with Indonesian law.
