Indonesian court rejects Australians’ death row appeal
Jakarta State Administrative Court Chief Judge Ujang Abdullah rejects the appeals of two Australian drug smugglers on death row during a hearing in Jakarta on April 6.
An Indonesian court on Monday rejected appeals by two Australian drug traffickers who challenged President Joko Widodo’s decision to refuse them clemency and spare their lives.
The appeals 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 because clemency is the prerogative of the president.
“The object of the dispute is not part of the jurisdiction of the Administrative court,” presiding judge Ujang Abdullah said in a statement.
Sukumaran and Chan are among 10 drug smugglers whose planned executions last month were put off due to last-minute appeals from six inmates.
The others include three Nigerians, a Filipino woman and four men from Brazil, France, Ghana and Indonesia.
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 Indonesia is suffering what he called a “drug emergency.”
Jakarta executed six drug convicts including five foreigners in January, brushing aside last-minute appeals from Brazil and the Netherlands.
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