The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Andrew Chan

  • Australian police defend Bali Nine operation

    Australian police defend Bali Nine operation

    The Australian Federal Police (AFP) had defended role by police officers in the arrests of the Bali Nine Australian drug gang.

    Information shared by the AFP with Indonesian police in 2005 led to the arrest and conviction of the gang and the execution of the two ringleaders, the BBC reports.

    Police had been criticised for reporting the men despite knowing they could face the death penalty.

    But senior officers said they were unable to arrest the gang before they left Australia for Indonesia.

    Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were killed by an Indonesian firing squad on Wednesday despite Australian diplomatic pressure.

    The AFP will soon be called before a parliamentary committee to explain the decision.

    Commissioner Andrew  Colvin told a media conference on Monday: “If we had had enough information to arrest the Bali Nine before they left Australia we would have done exactly that.”

    He said the AFP did not know how many members were in the gang or what drugs they were dealing with, which was why they contacted their Indonesian counterparts.

    He said media reports that the AFP found out about the gang from a tip-off from the father of one of the gang, were incorrect because the AFP already knew about the syndicate.

    He said also reports the AFP had “shopped” the gang to Indonesia in a bid to curry favour with police there were “fanciful and offensive.”

    However, he admitted one of the investigating officers asked to be removed from the team because he was upset about the risk the gang members might face the death penalty.

    Commissioner Colvin also said he could not guarantee that other Australians caught smuggling drugs in countries with the death penalty would not suffer the same fate.

  • Drug executions: Australia recalls ambassador from Indonesia

    Australia has recalled its ambassador from Indonesia after two Australian men were executed for drug smuggling.

    Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were among eight people from several countries executed by firing squad in the early hours of Wednesday on the prison island of Nusakambangan, the BBC reports.

    Brazil’s government also expressed its “deep dismay” at the execution of one of its citizens, Rodrigo Gularte.

    But the execution of a Philippine woman was called off at the last minute.

    Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso was spared after Philippines officials said a woman she had accused of planting drugs on her was in police custody.

    The families of the condemned prisoners paid them final, emotional visits on Tuesday afternoon before the sentences were carried out.

    All eight refused offers of blindfolds and were singing together in their final moments, a pastor present at the execution told the Sydney Morning Herald.

    Hours after the executions, ambulances left the prison island, taking the prisoners’ bodies to their chosen funeral sites in Indonesia or their home countries.

    Australia had mounted a lengthy diplomatic campaign to save Chan and Sukumaran, convicted in 2006 of being the ringleaders of a group of Australian heroin traffickers known as the Bali Nine.

    Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott , said on Tuesday that the executions were “both cruel and unnecessary,” adding that Chan and Sukumaran had been “fully rehabilitated” while in prison.

    “We respect Indonesia’s sovereignty but we do deplore what’s been done and this cannot be simply business as usual,” he said.

    This is the first time Australia has recalled an ambassador from Indonesia, and its first ever recall over the execution of one of its citizens abroad.

    Indonesian Attorney General, Muhammad Prasetyo, defended the executions, saying his country was fighting a “war” on drugs.

    Indonesia is an important country to Australia, the BBC says, with the two working closely together on asylum seekers and terrorism issues.

     

  • Drug trafficking: Nigerian, seven others executed in Indonesia

    Eight convicted drug smugglers have been executed by firing squad in Indonesia.

    The executions took place in Besi prison on the island of Nusakambangan early on Wednesday morning local time, local media reports say.

    Among those executed were Australian nationals Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.

    Nigerian, Brazilian and Indonesian nationals were also among those put to death.

    Australia had appealed to Indonesia to delay the executions, citing alleged flaws in how their case was prosecuted.

    Earlier, the men’s families were allowed to see them for the last time, the BBC reports.

    A Filipino woman was also due to be executed but was reportedly spared at the last minute.

    Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso was spared after the person who allegedly recruited her to act as a drug courier surrendered to police, the Jakarta Post reports.

    Indonesia has some of the toughest drug laws in the world and ended a four-year moratorium on executions in 2013.

  • Australia urges drug execution halt

    Australia has called on Indonesia to delay the execution of two convicted Australian drug traffickers until corruption claims are investigated.

    Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she spoke to her Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi late on Sunday.

    She said there was still an appeal before Indonesia’s Constitutional Court and a separate investigation at the country’s Judicial Commission.

    Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were convicted in 2006, the BBC reports.

    The two men, along with six other foreigners and one Indonesian man, have been formally informed of their execution.

    Under Indonesian law, convicts must be given 72 hours’ notice of execution. This means the executions by the firing squad could be carried out as early as Tuesday.

    A French convict, Serge Atlaoui, still has an appeal before the courts. France has warned of “consequences” if the execution goes ahead.

    Separately, Australian Prime Minister,Tony Abbott, has written to President Joko Widodo in what is seen as a final plea to stop the executions, the BBC reports.

    Chan and Sukumaran, along with seven other Australians, were arrested in Bali in 2005 for trying to smuggle more than 18lb (8.3kg) of heroin from Indonesia to Australia.

    The pair were later found to be the ringleaders of the group and sentenced to death.

    Australia’s top politicians have been actively campaigning for clemency for the two.

    The other seven members of the “Bali Nine” are currently serving either life or 20 years in prison.

  • Indonesia postpones execution of Nigerian, seven others

    Indonesia on Friday announced the postponement of the execution of a Nigerian and seven other drug convicts on death row for up to three weeks.

    Attorney-General spokesman, Tony Spontana, said the executors surveying the facilities on Nusakambangan penal Island, off Javafound, discovered that it was not ready to handle the executions.

    “The execution plan is still on schedule” since the inmates’ clemency appeals have been rejected,’’ he said.

    Spontana said because of the technical reasons, the executions are likely to be postponed for two or three weeks.

    “We have not decided on a date yet, but once the renovation is finished we will immediately transfer them, maybe next week or two weeks,” he said.

    Other convicts are from Brazil, France, Ghana, the Philippines, Australia and Indonesia.

    They are all expected to be shot by firing squad in the second round of executions this year.

    The Australian government has repeatedly appealed to Indonesia to show mercy to its citizens -Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran- who were described as ringleaders of a group of nine Australians arrested in 2005 for attempting to smuggle 8.3 kilograms of heroin to Australia from the Indonesian resort Island of Bali.

    This week, the family of the Brazilian drug convict, Rodrigo Gularte, also appealed to the government to spare him, saying he has been diagnosed with mental illness.