Friday, March 6, 2015

Still on Bali Nine: Indonesia rejects prisoner swap to save death row Australians


Indonesia on Thursday rejected the offer of a prisoner swap proposed by Canberra in an 11th-hour bid to save two Australian drug smugglers facing execution, saying it is determined to put to death those "who have poisoned our nation".
Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, the ringleaders of the so-called "Bali Nine" drug trafficking gang, could be shot within days after being moved on Wednesday to the Indonesian island where they are due to face a firing squad.


They are among a group of drug convicts, including foreigners from France, Brazil, the Philippines,Nigeria and Ghana, who are expected to be executed at the same time in the near future on the prison island.
Authorities must give convicts 72 hours' notice before they are executed and in a last-ditch effort to save them Foreign Minister Julie Bishop proposed a prisoner swap.
Ursa Supit, an anti-death penalty campaigner who met Thursday with a Nigerian death row prisoner being held next to Chan and Sukumaran, said the Australians were alone in separate cells and could only communicate through the walls.
"They sounded fine, but they have nothing because they had to leave all their stuff in Bali," Supit said, adding she herself did not meet the Australians but the Nigerian had been communicating with them.
As well as Australia, Brazil and France have piled pressure on Jakarta, with Paris summoning Indonesia's envoy and the Brazilian president refusing to accept the credentials of the new Indonesian ambassador.
Nigeria added its voice to the growing concern, with foreign ministry spokesman Ogbole Amedu Ode saying that the country's ambassador to Jakarta was Thursday due to appeal to the Indonesian foreign minister.
"Of course, I'm deeply concerned about the impact of these executions not just on the Australian relationship with Indonesia but on Indonesia's reputation worldwide," she said.
"The movement against the death penalty is very strong."

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