Bali nine's Sukumaran faces death. 24/01/2006. ABC News Online

Last Update: Tuesday, January 24, 2006. 3:37pm (AEDT)

Demand: Prosecutors say Myuran Sukumaran should face the death penalty. (File photo) (Reuters)

Bali nine's Sukumaran faces death

By Indonesia correspondent Tim Palmer and AFP

Prosecutors in Denpasar District Court have asked the judges in the trial of 25-year-old Myuran Sukumaran to pass the death penalty on the alleged ringleader of the Bali nine conspiracy.

Prosecutors took an hour to outline their reasons for demanding the death penalty.

They painted a picture of Sukumaran as a man who conceived with Andrew Chan the entire conspiracy then provided money, tickets and hotel bookings for the couriers and ended by strapping heroin to the bodies of four people arrested at Denpasar Airport in April last year.

Prosecutors told the court he was at the head of an organised conspiracy to export a class one drug from Indonesia.

"We ask that the panel of judges hearing the case of defendant Myuran Sukumaran declare the defendant guilty of the crime of exporting first-class narcotics in an organised way, and without permit," prosecutor David Adji told the district court in Denpasar, Bali's main town.

He demanded that the panel of judges "hand down the death sentence to the defendant."

Yesterday prosecutors asked for one of the alleged drug smugglers, Scott Rush, to be sentenced to life in prison.

Under Indonesian law, the court is not bound to follow the recommendation by the prosecution team if Sukumaran is found guilty.

Prosecutors said that there were no mitigating factors in favour of the defendant, and that his crime ran against the Indonesian Government's tough anti-drugs drive, and also tarnished the image of Indonesia and Bali.

They said that the defendant had also "not been straightforward during his questioning and in court".

Sukumaran is accused of affixing packages containing heroin on at least three of the mules from the so-called Bali nine - Renae Lawrence, Martin Stephens and Rush.

The gang of eight men and one woman, arrested after a tip-off by Australian Federal Police (AFP), are accused of attempting to smuggle the drug out of Bali to Australia.

Mohammad Rifan, one of Sukumaran's lawyers, asked for two weeks' time to prepare a defence comment in response but Judge Gusti Lanang Dauh gave the team until February 1.

Sukumaran was allegedly discovered at a hotel on Bali's Kuta Beach with several mobile phones and 350 grams of heroin.

He has denied any knowledge of the heroin seized at Ngurah Rai Airport last April 17, as well as that found at his premises when he was arrested.

-ABC/AFP

and also tarnished the image of Indonesia

Glad this got re opened..

It appears that this guy and Chan will get death...all the others will get life in Jail...Lets hope that this discourages others from following this route but somehow I doubt that it will.

CORRECT Gburns......

Death by firing squad

By Mark Forbes and Neil McMahon in Denpasar and Louise Dodson

February 15, 2006

DEATH sentences imposed on the two ringleaders of the Bali nine have triggered a diplomatic crisis for Australia and Indonesia.

An almost tearful John Howard last night promised to take "the appropriate action" to lobby Indonesia against the verdict on the Australian heroin smugglers Andrew Chan, 22, and Myuran Sukumaran, 24 - both condemned to death by firing squad .

But the Prime Minister defended the Australian Federal Police's role in tipping off the Bali authorities about the drug runners, despite an attack on the AFP in the Coalition party room by Sydney MP Bruce Baird yesterday.

On the drug runners, Mr Howard said it was beyond him that anyone could be "so stupid". His voice quavering, he said: "Can I just say to every young Australian, please take notice of this. I even beg them not to take the terrible risk that these young people have done."

The AFP Commissioner, Mick Keelty, refused to apologise, saying: "We'd do the same thing again and we're doing it each and every day." He added: "We trust the Indonesian justice system to deal with the terrorists who were responsible for the Bali bombing. It's the same system that's dealing with narcotics trafficking."

The death sentences are a rebuff to direct pressure from Australian ministers who made a series of private pleas to Indonesia in December and January, the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, revealed after the verdicts.

Anti-drugs campaigners cheered in Bali's Denpasar District Court yesterday when Judge Arief Supratman announced Chan deserved no mercy after organising the operation. Chan's usual grin and bravado gone, he shrugged his shoulders and was led away.

In a later hearing, Sukumaran also received the death penalty. Judges said the pair would have damaged a generation by exporting 8000 hits of heroin. They had sullied Bali's reputation. Two more of the nine Australians, Martin Stephens and Michael Czugaj, received life sentences yesterday.

Lawyers for Sukumaran and Chan claimed the verdicts were driven by political pressure, and indicated they would appeal.

The Australian embassy said officials would seek clemency once their appeal processes were exhausted. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ruled out pardons for drug offenders, and they would be excluded from any extradition treaty.

Mr Downer told Parliament he wrote to Indonesia's attorney-general requesting he direct prosecutors not to seek death penalties. The Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, and the Justice Minister, Chris Ellison, made similar pleas. Singapore's execution of Australian drug smuggler Nguyen Tuong Van in December provoked a bitter row, when Mr Howard's pleas for mercy went unheeded.

In court, Judge Supratman referred to a letter from the AFP nominating Chan as the ringleader. Claims that four other defendants were forced to be drug couriers by Chan's threats to kill their families were dismissed.

Mr Keelty admitted the issue was emotive but told Southern Cross Broadcasting: "I stand by the police and what they've done … The Federal Court actually made a decision saying not only had they acted lawfully but they acted in accordance with government policy."

Mr Howard said: "The police are there to protect us from the ravages of drugs and I just hope that every young Australian who might in their wildest imagination think that they can get away with this will take a lesson from this."

Good thing it's Death there in Indonesia.

If the crime(s) were committed in France or some other parts of Europe, they'd try to psychoanalyze the poor fella and let him out after a few years...

Good thing it's Death there in Indonesia.

If the crime(s) were committed in France or some other parts of Europe, they'd try to psychoanalyze the poor fella and let him out after a few years...

Oh, you mean like the dude involved in the first Bali bombing whose sentence the Indonesians are reviewing for good behaviour?

Good thing it's Death there in Indonesia.

If the crime(s) were committed in France or some other parts of Europe, they'd try to psychoanalyze the poor fella and let him out after a few years...

Oh, you mean like the dude involved in the first Bali bombing whose sentence the Indonesians are reviewing for good behaviour?

Exactly...

Anywhere there's the Death Penalty, that state/country should adopt the Texas way of sending the culprit straight to the head of the line for an appointment with the Chamber.

Wouldn't that make the other ones waiting in line for the execution to get upset?

I always get upset when people cut in line infront of me.