Australia won't intervene in bombers' execution
Updated
A presidential pardon is the only legal option left for the three Indonesian men on death row for the 2002 Bali bombings.
Presenter: Joanna McCarthy
Speaker: Professor Tim Lindsey, from the Melbourne University Asian Law Centre.
LINDSEY: There's no further judicial process that's available to them, so the only thing that stands between them and the firing squad is an application for clemency to the President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Now under Indonesian law, if they make such an application, the president must consult the Supreme Court for its advice, but he can make his own decision.
However, it's extremely unlikely that, first, they would make such an application for clemency at all, and second that if they did, they would succeed.
McCARTHY: The influence and power of Jemaah Islamiah has of course been waning, but there are some concerns that these executions could be used as a recruitment tool and lead to the resurgence of JI. What's your view?
LINDSEY: Well certainly the Bali bombers themselves have said that when they're executed they will become martyrs, and that their deaths will lead to inspire other extremists and a spate of attacks will result. You would sort of expect them to say that, otherwise what they are doing is pretty futile from their point of view. So I don't think we should put too much weight on their claims.
Secondly, the only people in Indonesia who are likely to be particularly inspired by the atrocities committed by the JI in Bali and elsewhere are people who are already committed to that cause. In other words, the only people who are going to be inspired to launch further attacks would have been making such further attacks in any case.
McCARTHY: And finally Professor Tim Lindsey, the Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, says he won't be intervening to stop these executions. How does that sit with Australia's official opposition to the death penalty, in your view?
LINDSEY: Well, there are two big issues in this. The first is that for many decades, it has been bipartisan policy in Australia and endorsed at state and federal level by successive governments of all different colours that Australia is opposed as a matter of principle to the death penalty. That is clear national policy. Now if that is our policy, then we should, whenever an execution takes place anywhere in the world of anyone for any crime, stand up on that principle and say that we condemn it and we oppose it.
It's been a problem for Australia that we have been largely silent on this when executions occur in other countries and I think that, and this is my second point, also has serious practical implications for our capacity to advocate in favour of our citizens who find themselves on death row overseas. So every time we take a woolly position on this or decide not to intervene, or say it's a matter for Indonesia's internal affairs, that will be thrown straight back at us when the time comes to try and urge mercy for our own citizens in that situation.
I think we need to understand what's involved in the death penalty. Under the relevant law in Indonesia, the prisoners will actually be given around about three days notice when the execution date is fixed. They are then taken out at night, it's usually at night time, to an isolated remote place, typically a forest or beach. They are then offered a blind fold and given a choice of kneeling or standing as they are executed. If necessary, they can be bound and tied to the stake. There's a firing squad that stands between five and ten metres away from them, and fires at them aiming for their heart. If the prisoner survives, then the head of the firing squad, the police mobile brigade is involved, then will finish the execution by shooting them point blank in the head. So we're talking about a particularly brutal, primitive if you like, form of execution.
So if that is what we want for Australian citizens involved in drug offences in South East Asia, and there is no doubt that there will continue to be numbers of Australians who commit drug offences in Asia and find themselves perhaps on a beach some day facing this option, then we can continue with our current attitude of saying well, it's a matter for Indonesia's internal affairs, oh, we won't intervene, although we oppose the death penalty. If you don't, if you are going to oppose the death penalty, then there cannot be exceptions. Because as soon as you start making exceptions for other countries or for particular crimes, or for particular people, then you are in fact endorsing the death penalty.
