Australia doing 'everything it can' for Bali death row pair

BILATERAL TIES. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott (L) is greeted by Indonesian President Joko Widodo shortly before a meeting at the presidential palace, in Jakarta on October 20, 2014. File photo by EPA

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Australia is doing everything it can to save two drug smugglers facing the firing squad in Indonesia, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Wednesday, April 8, after the pair lost their latest legal appeal.

On Monday, a Jakarta court dismissed Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran's challenge against the rejection of their pleas for clemency.

Indonesia's attorney general then said they had exhausted all options to avoid the death penalty, but their lawyers insist legal avenues remain open.

"We are continuing to do everything we possibly can for them," Abbott told reporters in Sydney in his first comments since Monday's decision.

"That's what we're doing... Everyone knows Australia's position on the death penalty."

Sukumaran, 33, and Chan, 31, the ringleaders of the so-called "Bali Nine" drug trafficking gang, were sentenced to death in 2006 for trying to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia.

Their appeals for clemency, typically a death row convict's final chance of avoiding the firing squad, were rejected earlier this year by Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.

In Monday's ruling, the State Administrative Court upheld a decision that it does not have the authority to hear a challenge to Jokowi's rejection.

Abbott said he had spoken to the Indonesian leader again about the Bali pair.

"I've had a number of conversations with President Widodo on this issue. I'm not going to go into what was said, but I have certainly made our position very clear," he said.

Indonesia executed 6 drug offenders in January, including 5 foreigners, prompting a furious Brazil and the Netherlands – whose citizens were among those put to death – to recall their ambassadors. – Rappler.com