While Australian PM Tony Abbott has expressed he’s against the death penalty, he says if the Indonesian government goes through with executing the Bali Nine inmates, the Australian relationship with Indonesia will not be compromised.
Just yesterday, Kerobokan Prison death row inmate Myuran Sukmaran was delivered a letter on President Joko Widodo’s letterhead, rejecting his bid for clemency. The Bali Nine inmate is still reportedly receiving consular help, but his hopes of evading the firing squad are exceedingly thin.
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“My profound hope is that these executions will not go ahead,” Abbott said today, when asked about the clemency rejection, as quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald.
“What I’m not going to do, though, is jeopardize the relationship with Indonesia.”
According to reports from the SMH, Abbott has said that Australia will make “the strongest possible representations” on Sukumaran’s behalf but it will not screw with this “critical relationship” between the two countries. Spoken like a true politician.
“We obviously respect the legal systems of other countries but where there is an attempt to impose the death penalty on an Australian, we make the strongest possible diplomatic representations,” Abbott said.
Sukumaran and fellow Bali Nine Kerobokan Prison inmate Andrew Chan are both on death row for attempting to smuggle 8.2 kilograms of heroin out of Bali in 2005. There have been no reports of Chan, however, receiving a letter rejecting his own bid for clemency.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
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