Sukumaran’s execution ‘priority’
Bali Nine member Myuran Sukumaran could face an Indonesian firing squad within months.
Sukumaran is listed among 20 death row inmates slated for priority execution this year, the Indonesian Attorney General’s office told AAP on Friday.
The existence of the list was reported in December, but it was unclear whether the 33-year-old’s name was on it.
It comes after the convicted drug smuggler had a last-ditch plea for presidential clemency rejected on Wednesday.
• Bali Nine clemency denied
• Indonesian terror warning
The decision removes Sukumaran’s final legal avenue to avoid a death penalty handed down in 2006 over his role in a plot to smuggle more than 8kg of heroin from Bali to Australia.
Jaya Kesuma, head of the Denpasar District Prosecutor Office, said death row inmates are usually executed about 2-3 months after rejection of their clemency plea.
Mr Kesuma, who has responsibility for executions in Bali, said the maximum wait is generally no longer than six months.
He said his office would organise the execution after receiving an instruction from the Attorney General.
“When it’s final, it must be executed as soon as possible,” he said.
“We’re ready.”
A spokesman for the Indonesian Attorney-General’s office said 13 people on the list of 20 had received decisions on their clemency applications.
It’s not clear if Sukumaran’s fellow Bali Nine member and death row inmate Andrew Chan, 30, is on the list.
A number of separate executions planned for last month, reported as either five or six, would hopefully go ahead before the end of January, the spokesman said.
He said more details would be released next week, but confirmed the prisoners, some of whom were foreigners, were being held in an Attorney General’s holding cell.
Any hopes Sukumaran has of avoiding execution appear to hinge on an argument between the Indonesian constitutional and supreme courts over how many times prisoners can apply for judicial reviews.
The outcome could reopen a legal avenue for Sukumaran and Chan, who lost their judicial reviews in 2011.
One of Sukumaran’s Australia-based lawyers, Julian McMahon, said he stood by the view that his client’s fate was not yet sealed.
“In recent weeks, the legal situation concerning appeals for people on death row has become unclear,” he told AAP.
“Accordingly, we are reviewing those issues with our Indonesian lawyers and will take advice from them.”
He called on the Australian government to stress to Indonesian president Joko Widodo the depth of Sukumaran’s remorse and rehabilitation.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Australia was making urgent representations to the Indonesian government on Sukumaran’s behalf.
But he has cautioned it would be foolish to jeopardise the relationship with Australia’s closest neighbour.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has adopted a hardline approach to drugs and drug smugglers.
He said in December he would never give clemency in drugs cases, citing a drug emergency in his country.