Drug smugglers face firing squad
2006-09-06 14:45
Jakarta - An Indonesian appeals court sentenced four Australian drug smugglers to death, joining two of their countrymen already awaiting the firing squad in the same plot, officials said on Wednesday.
Scott Rush, Tan Duc Than Nguyen, Si Yi Chen and Matthew Norman were originally sentenced to life at a district court for trying to take more than eight kilograms of heroin from Indonesia's resort island of Bali to their homeland last year.
The fate of the men - part of a trafficking ring dubbed the "Bali Nine" by the media - has been followed closely in neighbouring Australia, which does not have a death penalty.
Appeals
Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer told reporters in Canberra he was awaiting confirmation about the Supreme Court's ruling, but called for calm and understanding of Indonesian law.
The case has wound through the judicial system since the original convictions, with defence attorneys and prosecutors both appealing. The first round of appeals saw Rush's life sentence upheld, while Nguyen, Chen and Norman's punishments were cut to 20 years.
Rush appealed that decision to the Supreme Court, while prosecutors asked judges to reinstate the original sentences of the other convicts.
Facing firing squad
However, the Supreme Court ruled last month that all men would now face the firing squad, said Mulyadi, a court official who attended the hearings.
The verdict was not announced publicly, and lawyers for the men said they had yet to be informed.
Heroin taped to bodies
The men, aged 19 to 23, were arrested with five other Australians in April 2005, some at Bali's airport with heroin taped to their bodies and others in a hotel room purportedly plotting another shipment.
The two ringleaders - Andrew Chan, 22, and Myuran Sukumaran, 25 - are already facing death.
Verdicts in the appeals of Michael Czugaj and Martin Stephens are still pending in the Supreme Court.
The final member of the Bali Nine, Renae Lawrence, decided against challenging her 20-year sentence, which was reduced from life on appeal.
- AP