Schapelle's home, but 170 Australians are in jail or facing charges overseas for drug crimes

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald (28 May 2017)

http://www.smh.com.au/national/more-than-500-australians-in-jail-or-facing-charges-overseas-for-drugrelated-crimes-20170527-gwejqw.html

Nearly one third of the 545 Australians currently imprisoned or facing charges overseas were convicted or arrested for drug-related crimes, according to the latest figures from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Many are in countries where conviction on drug charges may attract the death penalty.

DFAT figures on open consular cases show that as of May 24, 102 (or 41 per cent) of the 246 Australians languishing in overseas jails were convicted on drug charges, and 68 (or 23 per cent) of the 299 Australians arrested overseas were arrested on drugs charges. They come as convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby returns to Australia, having completed her sentence in an Indonesian jail.

While Corby's is perhaps the most high-profile case of an Australian facing the death penalty, a Fairfax Media analysis shows that since 1980 at least 92 Australians have been charged with crimes that attract the death penalty.

Of these, 33 were handed a death sentence, although 20 of these were later commuted to life sentences. Six have been executed, including Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran who faced a firing squad in Indonesia in 2015. One death row inmate in Thailand, Donald Tait, had his conviction overturned in 1988.

The remaining six are on death row or were on death row at last report. Three are in Thailand and Vietnam: Antonio Bagnato, convicted of murder in Thailand in February this year; and Tran Minh Dat and Pham Trung Dung, separately convicted in Vietnam in 2014 on heroin trafficking charges.

A further three on death row in China have had their sentences suspended: Henry Chhin, who was handed a the death penalty suspended for two years in 2005 and whose whereabouts is unknown; Bengali Sherrif, understood to have been given the death penalty suspended for two years in 2015; and Anthony Bannister, who received a suspended death sentence in 2015. All three were convicted for trafficking ice.

Also included in the 92 are three Australians either awaiting trial or a verdict: Peter Gardner and Ibrahim Jalloh are in China and Maria Pinto Exposto is in Malaysia. All three were arrested in separate cases in 2014, on charges of trafficking methamphetamine.

These figures, based on media reports, underestimate the true number of Australians held on charges that could attract the death penalty.

Separate numbers, obtained through freedom of information laws, hint at the sizeable gap between the two data sets. They show that since 2015, Australian Federal Police have assisted in nearly 130 foreign investigations involving more than 400 people, where a successful prosecution could potentially lead to a death sentence.

"That's an extraordinary number," said Stephen Blanks, President of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties. "If that's correct then publicly-sourced information is only scratching the surface."

Amnesty International's latest report on the death penalty, released last month, highlighted the secrecy surrounding the use of capital punishment in countries such as China, Vietnam and Malaysia.

As many as a dozen Australians – including Sherrif, Bannister, Gardner and Jalloh – are believed to be held in a single city in southern China, Guangzhou, putting estimates of the number of Australians on or facing death row as high as 17.

"China keeps its grotesque use of the death penalty a 'state secret', but our research shows that thousands of people are sentenced to death and executed each year," said Amnesty International Australia's Rose Kulak.

"China executes more people than all other countries in the world put together."

In 2016, at least 1032 people were executed worldwide, excluding in China, according to the latest Amnesty International figures.

DFAT annual reports tracking statistics on Australians arrested overseas for any offence show the rate of arrest rose to its highest level in six years in 2015-16, with 15.2 arrests per 100,000 departures. The largest number of arrests were in the US (262), followed by Thailand (107) and the United Arab Emirates (100).

"DFAT has long provided clear and consistent messaging to Australians that they must respect the laws of the countries in which they work, live or travel," a departmental spokesperson said.

Mr Blanks said the death was not appropriate for any crime, for "many reasons apart from the barbarity".

"There is always the possibility that errors in the judicial process have been made. There is always the possibility that criminals can reform themselves – and the examples of the two Australians executed in Indonesia, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, stand out in that regard," he said.

"In practice, the death penalty operates in a discriminatory way against those least able to defend themselves. Typically, it will be the drug mules that are caught and executed, rather than the organisers of the drug trade."

Indonesia's president Joko Widodo hints at abolishing death penalty

Source: The Guardian (5 November 2016)

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/nov/05/indonesias-president-joko-widodo-hints-at-abolishing-death-penalty

Indonesia’s president Joko Widodo has indicated his country wants to move towards abolishing the death penalty.

Speaking ahead of a three-day visit to Australia, Widodo told the ABC he thinks Indonesians will change their minds on execution laws as citizens in Europe had done in the past.

“We are very open to options,” he said.

“I don’t know when but we want to move towards that direction.”

The execution in Indonesia last year of Australian drug traffickers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran strained relations between the two countries. Widodo’s trip to Australia will be his first bilateral visit since Canberra withdrew its ambassador to Indonesia in protest against the executions.

“Indonesia has regulations, Indonesia has its own law, which still allows execution. That’s what I complied to,” the president told the ABC.

“We also listened to what other countries had to say. But again, I have to follow the provisions of the law applicable in Indonesia.”

But Widodo, who’s also known as Jokowi, also stressed the importance of rebuilding trust between Australia and Indonesia.

“The most important thing is definitely to have trust in between the country leaders, and then the relationship between the citizens,” he said.

Widodo also stressed the importance of the two nations working together to address the thousands of asylum seekers believed to be stranded in Indonesia.

“If we could sit down and talk through this, find the solution together I think in the future we’ll have a much better relationship,” he said.

Widodo arrives in Sydney on Sunday and is scheduled to address parliament in Canberra on Monday.

Australia should take a stand on Veloso

Source: Lowy Interpreter (23 September 2016)

http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2016/09/23/Australia-should-take-a-stand-on-Veloso.aspx

In April last year, Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were among eight people executed by firing squad in Indonesia. Their deaths brought the issue of capital punishment to the forefront of Australia’s consciousness and reignited debate over the practice on a global scale.

The only woman in the group scheduled for execution that day, Philippines national Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, was given a last-minute reprieve in order to give testimony against a person accused of human and drug trafficking in the Philippines. Her death sentence has not been permanently commuted and could be reinstated. Veloso’s case attracted significant support in the Philippines and Indonesia, with many protesting her innocence and claiming that Veloso was an unwitting drug mule and victim of human trafficking.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has been subject to intense international scrutiny in recent months due to his promotion of vigilante attacks and extra-judicial killings of suspected drug offenders. Duterte was elected in May promising a war on drugs and has duly delivered, with over 3000 people killed on the streets since.

Earlier this month, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said that Duterte intervened in Veloso’s case, telling Jokowi:‘Please go ahead if you want to execute her.’ Duterte’s spokesman denied this claim and said Duterte merely advised Indonesia to follow its own laws in the case.

Duterte’s intervention, regardless of exactly how it was phrased, was arguably out of kilter with the general expectation that governments seek clemency for their nationals facing execution in other countries. It leaves Veloso in greater uncertainty as to what outcome she can hope for, although the Philippines Justice Secretary believes it is still possible she may be spared and perhaps even released.

Both Indonesia and the Philippines have adopted hard-line stances against drug crime which allow the punishment of death for convicted drug offenders (formally, through the courts, in Indonesia and now informally, on the streets, in the Philippines).

Although international human rights law aims for the total abolition of capital punishment, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states that, where capital punishment is still practiced, it should be used only for the ‘most serious crimes.’ In 2013, the UN Human Rights Committee condemned the country’s continued use of the death penalty for drug trafficking as not meeting the threshold of ‘most serious crimes'. The committee instead recommended a review of legislation ‘to ensure that crimes involving narcotics are not amenable to the death penalty.’

Australia’s position on capital punishment has been for some time that in all cases it is a violation of human rights and should be abolished. It offends the right to life, respected under international human rights law. As I’ve argued elsewhere, Australia should also decry the death penalty as a form of torture, due to the methods used and the inherent terror in awaiting one’s own scheduled killing.

As was clear in the case of Chan and Sukumaran, Australia’s extremely selective advocacy on the behalf of people subject to the death penalty weakens its clemency campaigns for individual Australians at risk of execution. Australia’s abolitionist advocacy must be less partial and more principled if it is to be persuasive.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop initiated a parliamentary inquiry into Australia’s advocacy for the abolition of the death penalty following her strong but unsuccessful advocacy for clemency on behalf of Sukumaran and Chan. Its terms of reference sought to improve Australia’s capacity to advocate effectively for death penalty abolition. To the credit of the inquiry committee, its report recommended the establishment of a whole-of-government strategy for abolition of the death penalty. It further recommended:

...intervening to oppose death sentences and executions of foreign nationals, especially in cases where there are particular human rights concerns, such as unfair trials, or when juveniles or the mentally ill are exposed to the death penalty

Julie Bishop took such an approach in July this year, when she reiterated Australia’s opposition to capital punishment in all cases in advance of Indonesia’s most recent round of executions.

Should Indonesia decide to return Veloso to death row and move towards execution, it would be especially important for Australia to advocate on her behalf. At the moment, Australia is vulnerable to charges of hypocrisy, including from Indonesia. The committee’s recommendation for broader and less partial advocacy against the death penalty will enable Australia to demonstrate the strength of its abolitionist stance. In turn, Australia may hope to more effectively influence other states to abandon capital punishment in law and practice.

Australia Must Breathe New Life Into The Fight Against The Death Penalty In Asia

Source: Huffington Post (20 May 2016)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/georgie-bright/australia-must-breathe-new-life-into-the-fight-against-the-death/

The death penalty is making an alarming resurgence in Australia's neighbourhood as several Asian countries move forward with executions. Now is an opportune time for Australian officials to try to reverse this trend before it's unstoppable.

This week, Philippine president-elect Rodrigo Duterte vowed to reintroduce capital punishment. The Philippines abolished the death penalty in 2006.

Today, [May 20] Singaporean authorities were expected to execute a 31-year-old Malaysian, Kho Jabing, who received a mandatory death sentence in violation of international fair trial rights. Hours before his execution, he was granted a stay of execution following a last minute appeal.

On May 11, Bangladeshi officials hanged Motiur Rahman Nizami following a conviction in Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal for alleged war crimes. Human Rights Watch has pointed out numerous shortcomings in the tribunal's proceedings, raising serious fair trial concerns.

On May 8, the Afghan government hanged six Taliban prisoners as part of President Ashraf Ghani's efforts to respond to critics who have demanded that the government take a harder line against the Taliban.

Indonesia is currently preparing a round of executions of 15 individuals, including five Indonesians and 10 foreign nationals, who have been convicted of drug offences.

Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as an irreversible, degrading, and cruel punishment. International human rights law is clear: if used at all, the death penalty should be reserved only for the "most serious crimes." United Nations experts have stated that drug offences do not meet that criteria.

Last year, many Australians were appalled when two Australian men, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, were among 14 prisoners executed by firing squad in Indonesia. The Australian government made representations at the highest levels but to no avail.

In the wake of this state-sanctioned barbarity, the Australian Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade launched an inquiry into Australia's Advocacy for the Abolition of the Death Penalty. This month, the committee released its report, "A world without the death penalty." The report makes 13 recommendations and acknowledges that Australia has traditionally been a strong advocate for the abolition of the death penalty.

However, the joint committee recognises that to be effective, Australia's advocacy against the death penalty needs to be "consistent and universal, and strongly encourages all members of parliament and officials of the Australia government to present a consistent, principled objection to capital punishment."

The report recommends that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade coordinate "the development a whole-of-government Strategy for the Abolition of the Death Penalty which has as its focus, countries of the Indo-Pacific and the United States of America." This is exactly in line with what Human Rights Watch and other civil society groups recommended to the committee.

Now that the report has been tabled, DFAT shouldn't wait to start implementing it. The lives of people on death row across the region hang in the balance. Australia should adopt and carry out the recommendations of the committee and urgently intervene with relevant countries to privately and publicly denounce past executions and oppose future ones.

As chair of the report's Human Rights Sub-Committee and Australia's Special Envoy for Human Rights, Philip Ruddock has made ending capital punishment a signature issue. He should make urgent representations to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Singapore to publicly condemn the executions.

Australia should work closely with the United Nations and other abolitionist countries to urge our neighbours to get rid of the death penalty once and for all.

Australia: Adopt New Strategy to End Death Penalty Abroad

Source: Human Rights Watch (20 May 2015)

http://www.hrw.org/news/2015/05/20/australia-adopt-new-strategy-end-death-penalty-abroad

Following the executions of Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran in Indonesia, the Australian government should redouble efforts to end the death penalty around the world, and overhaul the way it campaigns for global abolition, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances because of its inherent cruelty.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Human Rights Law Centre, Reprieve Australia, Australians Detained Abroad, NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Civil Liberties Australia, and Uniting Justice Australia have joined forces to launch a new Australian blueprint to end the death penalty.

The Australian government has condemned executions in Indonesia, but it could play a larger role opposing the death penalty globally. Australia abolished the death penalty in 2010, although the last execution took place in 1967.

"The time is ripe for Australia's foreign ministry to make public a new comprehensive policy to end the death penalty worldwide, with specific and achievable goals for individual countries," said Elaine Pearson, Australia director at Human Rights Watch. "The strategy should include consistent public and private diplomatic pressure to end this cruel practice, showing how the death penalty has failed to deter crime and been unjustly applied."

The groups' blueprint for change, "Australian Government and the Death Penalty: A Way Forward" details four steps the government should take to build on the current momentum to end the death penalty:

1.       Develop a new Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade public strategy document aimed at ending the death penalty, everywhere;

2.       Use Australia's aid program to support civil society organizations campaigning for abolition in countries which retain the death penalty;

3.       Join forces with other nations to push for universal adoption of a global moratorium on the death penalty; and

4.       Put in place stronger legislation so the Australian Federal Police (AFP) is required by law not to share information with other law enforcement agencies that would potentially result in suspected perpetrators facing the death penalty.

The blueprint urges the Australian government to consult widely, including with the UK government, which already has a global strategy against the death penalty, as well as with advocacy groups in countries retaining the death penalty.

The organizations said if Australia wants its opposition to the death penalty globally to be credible, it is important that Australian laws consistently reflect that opposition. Following the arrests of the so-called Bali 9 in 2005, it emerged that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) passed on detailed information about the alleged plan to smuggle heroin from Bali, without seeking guarantees that the information would not be used by the authorities to eventually seek the death penalty against the perpetrators.

Emily Howie, director of advocacy and research at the Human Rights Law Centre, said: "If the Bali 9 case happened again tomorrow, nothing would prevent the AFP from acting in the same way. Parliament should amend the AFP Act to include sufficient safeguards to prevent police sharing information which could lead to the death penalty."

"Momentum is building globally for the abolition of the death penalty. In recent months, Australian people and the government have spoken out powerfully against executions," said Ursula Noye, vice president of Reprieve Australia. "The time is right for us to take a lead role, and build a regional coalition for abolition. We should make future generations proud."

"The recent executions of eight men in Indonesia, including Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, was an inhuman and unjust punishment and represents exactly why the Australian government must continue to speak out against the death penalty whenever it occurs," said Claire Mallinson, national director at Amnesty International Australia. "We must now ensure Australia's stance against the recent executions is reflected in all government policy. We are asking for change across the Australian Government – through diplomacy, our aid program, our federal law enforcement agencies." 

At least 17 Australians jailed around the world could face death penalty

Source: The Guardian (30 April 2015)

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/30/at-least-17-australians-jailed-around-the-world-could-face-death-penalty

As Australia reacts to Indonesia's execution of two citizens, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, there are at least 17 other Australians in danger of receiving the death penalty around the world.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed the number to Guardian Australia, but would not disclose the names or locations.

More than half of them are thought to have been detained in China; four known cases involve smuggling methamphetamine, commonly known in Australia as ice. In 2014, China Daily reported that of 63 foreign drug-smuggling suspects detained by officials in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, 11 were Australian.

Rao Jiyong, a deputy director at the city's anti-smuggling customs bureau, told the newspaper that drug-smuggling cases involving Australian suspects had rapidly increased over the past two years and cooperation had been strengthened with Australian federal police and customs officials.

In 2013-14, more than a third of Australians in prison overseas were there because of drug offences. Countries which apply the death penalty on those convicted of using, dealing or trafficking drugs include Indonesia, Thailand, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates.

Peter Gardner, 25 (China)
A dual New Zealand/Australian citizen, Gardner was arrested at Guangzhou airport, China, on 8 November 2014 after customs officials allegedly found 30kg of methamphetamine in his bags. Gardner's lawyer, Craig Tuck, confirmed with Guardian Australia his trial would begin on 7 May in Guangzhou's municipal intermediate court. "This is considerably earlier than expected," Tuck said. It is expected to last no more than two days.

Bengali Sherrif and Ibrahim Jalloh (China)
Sherrif and Jalloh were arrested by Chinese authorities at Guangzhou airport in June 2014, the ABC reported. Sherrif was sentenced to a suspended death penalty for attempting to smuggle methamphetamine from China to Australia, which could be commuted to life in prison after two years of good behaviour. Jalloh is awaiting trial.

Anthony Roger Bannister, 43 (China)
Australian jockey Bannister was arrested for drug smuggling in Guangzhou on 11 March 2014, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. More than 3kg of crystal methamphetamine were found in envelopes stuffed into eight handbags in his luggage. "I do believe that I have been set up ... in this drug-smuggling scheme," Bannister told the court at his October trial. "They've used me as a mule."

Henry Chhin (China)
Chhin, then 35 from Sydney, was detained by police in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen on 10 May 2004 for attempting to mail 270g of methamphetamine to Australia, the Shenzhen Daily reported. The box, which allegedly contained the drugs and computer software, was intercepted by Shanghai police two days before. Local police said another 700g of the same drug was found in kitchen cabinets and the sitting room of Chhin's residence. He was given the death penalty with a two-year suspension in March 2005.

A small group of foreign nationals have been executed in China, but none have been Australian. According to China.org.cn these include five Japanese, four South Koreans and a Pakistani-British businessman.

Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto, 52 (Malaysia)
Exposto, from Melbourne, was arrested on 7 December 2014 after arriving at Kuala Lumpur airport, en route from Shanghai to Melbourne, with a bag authorities said contained 1.5kg of crystal methamphetamine. Exposto's lawyer, Tania Scivetti, confirmed to Guardian Australia that a chemical analysis of the substance would be submitted to court on Thursday, after which the case would probably move to the high court for a May hearing.

Malaysian law carries a mandatory death penalty for drug trafficking. Three Australian nationals have been executed by the state: Michael McAuliffe in 1993, and Kevin Barlow and Brian Chambers in 1986.

Pham Trung Dung, 37 (Vietnam)
Dung was arrested in May 2013, when custom officials reportedly found heroin in his luggage as he boarded a flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Australia, the Associated Press reported. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said, "We understand that he has the right of appeal. Whether he decides to do so is a matter for the man and his lawyers."

Under the Vietnamese penal code, a person caught in possession of heroin can be sentenced to death. The five Australians who have received death penalties for heroin trafficking in Vietnam have had their sentences commuted to life in prison, reported the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties.

PNG says death penalty 'under review' after Indonesia fallout

Source: Bangkok post (11 May 2015)

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/557639/png-says-death-penalty-under-review-after-indonesia-fallout

Prime Minister Peter O'Neill said the death penalty is "under review" in Papua New Guinea after recent global outcry over the execution of foreign drug convicts in neighbouring Indonesia.

The Pacific island nation revived capital punishment two years ago to reduce rampant crime, prompted in part by the burning alive of a 20-year-old woman by a crowd for sorcery.


While the law allows for execution by lethal injection, hanging and firing squad, no death row convicts have been killed since then due to a lack of infrastructure.


"As I have indicated publicly, that (death penalty) is under review," O'Neill told reporters in comments published by the Post-Courier on Monday, after being asked whether PNG would think again following the Indonesian fallout.


"Our agencies of government are reviewing all aspects of the death penalty in our country and we will debate this issue on the floor of parliament when parliament resumes."


O'Neill's comments came on the eve of a two-day visit by Indonesian President Joko Widodo, under whose brief leadership 14 drug convicts have been executed, 12 of them foreigners.


Jakarta put to death two Australians, a Brazilian, and four Nigerians on a prison island, along with one Indonesian, last month despite worldwide calls for them to be spared and heartrending pleas from their families.


Widodo was unmoved, arguing that Indonesia is facing an emergency due to rising narcotics use.


In response, Australia, a close friend of Papua New Guinea, recalled its ambassador from Indonesia for what it called the "cruel and unnecessary" executions while the United Nations expressed deep regret.


PNG has also faced national and international opposition to the reintroduction of the death penalty in a country where an execution has not been carried out since 1954.

Australia recalls ambassador after Indonesia executes prisoners

Source: CNN (29 April 2015)

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/28/asia/indonesia-firing-squad-executions/

Australia has recalled its ambassador to Indonesia for consultations after two Australians were among eight drug smugglers executed by firing squad early Wednesday.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott called the executions "cruel and unnecessary" because both men, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, had been "fully rehabilitated" during a decade in prison.

Abbott didn't say what permanent actions, if any, would be taken against Indonesia. "This is a dark moment in the relationship, but I'm sure the relationship will be restored," he said.

One of the men's Indonesian lawyers, Todung Mulya Lubis tweeted his apologies. "I failed. I lost," he said. "I'm sorry."

Indonesian President Joko Widodo appeared to shrug off the diplomatic recall, telling reporters that "our legal sovereignty must be respected. We also respect other countries' legal sovereignty." Foreign minister Retno Marsudi said the country had no plans to recall its own ambassador in response.

READ: Why Australians are angry

Six other inmates were executed, including Nigerians Raheem Salami, Silvester Obiekwe Nwolise, Okwudil Oyatanze and Martin Anderson; Indonesian Zainal Abidin and Brazilian Rodrigo Gularte, who was said to be mentally ill.

On Wednesday, Brazil's foreign ministry released a statement expressing "deep sadness" at Gularte's execution, saying that Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff had urged her Indonesian counterpart to spare him due to his "psychiatric condition."

Gularte is the second Brazilian to be executed in Indonesia this year, with the first -- Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira -- prompting the country to recall the Indonesian ambassador for consultations.

Filipina spared

The Indonesian government had originally announced that nine prisoners would be executed, but at the last moment Filipina Mary Jane Veloso was spared.

"We are so happy, so happy. I thought I had lost my daughter already but God is so good. Thank you to everyone who helped us," her mother Celia Veloso told CNN.

Philippines embassy officials said Veloso would be returned to Yogyakarta prison in Central Java later on Wednesday.

No reason was given for the reprieve but it may relate to developments in her case late on Tuesday. CNN Philippines reported that Veloso's alleged recruiter, Maria Kristina Sergio and her partner Julius Lacanilao, surrendered to authorities. The report said Sergio had denied all accusations in relation to Veloso's case.

Veloso's lawyers claimed the mother-of-two was the victim of human trafficking. They say she was offered work in Malaysia, but when she arrived she was told the job had been filled and wasn't aware the bag she'd been given for the return journey to Indonesia was filled with drugs.

A tenth prisoner, Frenchman Serge Atlaoui, was also scheduled to be executed but his case was delayed while a court considers a legal challenge.

No reprieve for Australians

Candlelight vigils were held for Chan and Sukumaran in the hours ahead of the expected execution. The men's legal teams had been fighting for years for a stay, but it wasn't to be.

The men -- then aged in their early twenties -- were arrested in 2005 as part of the "Bali Nine," a drug smuggling gang that intended to import 8 kilograms (17.6 pounds) of heroin from Bali to Australia. They failed.

The pair were transported with other prisoners to Indonesia's so-called "execution island" in March, and after being given 72-hours notice of their execution on Saturday, Chan married his longtime girlfriend, Febyanti Herewila, on Monday in prison.

The executions of Sukumaran and Chan came despite the fact that both this week received a court date of May 12 to hear an outstanding legal challenge.

On Tuesday, lawyers for the men also said Indonesia's Judicial Commission had yet to properly investigate claims of corruption during their original trial and sentencing. They said three of the men's Indonesian lawyers had been summoned to attend the commission on May 7.

However, before the executions, Indonesia insisted that all legal avenues had closed.

On Tuesday, the prisoners' families were heard wailing as they boarded a boat for the execution site. Visiting hours were extended until 8 p.m. to give them extra time before they were asked to leave.

The death penalty

Under Indonesian law, the death penalty is carried out by a 12-man firing squad, although only three guns are loaded with live ammunition.

Prisoners are given the choice of whether to stand or sit, and whether they want to wear a blindfold, hood or nothing. The shots -- aimed at the heart -- are fired from between 5 and 10 meters (16 to 33 feet), according to Amnesty International.

After the executions, the rights group released a statement condemning them as "reprehensible" and issue fresh calls for a moratorium on the death penalty.

Indonesia fighting 'drugs crisis'

While the Bali Nine have garnered much international attention, their punishment is part of a larger government effort to combat illegal drug trafficking.

Indonesian President Widodo has insisted that Indonesia would not be swayed by appeals for clemency because the country is dealing with a "drugs crisis." He told CNN in January that clemency would not be extended to drug traffickers, leading to an appeal from Chan and Sukumaran that their cases hadn't been properly considered.

Lawyers for the two men said they underwent radical rehabilitation during their 10 years in Kerobokan prison and were helping to counsel and support other inmates.

Chan was ordained as a Christian minister who led prayer meetings, while Sukumaran became an accomplished painter and established his own art classes inside the Bali prison.

Foreigners executed

The Indonesian government didn't confirm until late Tuesday that the executions were to go ahead.

Preparations were clearly underway earlier that day, with the arrival of ambulances at the port where boats leave to go to Nusa Kambangan island where the prisoners were being held.

Images showed individual crosses bearing the prisoners' names and the date April 29, 2015.

Families were in little doubt as to what lay ahead.

When reports of his death emerged, Sukumaran's cousin tweeted: "I love you more than you can imagine. Your legacy will live on. I promise. Save me a place in heaven."

Australian woman facing death penalty for drug trafficking in Malaysia appears in court

Source: ABC News (15 December 2014)

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-14/australian-woman-faces-death-penalty-for-drugs-in-malaysia/5966580

An Australian mother of four has appeared before a closed court in Malaysia after being arrested at Kuala Lumpur airport with 1.5 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine.

Sydney woman Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto, 51, was stopped at the airport on December 7 as she tried to board a flight to Melbourne.

Anyone with at least 50 grams of methamphetamine is considered a trafficker in Muslim-majority Malaysia, which imposes a mandatory sentence of death by hanging upon conviction.

Ms Pinto Exposto appeared in court on Sunday and has been remanded in custody.

She is likely to be officially charged next week.

Her lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said Ms Pinto Exposto did not know the crystal methamphetamine, also known as ice, had been placed in her luggage and she thought she was carrying retirement papers for a US army soldier.

"It is a very strong chance she is one of those naive and innocent mules that has been used by some unscrupulous people," he said.

"She doesn't seem to know what's going on.

"She doesn't even have to leave the airport at Kuala Lumpur because she is in transit."

She is receiving consular assistance from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and is due to reappear in court on December 19.

Hundreds of people are on death row in Malaysia, many for drug-related offences, though few have been executed in recent years.

Two Australians were hanged in 1986 for heroin trafficking - the first Westerners to be executed in Malaysia.

Last year Dominic Bird, a truck driver from Perth, was acquitted on drug trafficking charges after he was allegedly caught with 167 grams of ice.

His lawyers argued that a government chemist had made a mistake when analysing the substance found on Bird.

He was freed and allowed to return home.

Australian PM backs Chan clemency

Gillard against Chan death penalty
By Petrina Berry
18 June 2011

AAP on The Brisbane Times

Prime Minister Julia Gillard hasn't ruled out appealing to Indonesia's president personally to have the death penalty against convicted Bali Nine ringleader Andrew Chan quashed.

Indonesia's Supreme Court has rejected Chan's final appeal against the death penalty.

His only chance now is a plea for clemency to Indonesia's president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Ms Gillard, ahead of her address at an ALP conference in Brisbane, said Australia does not support the death penalty and the government will do whatever it can to help.

Asked if she will talk to the president herself, she said: "I'll be happy to do whatever is necessary to put as much force as we can into the appeal for clemency, including personally involving myself.

She said the government was supporting the family and Chan's lawyers.

Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd, also in Brisbane for the party's annual conference, said the government would stand by Chan.

"We will do what we have done with any other Australians who have been convicted of a capital offence and that is to use every form of representation to government concerned in support of that person," Mr Rudd said.

Indonesia: Australian faces capital charge

Australian man faces death penalty
November 26, 2010
From: TheAge.com.au

AUSTRALIAN man Michael Sacatides faces the death penalty in Indonesia after being formally charged with drug importation offences yesterday.

Sacatides, 43, was caught with 1.7 kilograms of methamphetamine in his luggage at Bali's airport last month.

He maintains his innocence.

Bali police handed a dossier of evidence to prosecutors yesterday, who charged Sacatides with importing drugs, an offence that carries a maximum penalty of death by firing squad.

Sacatides is a kickboxing instructor who hails from Sydney but lived in Bangkok for several years.

He was moved to Kerobokan prison on October 27 and will join three other Australians on death row for drug offences.

Scott Rush, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran have legal appeals in train.Sacatides is expected to front a Denpasar court next month.

He has previously told police a man who gave him the bag containing the drugs was a former business associate.

TOM ALLARD

Australians must confront death penalty

Looking away from the death penalty abroad is collusion
By Brigid Delaney
From: Sydney Morning Herald, 22 October 2010

Globalisation has swept the world, but the mediaeval remedy remains.

Poor Colin Campbell Ross. The 29-year-old Victorian was hanged in 1922 for the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl. It was later found that they got the wrong man.

On Monday, Victorian Attorney-General Rob Hulls formally returned Ross's cremated remains to his family.

In 1981, France's Justice Minister abolished the death penalty, saying it was untenable as it depended on the impossible premise of "totally responsible guilty parties" and "absolutely infallible judges".

French philosopher Bernard Henri-Levy said recently, with a note of Gallic exasperation, "To think we still have to argue against the death penalty".

In the case of the Bali nine, Scott Rush, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are literally arguing for their lives. They may have admitted various levels of culpability in their roles after the April 2005 heroin bust, and it is proper they should be brought to account, but the great injustice here is that the punishment does not fit the crime. Moreover, the punishment should be regarded as a crime.

It's interesting watching Australian politicians on this matter - their responses speak somehow to character, like a low tide revealing water marks; the Christian who thinks that only God has the power to take life, the humanist who recoils at such awesome power invested in the state, and the diplomat who believes state sovereignty is sacred.

The narrative that engulfs death row cases flows on regardless: the grainy footage of the arrests, the shock and denial of the accused, the deep distress to the families and friends. The introduction into their lives of the media. The organisation of legal teams. The diplomatic approaches, the hearings and appeals, the religious awakening in prison, the vigils of supporters, the masses, the pleas for clemency, the prayers and the petitions.

Towards the end there is, as there was with Australian Nguyen Tuong Van (executed almost five years ago in Singapore for drug trafficking), a sort of public turning. Compassion for the prisoner, sorrow for his family, an acknowledgment that perhaps people can change. Then a lump in the throat, or sudden tearfulness watching the evening news when you hear he has been hanged.

But the central, unmovable thing in all this activity is the legal system that supports the death.

It is before such a legal system that many objections wilt, where we answer our own disquiet about the death penalty with a fey "well, it's their law, so we have to abide by their punishment", as if the legal systems of others were beyond critique. As if they never get it wrong.

Sovereignty is the trump card and for many our inner diplomat speaks louder than our inner Christian or humanist. But what if you believe that the immovable thing, the thing at the centre of it all, is not the legal system but the sanctity of life?

While globalisation has swept the world and continues to radically transform cultures and economies, the barbaric, mediaeval ''remedy'' of the death penalty remains like a recessive gene in a body that has successfully evolved and adapted to modern life.

You wouldn't recognise parts of Shanghai or Beijing, so modern have they become, yet China executes unreported thousands (sending the bill for the single bullet to the families). In December 2009, in great secrecy, they executed Akmal Shaikh, a mentally ill Briton accused of drug smuggling.

You may go to Singapore to buy the most advanced electronic gear (and so cheap) - yet that is where they killed 25-year-old Nguyen with a noose, where he went dignified and prayerfully to his death.

You may go to Bali for an Eat, Pray, Love experience when down the road is Kerobokan prison and the young men are in sweaty little rooms with their lawyers and their hopes.

And the US, where 3000 men and women are waiting in dread (maybe after a while in a kind of toxic boredom) to be put to death by the state. Why do we tolerate the continued existence of this?

Anyone like me who studied humanities at a university in the '90s had it drilled into them not to assume your legal system is better or more enlightened than theirs.

But what is this triumph of cultural relativism in the face of the great opportunity that exists for everyone of personal transcendence? That is the unforgettable lesson Nguyen taught us, and repeated in the Kerobokan transformations of Sukumaran and Chan - the computer and art classes they are teaching the other prisoners, their faces more open and luminous with each court appearance.

How is it possible to accept the sovereignty of countries where the legal "remedy" is death?

There are some things so fundamentally abhorrent that to cough politely and look away is uncomfortably close to collusion, at one remove from some baying mob in Tehran gathered at the scaffolding in the square.


Brigid Delaney is a former lawyer, journalist and author of This Restless Life.

Indonesia: Australian police appeal for mercy

Aussie Cops Seek Mercy for Bali 9 Drug Smuggler
Made Arya Kencana & AFP
September 16, 2010
From: The Jakarta Globe

Denpasar. The former Australian Federal Police commissioner who passed on intelligence to Indonesian police that helped doom the so-called Bali Nine drug smugglers, asked a court here on Thursday to spare the life of one of the smugglers.

Testifying at the appeal of 24-year-old Scott Rush, Mick Keelty, the former AFP commissioner, told the court that Rush was a "small-time player" and did not deserve his sentence of death by firing squad.

"His [Rush's] role was minimal. He was a courier," Keelty said during the hearing at the Denpasar District Court.

Keelty told the court that as the AFP's top-ranking officer in 2005, he had given the green light on two occasions for information to be passed on to his Indonesian counterparts about the nine Australians who conspired to smuggle 8.2 kilograms of heroin from Bali into Australia.

The Australian, a daily newspaper, reported in August that the AFP asked the Indonesian police in April 2005 to "attempt to keep the group under surveillance, identify the source of the drugs and obtain as much evidence and intelligence as possible to help the AFP nail the organizers in Australia."

The newspaper also reported that four days later, the AFP sent Indonesian authorities another letter containing the "dates, times and flight details of the Bali Nine's return to Australia."

Keelty told the court that the AFP, which was tipped off about the plan by a lawyer working for Rush's father, included intelligence on Rush's "minimal role" and his young age at the time of the foiled drug run.

Rush, whose original life sentence was changed to death on appeal by prosecutors, was 19 years old when he was caught with heroin strapped to his body at Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport.

"This young man had just gone to Indonesia for the first time. In fact, it was the very first time he ever got out of Australia," Keelty told the court.

Michael Phelan, the current AFP deputy commissioner, told the court that Rush did not have a criminal record in Australia and because it was his first drug offense he would face "less than 10 years" if convicted of the same crime at home.

The hearing was adjourned until Sept. 26.

Rush was not in court on Thursday but last month he publicly apologized to the court and begged for forgiveness. Two other Bali Nine members, Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, have also launched appeals against their death sentences.

Interview with Australian Attorney-General

ATTORNEY-GENERAL
ROBERT McCLELLAND MP

INTERVIEW
ABC NEWS RADIO DRIVE WITH JOHN BARRON
FRIDAY, 12 MARCH 2010

[....]

BARRON: Now, on a separate issue while we have you Attorney-General, the Federal Parliament late yesterday, passed a law which - the way it's being reported is saying that it's kind of outlawed the death penalty for all time, stopping it being reintroduced. What actual change came about yesterday on that?

McCLELLAND: Well, we have introduced legislation at a Federal level that will prevent the death penalty from being introduced in a State or Territory. And certainly unless or until a Federal Parliament subsequently overturned the law that was passed yesterday, there will be a prohibition on the death penalty being introduced in Australia.

So it was an historic day in many ways, if only to declare to the rest of the world as a nation, indeed each and every member of Parliament who spoke from both sides spoke in favour of prohibiting the death penalty. So that was a significant thing and a reflection of the views of modern Australian representatives.

BARRON: Has there been any suggestion or pressure to bring it back, particularly with the possibility of maybe terrorist trials, that kind of thing?

McCLELLAND: No, I think the bipartisan attitude around Australia has been that we don't want the death penalty to be part of our criminal justice system, and that's been reflected in the views which have been very constructive.

[....]

BARRON: Good to talk to you. Thanks very much.

McCLELLAND: That's my pleasure.

[Ends]

Australia: Laws passed to outlaw death penalty, torture

ATTORNEY-GENERAL
ROBERT McCLELLAND MP
11 March 2010

PASSAGE OF LEGISLATION TO PROHIBIT TORTURE AND THE DEATH PENALTY

Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, today welcomed the passage of legislation through Parliament which prohibits the use of torture and ensures that the death penalty cannot be reintroduced anywhere in Australia in the future.

The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Torture Prohibition and Death Penalty Abolition) Bill 2009 implements a specific Commonwealth offence of torture into the Commonwealth Criminal Code which will operate concurrently with existing State and Territory offences.

"Introducing a specific Commonwealth offence of torture will fulfil Australia's obligations under the United Nations Convention Against Torture to ban all acts of torture, wherever they occur," Mr McClelland said.

The Bill also amends the Commonwealth Death Penalty Abolition Act 1973 to extend the application of the current Commonwealth prohibition on the death penalty to State laws.

This amendment will safeguard Australia's ongoing compliance with the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which requires all necessary measures be taken to ensure that no one is subject to the death penalty.

"Successive Australian Governments have maintained a long-standing policy of opposition to the death penalty. The passage of this Bill will ensure that the death penalty cannot be reintroduced anywhere in Australia in the future."

These reforms demonstrate the Australian Parliament's fundamental opposition to acts that are contrary to basic human values and underline the Rudd Government’s ongoing commitment to meeting our international human rights obligations.


Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, today welcomed the passage of legislation through Parliament which prohibits the use of torture and ensures that the death penalty cannot be reintroduced anywhere in Australia in the future.

The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Torture Prohibition and Death Penalty Abolition) Bill 2009 implements a specific Commonwealth offence of torture into the Commonwealth Criminal Code which will operate concurrently with existing State and Territory offences.

"Introducing a specific Commonwealth offence of torture will fulfil Australia's obligations under the United Nations Convention Against Torture to ban all acts of torture, wherever they occur," Mr McClelland said.

The Bill also amends the Commonwealth Death Penalty Abolition Act 1973 to extend the application of the current Commonwealth prohibition on the death penalty to State laws.

This amendment will safeguard Australia's ongoing compliance with the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which requires all necessary measures be taken to ensure that no one is subject to the death penalty.

"Successive Australian Governments have maintained a long-standing policy of opposition to the death penalty. The passage of this Bill will ensure that the death penalty cannot be reintroduced anywhere in Australia in the future."

These reforms demonstrate the Australian Parliament's fundamental opposition to acts that are contrary to basic human values and underline the Rudd Government's ongoing commitment to meeting our international human rights obligations.

Australia: No death penalty, no shades of grey

By Professor George Williams
From The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 March 2010

The Death Penalty Abolition Bill debated in Federal Parliament last week is the most important initiative on the death penalty for decades. If passed, it will block any state attempt to bring back capital punishment. If it did, the law would be a clear and principled statement that Australia renounces the death penalty now and into the future.

Although the death penalty has been absent from the statute book for 25 years - NSW was the last to eradicate it in 1985 - the new law is needed. The silence in federal law on capital punishment means the death penalty could be reintroduced by any state at any time. This is not only a legal but a political possibility due to statements made over many years by our leaders.

The Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, is the latest to try to have it both ways. He said recently he had ''always been against the death penalty'', but went on to say that, in the case of someone ''who cold-bloodedly brought about the deaths of hundreds or thousands of innocent people'', you ''start to think that maybe the only appropriate punishment is death''.

Abbott is not alone in attempting to combine a principled stand with an inconsistent appeal to raw emotion. Politicians from both sides have taken the same course. The attraction is obvious as it is an appeal to populism.

A 2005 Bulletin poll showed that most Australians supported capital punishment. The Australian National University's 2007 Electoral Survey found that 44 per cent of people thought the death penalty should be reintroduced - 38 per cent disagreed. Australia may not have the death penalty, but a sizeable part of the population supports its return.

This leaves Australian law in an unsatisfactory state and our citizens facing the death penalty overseas in an even worse situation. Equivocation on the death penalty by our leaders, such as by recognising it as appropriate for someone like Saddam Hussein, makes it harder to oppose the execution of Australians overseas.

Regarding the Bali bombers, John Howard, as prime minister, said that if the death penalty ''is what the law of Indonesia provides, that is how things should proceed''. Such statements undermine Australian arguments against the death penalty for Australians tried in Indonesia and elsewhere.

This has been pointed out by Scott Rush, one of the Bali Nine, who is facing death. He wrote to the government: ''I don't want to be in any way political but, from a practical point of view of someone inside on death row, it makes practical and good sense to have a consistent position of opposing the death penalty without discrimination.''

Ambiguous statements by our politicians, combined with the silence in our law on the reintroduction of the death penalty, leave the door ajar for its return in a state. A political leader seeking high office could take the law and order debate to a new low by arguing for the reintroduction of the death penalty in response to a particularly heinous crime.

Such a course has even had federal support. In 2003, Howard called for a national debate on the reintroduction of capital punishment as part of new anti-terrorism laws. While he said that he did not personally support this, he nonetheless suggested the death penalty could be raised by state opposition parties as an election issue.

It is time that Australian law and our leaders spoke against capital punishment wherever it is applied and without reservation. The notion that it is acceptable to execute terrorists but not other criminals, or to execute foreign nationals but not Australians, is morally and logically unsustainable. The value of a life is not contingent on a person's nationality or the nature of their crime. Opposition to the death penalty does not permit such shades of grey. Its removal from the law in Australia and elsewhere must be an unequivocal demand.

Unfortunately, no federal law can prevent the reintroduction of the death penalty by a future federal parliament. Prohibiting its reintroduction at the state level is as far as we can go without changing the constitution.

The death penalty was abolished in Australia decades ago but the battle against capital punishment was left incomplete. The possibility remains that it may return under state law. The Federal Parliament must pass the Death Penalty Abolition Bill to ensure this cannot happen.

George Williams is the Anthony Mason Professor of Law at the University of NSW

Australian laws to ban death penalty

ATTORNEY-GENERAL
ROBERT McCLELLAND MP
20 February 2010

STATEMENT ON THE DEATH PENALTY

Successive Australian Governments have maintained a long-standing policy of opposition to the death penalty.

The death penalty has been formally abolished by all jurisdictions in Australia.

It was abolished for Commonwealth and Territory offences in 1973 by the Commonwealth Death Penalty Abolition Act.

Each State has also independently and separately abolished the death penalty and there are no proposals by any State Government to reinstate it.

The Australian Government has also introduced legislation – which has been supported by the Opposition – to amend the Death Penalty Abolition Act to extend the application of the current Commonwealth prohibition on the death penalty to State laws.

The passage of this comprehensive federal legislation, which is currently being debated in the Parliament, will ensure that the death penalty cannot be reintroduced anywhere in Australia in the future.

Internationally, Australia is also a party to both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Second Optional Protocol which requires all necessary measures be taken to ensure that no one is subject to the death penalty.

Australia: Alabama seeks death for dive death

Alabama A-G: death penalty 'still on table'
MARISSA CALLIGEROS
From: The Brisbane Times, 14 January 2010

The Attorney General of Alabama has refused to back down from a possible capital murder charge against honeymoon dive killer Gabe Watson, despite knowing Australia will not extradite a person if they may face the death penalty.

Gabe Watson, 32, was convicted this year of manslaughter after leaving his wife of just 11 days, Christine 'Tina' Watson, to drown on the floor of the Great Barrier Reef in 2003 during a scuba diving trip.

Alabama Attorney General Troy King has maintained Watson evaded the full weight of the law under a plea bargain with the Queensland Department of Public Prosecutions and is determined to pursue a capital murder charge against Gabe Watson in the United States.
Alabama authorities believe they can mount a case that Watson plotted and planned the 'murder' in the US state.

"I won't add to the dishonour of [Tina's] memory by allowing Australia's view of what is just to affect what we do," Mr King told Fairfax Radio 4BC today.

"If we become convinced that we can prove a capital murder charge, we will go to an Alabama grand jury and seek the most severe charge."

But under the Australian Extradition Act, a person cannot be deported to face prosecution for a capital offence, unless there was an undertaking that the death penalty would not be carried out.

"One way [to have Watson extradited] would be for Alabama to water down its law the way you have watered down yours," Mr King told 4BC.

"But I believe that for us to seek any punishment and any penalty less than that which we think is appropriate doesn't make matters worse, it compounds what's already a very tragic and sad situation.

"If we get the evidence, and as I am anticipating, [it] does support a [capital murder charge], then of course I'm not going to take it off the table."

But Tina's father Tommy Thomas told brisbanetimes.com.au today he would be disappointed if Mr King's refusal to take the death penalty off the table would see Watson "escape justice again".

"I would be disappointed if something were to allow him to escape extradition and continue to allow him to freely escape a trial by jury," Mr Thomas said.

But Mr Thomas stopped short of calling for Mr King to drop a possible capital murder charge against Watson.

"The fact of the matter is the decision to that end is really not in our hand to begin with," he said.

"What we've always wanted is to see Gabe stand trial for what he was indicted for in Australia."

Yesterday, Acting Police Minister Andrew Fraser said double jeopardy laws and Australia's objection to the death penalty would hamper any attempts to extradite Watson.

Should Australia refuse to extradite Watson, Mr King said "it would remain pending until and unless he returned to the United State voluntarily".

"It's our citizen who went to Australia. It's our citizen who did not come home. It's our citizen who lost their life. And I intend to do everything in my power to see that justice is done by the state of Alabama for citizens of the state of Alabama," he said.

Mr King maintained Queensland authorities had refused to co-operate with the state's prosecutors, although the Queensland Attorney General's department found no record of any formal request from Alabama, "despite an extensive search".

It is understood, however, that a request has been made by Mr King's office to the Queensland Police for the investigation material.

University of Queensland international law expert Professor Andreas Schloenhardt told brisbanetimes.com.au any transmission of investigation material must be made between the Australian and United States federal governments, by way of a formal request.

Australia: Police guidelines announced

Media Release
INTERNATIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT COOPERATION
18 December 2009

Attorney-General
Hon Robert McClelland MP

Minister for Home Affairs
Brendan O'Connor MP

Attorney-General, Robert McClelland and Minister for Home Affairs, Brendan O’Connor, today announced a new policy to govern law enforcement cooperation with countries that may apply the death penalty.

Successive Australian Governments have maintained a long-standing policy of opposition to the death penalty and it is appropriate that this position is reflected in our law enforcement practices.

From today, new Australian Federal Police (AFP) guidelines governing police-to-police assistance in possible death penalty cases will take effect.

The new guidelines will require senior AFP management to consider a set of prescribed factors before providing assistance in matters with possible death penalty implications, including:
* the purpose of providing the information and the reliability of that information;
* the seriousness of the suspected criminal activity;
* the nationality, age and personal circumstances of the person involved;
* the potential risks to the person, and other persons, in providing or not providing the information; and
* Australia’s interest in promoting and securing cooperation from overseas agencies in combating crime.

The new guidelines will also require:
* Ministerial approval of assistance in any case in which a person has been arrested, detained, charged with, or convicted of, an offence which carries the death penalty; and
* the AFP Commissioner to report biannually to the Minister for Home Affairs about the number and nature of cases where information is provided to foreign law enforcement agencies in potential death penalty cases.

These changes follow a thorough examination of existing policy and represent a balanced and responsible approach that provides greater clarity and accountability, while maintaining our commitment to combating transnational crime.

A copy of the new AFP Practical Guide on International Police-to-Police Assistance in Potential Death Penalty Situations is attached and available at http://www.afp.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/21096/Guideline_for_international_death_penalty_situation.pdf.

Death penalty rules for Australian police

Police get rules on suspects
JONATHAN PEARLMAN

From The Age
19 December 2009

THE Federal Government has issued guidelines to the Australian Federal Police on co-operating with countries that have the death penalty, including a stipulation that senior police consider a suspect's age, nationality and whether capital punishment is likely to be imposed.

The guidelines could prevent a repeat of the controversy surrounding the Bali nine case in which the AFP passed on information to Indonesian authorities about a group of Australians involved in a heroin smuggling operation in 2005.

This followed a tip-off from Lee Rush, whose son, Scott Rush, is one of the nine. He faces execution.

The guidelines, released yesterday by Attorney-General Robert McClelland and Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor, require ministerial approval for assistance in cases where a person has been arrested and faces the death penalty. Previous guidelines allowed police to co-operate without approval for months in cases - such as the Bali nine - where the suspects had been arrested but not charged.

While ministerial approval is not required before the AFP helps foreign police in investigations, the co-operation must be approved by one of two high-ranking AFP officers who must consider factors such as the seriousness of the crime, the reliability of the information and the degree of risk to the suspect.

Other factors include Australia's interest in securing future co-operation from foreign agencies, the person's personal circumstances and the risk to the person or others of not providing the information.

A spokesman for Mr McClelland said yesterday the guidelines would clear up confusion in cases involving foreign assistance, but would not say whether they would have led to a different outcome in the Bali nine case. ''That is hypothetical,'' he said.

Legal advocates and family members of the Bali nine expressed outrage at the AFP for allegedly reneging on a deal to intervene before the drugs were smuggled.

The former commissioner, Mick Keelty, who retired in September, refused to apologise. He had insisted the AFP could not have arrested the suspects in Australia and would act the same way in future cases.

Mr Rush, who unsuccessfully took legal action against the AFP, said yesterday he did not want to comment. ''There is nothing more to say. Maybe Mr Keelty would like to comment.''

Mr Keelty could not be reached.

Labor MP Chris Hayes, who befriended Scott Rush's parents and has urged Australia to push other countries to abolish the death penalty, welcomed the guidelines.

''Which parent of a 17-year-old has not been concerned about what they are doing and who they are hanging out with?'' he said.

''Lee Rush told me he did what he did knowing his son would probably never talk to him again but he was determined to end his life of crime. But he didn't realise he would be signing his death warrant.''

The AFP said yesterday the guidelines followed consultation with legal and civil rights groups and would provide greater clarity and accountability.