Bali Nine still face uncertainty

It's now been five years since Indonesia arrested nine young Australians for trying to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin from Bali to Sydney.

But even after half a decade, the so-called Bali Nine still face uncertain futures.

Three - ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran and courier Scott Rush - remain on death row in Bali's Kerobokan Prison.

All three are expected to lodge their final appeals, known as judicial reviews, later this year. Rush's appeal is apparently ready to go and could be lodged any day.

Will these appeals have any real chance of success?

As ever in Indonesia, it's hard to say.

But Rush's appeal is, perhaps, the one most likely to succeed, given his sentence is so clearly out of step with those of his co-conspirators.

Of the six couriers arrested at Denpasar airport and the Melasti Beach Bungalows in Kuta, Rush is the only one on death row.

Four other couriers - Si Yi Chen, Michael Czugaj, Matthew Norman and Martin Stephens - are serving life sentences, as is third organiser Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen.

Courier Renae Lawrence, the only woman in the group, is serving 20 years' jail but is eligible for and regularly receives small sentence remissions.

Rush's lawyer, Robert Khuana, believes his client's appeal has a good chance of succeeding and hopes he'll end up serving a sentence similar to Lawrence's, given they played similar roles in the plot.

But if the trio's judicial reviews fail it will leave them with one final chance for survival - clemency from Indonesia's president.

The Rudd government has made it clear it will support any pleas for clemency the trio make.

'Once the appeal processes for Scott Rush and the other two Australians have exhausted, once they've completed their domestic legal remedies, if it is the case that a death sentence still applies to them, then the Australian government will pursue a plea of clemency on their behalf,' Foreign Minister Stephen Smith assured Australians last month.

But Australia's lobbying will likely fall on deaf ears.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has never given clemency to a drug trafficker and he's made it clear that there's next to no chance he ever will.

Which means there's a lot riding on the judicial reviews.

And not just the lives of three young Australians but also Australia's bilateral relationship with Indonesia.

Both countries are keenly aware executions could strain ties.

'But the fact of life is that the death penalty is at the moment part of Indonesia's body of law,' Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told AAP earlier this year.

'It was applied in the case of the 2002 terrorist perpetrators of the Bali bombing.

'In this instance now the same body of law is being applied to these individuals.'

Natalegawa said he understands many Australians would be angry if the executions proceed.

'But these individuals have committed crimes in full awareness of what the implications are and now they face the prospect of the death penalty.

'This case is not a reflection of Indonesia's lack of friendship or lack of amity toward Australians.'

Some of the Bali Nine serving life are also still fighting for lighter sentences.

Martin Stephens, who was arrested at Denpasar airport with 2.9kg of heroin strapped to his legs and stomach, this month lodged a request for a judicial review of his own.

The request cites new evidence in the form of a letter signed by former Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty that was sent to Stephens' lawyers last April.

'Martin's role in the attempted importation of heroin from Bali to Australia is considered to be minor,' the letter reads.

'There is no indication that Martin was an organiser or aware of the details relating to the suspected importation.

'Nor does the AFP possess information to indicate that he has been involved in previous importations.'

The letter notes Lawrence had her sentence reduced to 20 years after she gave authorities information about the syndicate behind the plot.

'It is the AFP's view that Martin's knowledge of the importation was limited to his first involvement in an importation of drugs and therefore he was unable to offer a similar level of co-operation.'

Fresh hearings for Stephens are due to be held on May 7.

Meanwhile, he and his co-conspirators wait.

They try to avoid contemplating their uncertain futures by keeping busy. Some help run classes inside the prison, in English, computers and boxing.

For their families back in Australia it's a similarly agonising wait.

Rush's father this month publicly described the torture of not knowing whether his son would die by firing squad or be spared.

'Having a son incarcerated on death row in a foreign country is mental torture for the family,' Lee Rush told a prayer vigil in Brisbane.

'If I think deeply about the death penalty, it brings on panic attacks, heart palpitations and breathing difficulties.

'We feel this pain in a deep and personal way.'

Source: BigPondNews, April 13, 2010