Julie Bishop says executing Bali Nine pair might hurt Australian tourism to Indonesia
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Version 0 of 1. Julie Bishop has warned tourism to Bali could be threatened if Indonesia goes ahead with the execution of two Australian drug smugglers. Permission has been granted for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran to be transferred from their Bali prison for their execution, though a date is yet to be officially set. A day after she pleaded for clemency in parliament, the foreign minister said Australians could be turned off holidaying in Bali if Indonesia went through with the execution. “I think the Australian people will demonstrate their deep disapproval of this action, including by making decisions about where they wish to holiday,” she told Fairfax radio on Friday. Her comments were also echoed by former high court judge, Michael Kirby, who said it was “sadly” likely the case Australians would reconsider their holiday destinations. Bishop said the government would leave no stone unturned in its bid to secure a stay on the Bali Nine members’ executions. “Executing these two young men will not solve the drug scourge in Indonesia,” she said. “It’s a very tense situation.” Kirby said a dip in tourism was only one potential consequence of Indonesia executing the two Australians. “Right to the very end I would expect the Australian government, with the support of the opposition and Australian people, will be making representations,” he said on Sky News. “In that respect we will be following the endeavors that Indonesia follows in respect of its citizens when they are facing death overseas.” Kirby said there was still a question over whether the death penalty was a deterrent for crime and emphasised the heroin was being smuggled out of Indonesia, not in to Indonesia. “The important thing in this case this was not Indonesian drug dealing, it was Australian drug dealing, these were Australians who are getting on to an Australian plane to bring them back to Australia with Indonesian drugs,” he said. When asked if he thought Bishop should do a last minute “mercy dash” to Indonesia, Kirby responded that he thought “additional steps” would be taken. As the pair’s lawyers make a last ditch effort to stop the execution through the courts, Momock Bambang Samiarso, head of Bali provincial prosecutors, said a meeting on Thursday afternoon confirmed the pair would be transferred away from Bali for execution. Related: Tanya Plibersek: my husband's life after drug conviction shows what Bali Nine pair have to offer Sukumaran and Chan were sentenced to death for their part in an attempt to smuggle more than 8kg of heroin in 2005. Seven other Australians are in jail in Indonesia for their roles in the plot. Prosecutors are trying to keep the transfer a secret, and the official avoided confirming the men would be taken to Nusakambangan, a prison island off central Java. “We ask it to be as soon as possible,” Samiarso said. The date of the transfer was due to be confirmed on Friday. Chan, Sukumaran and their families will be given 72 hours’ notice of the date of execution. Indonesian lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis said on Wednesday the legal team would go to an administrative court to argue Indonesian president Joko Widodo could not make a sweeping rejection of clemency appeals based on his declared “drug emergency” in the country, but must assess each individually. Australia has made repeated attempts to have the execution stayed. On Friday the education minister, Christopher Pyne, said the government had done “absolutely everything” it could. Related: Bali Nine: Australia must widen death penalty opposition, says Philip Ruddock “The problem with the way Indonesians see this matter is that they have five million ... drug addicts in Indonesia, they take a very, very firm line on drug smuggling,” he told Channel Nine. Pyne said that while the government had done “all it can” for the pair, “at the end of the day Indonesia is a sovereign nation”. “They’re their laws, we don’t support them, we don’t agree with them,” he said. “It’ll be a great tragedy if those two young men face the death penalty.” Foreign minister Julie Bishop and Labor’s foreign affairs spokeswoman, Tanya Plibersek, made heartfelt pleas for clemency in parliament on Thursday. Bishop said the Sydney pair’s attempt to smuggle more than 8kg of heroin was a grave crime that deserved punishment. But they didn’t deserve to pay with their lives. “Both men are deeply, sincerely remorseful for their actions,” Bishop said. “Both men have made extraordinary efforts to rehabilitate.” Plibersek followed with an equally powerful argument against the pair’s executions. She reflected on her husband Michael Coutts-Trotter’s drug conviction 30 years ago, and what a loss it would have been if he was punished with death. “They would have missed out on a man who spent the rest of his life making amends for the crime that he committed,” she said. The Indonesian foreign minister Retno Marsudi said she had received letters from both women and phone calls from the minister. Her replies were clear and consistent, she said. “I have told Julie that this is not against a country, this is not against nationals of a certain country, but this is against a crime, against an extraordinary crime,” she told reporters in Jakarta. “We will keep on communicating, explaining, in consistent language like that.” The families of Chan and Sukumaran have continued visiting them daily in prison. The artist Ben Quilty and Victorian supreme court judge Lex Lasry joined them on Thursday. Only Widodo can save the men from execution, but he gave a defiant vow this week not to succumb to outside pressure on the death penalty for drug felons. In her statement, Bishop said besides more than 55 ministerial and prime ministerial representations for the men, high-profile Australians had made “discreet overtures to their influential Indonesian contacts”. |