Bali Nine death sentence mules given ray of hope

Four members of the Bali Nine drug trafficking gang, who were recently given the death sentence, have received an unexpected ray of hope from an Indonesian judge.

In the initial trial, starting Feb 13th 2006, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, the organizers, were sentenced to death, everyone else getting life. On April 26, 2006, Lawrence, Nguyen, Chen, and Norman had their sentences reduced to 20 years. On September 6th, Scott Rush, Tan Duc Than Nguyen, Si Yi Chen and Matthew Norman learned the Indonesian Supreme Court had given them the death penalty.

Recently, Bali Court judge, Muhammad Taufik, stated in an interview, that the younger members do not deserve the death penalty, as they were only couriers and not fulltime members of the
syndicate. Australian legal representatives for the Bali Nine, hope a judicial review may use this to reduce the sentences of the 4 mules.