Blow to the Bali Nine Ringleaders: Bali

Anyone that organises the trafficking of drugs deserves all they get from the country's courts they are apprehended in. Such is the case in Indonesia with the ringleaders of the Bali Nine - Chan and Sukumaran.

Indonesia's president dealt a blow to the hopes of the Bali Nine ringleaders on death row today by ruling out any chance of clemency for convicted drug traffickers facing execution according to the Australian newspaper.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono did not mention Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran by name when he insisted he had a duty to protect the people of Indonesia from narcotics.
His course was to choose the safety of the nation and its young generation over granting clemency to those who are intent on destroying the nation's future Yudhoyono said.

He was speaking at a ceremony at the presidential palace to mark the UN's International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on June 26 and was addressing in particular the chief of the Supreme Court, Bagir Manan.

Yudhoyono said his Government had arrested drug trafficking ringleaders and closed many illegal drug factories but it would not rest on its laurels. He vowed the Government has and will continue to enforce law without discrimination.

The Attorney-General’s office said on Wednesday that authorities were preparing to execute 16 people who were sentenced to death for drug trafficking and had exhausted every legal avenue of appeal. The 16 include seven Nigerians, one each from Nepal, Malawi and Thailand, and six Indonesians the office said.

Another 27 death row drug convicts - including Chan and Sukumaran - are still in the process of appealing their verdicts. In 2004 Indonesia executed three foreign drug traffickers - two Thais and an Indian - and two murderers in 2005 but prior to 2004 had often indefinitely delayed executions.

In April the country's anti-drug agency said a study conducted in 10 major cities revealed that four million Indonesians use illegal drugs while the country's drug trade was worth nearly $US4 billion a year.