Bali trio could be home in six years: [1 All-round Country Edition]
Stephen Fitzpatrick, John Stapleton, Additional reporting: Sarah Elks. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 07 Mar 2008: 3.
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Abstract
University of Indonesia criminologist Andreanus Meliala said [Si Yi Chen], [Thanh Nguyen] and Norman could now expect to have their sentences drastically reduced. “For an extraordinary remission, there is the possibility of up to a year at a time being given if the prisoner has done some service, such as teaching English in the jail,” Mr Meliala said. “It’s not like you would suddenly go from having a life sentence to having some fixed sentence, but over time … if they had the right motivation, it could happen.”
He predicted the trio’s sentences would eventually be adjusted to “about 20 or 25 years”, which, under Indonesia’s parole system, could see them serving as few as six years of those terms.
“It is a wonderful thing for the young Australians and their families that they don’t have to face the death penalty,” Professor [Melbourne Tim Lindsey] said. “This is a really good outcome; it is the correct outcome. It reflects the fact that the Indonesian Supreme Court is increasingly getting it right at the final appeal level.”
Full Text
THREE reprieved death-row members of the Bali Nine heroin- smuggling gang could, with remissions for good behaviour, be home within six years.
And in a signal of hope for the remaining gang members still facing execution, one of the Indonesian judges who overruled the death sentences for theAustralians admitted yesterday he had acted out of a belief that capital punishment was “unjust”.
Si Yi Chen, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen and Matthew Norman were told of the Supreme Court decision more than three weeks ago but kept it to themselves, their lawyer revealed.
However, Nguyen expressed his delight in a text message to advocate Farhat Abbas, writing that the trio were “now alive again; before we were dead”.
Supreme Court judge Nyak Pha told The Australian that, although in his professional capacity he was required to approach cases objectively, “for myself personally, I do not agree with the death penalty. The only one who determines life and death is God.”
Justice Pha said the three-judge ruling was unanimous, because the Melasti Three — so named for the Bali hotel where they were arrested with a small amount of heroin in a suitcase — “did not fulfil the conditions for the death penalty”.
“The considerations were based on the fact that they were not recidivist, they were not the masterminds of the crime, they were not doing this for a living and they were still young,” the judge said.
The mother of Scott Rush, one of three members of the gang still facing the death penalty, hopes the Supreme Court ruling will lead to clemency for her son.
“It gives good grounds for Scott’s appeal, we hope, but we will have to seek legal advice obviously about when we launch Scott’s next appeal,” Christine Rush said.
University of Indonesia criminologist Andreanus Meliala said Chen, Nguyen and Norman could now expect to have their sentences drastically reduced. “For an extraordinary remission, there is the possibility of up to a year at a time being given if the prisoner has done some service, such as teaching English in the jail,” Mr Meliala said. “It’s not like you would suddenly go from having a life sentence to having some fixed sentence, but over time … if they had the right motivation, it could happen.”
He predicted the trio’s sentences would eventually be adjusted to “about 20 or 25 years”, which, under Indonesia’s parole system, could see them serving as few as six years of those terms.
The differences between Indonesia’s and Australia’s parole regimes are at the heart of stalled negotiations on a prisoner- exchange treaty. If those sticking points are resolved, any of the Bali Nine members still in jail, as well as fellow drug smuggler Schapelle Corby, would also have the option of serving their remaining time in Australia.
Director of the Asian Law Centre at the University of Melbourne Tim Lindsey said the decision was in line with a Constitutional Court ruling that, while thedeath sentence should remain in law, in practice it should be commuted to life imprisonment, subject to good behaviour. That decision was in a case brought by the three remaining death-row members — Rush, and ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.
“It is a wonderful thing for the young Australians and their families that they don’t have to face the death penalty,” Professor Lindsey said. “This is a really good outcome; it is the correct outcome. It reflects the fact that the Indonesian Supreme Court is increasingly getting it right at the final appeal level.”