JAKARTA: A court in Indonesia will hear the final arguments from lawyers seeking to save Australian drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran from execution.
Australians Myuran Sukumaran (L) and Andrew Chan were sentenced to death for drug smuggling.
Lawyers for Chan and Sukumaran are expected to summarise their case before the State Administrative Court in Jakarta, seeking to challenge president Joko Widodo’s refusal to grant clemency.
Mr Widodo’s lawyers are also expected to defend his decision one last time, with a result to be delivered early next week.
The court previously deemed it did not have the authority to hear a challenge.
But the dean of Law from Ekasakti University, Dr Otong Rosadi, testified as an expert witness for Chan and Sukumaran earlier this week, saying the court was in the right place to review the president’s decision.
Dr Rosadi said the president was the head of administration in Indonesia and the act of refusing clemency was an administrative process that could be challenged.
Leonard Arpan, who is representing Chan and Sukumaran, said he was happy with the evidence.
However, chief justice Ujang Abdullah warned that expert witnesses were not always right.
The Australians have been on death row for 10 years after being convicted for their role in a plot to smuggle heroin into Australia.
The men were originally due to face the firing squad last month but the Indonesian government put that on hold until the legal challenges of all those listed in the next round of executions were complete.
They were transferred to the Nusakambangan island prison off Central Java from their Bali prison in early March in preparation for their executions.
