JAKARTA: In 2005 nine Australians attempting to smuggle 8 kilograms (18pond) of heroin out of the Indonesia resort island of Bali. Myuran Sukumaran was one of nine Australians arrested in that case.
“The presidential decree signed on December 30 stipulates that the clemency of an Australian on death row, Myuran Sukumaran, has been rejected,” Hasoloan Sianturi, a spokesman for the court in Bali with jurisdiction for the case, told AFP.
The other seven members of the “Bali Nine” were given life sentences. One of them later had her sentenced reduced to 20 years.
Sukumaran and another member of the so-called “Bali Nine” who was sentenced to death, Andrew Chan, lodged appeals for presidential clemency after their final court appeals were rejected in 2011.
“After careful consideration on clemency request… there is not enough reason to grant a clemency,” said a copy of the presidential decree for Sukumaran given to AFP.
Sianturi said the court received the presidential decision on Wednesday, but there was no information available on Chan’s appeal.
Indonesia enforces some of the world’s toughest punishments for narcotics offences and there is strong public support for executing drug traffickers.
New President Joko Widodo pledged in December, shortly after taking office, there would be no pardons for drug traffickers on death row, including foreigners.
