Australia does not expect Indonesia will move to execute the convicted drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran until every legal avenue has been exhausted, Julie Bishop, the foreign minister in Canberra, has said.
The pair have been transferred to Nusa Kambangan, known as “execution island”, along with eight other drug offenders but the date they will face the firing squad is yet to be set.
Bishop said she had meanwhile been in “constant” contact with her Indonesian counterpart. “We are awaiting the outcome of the legal proceedings. There are two legal avenues on foot at present. One is an appeal against the final rejection of the clemency plea,” she said.
When asked by reporters on Sunday if there was anything more Australia could do to stop the executions, Bishop added: “I understand there are also judicial commission hearings in relation to allegations of bribery and corruption at the original trial of Mr Sukumaran and Mr Chan.
“I understand those matters are proceeding so I cannot imagine that further plans for the execution of these two Australian citizens would be proceeding while there are legal options still being pursued.
“I believe it would be unthinkable for planning to proceed for these executions while there were still legal avenues open.”
Chan and Sukumaran were sentenced to death over their part in an operation to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia in 2005.
The Labor opposition’s foreign affairs spokeswoman, Tanya Plibersek, suggested the Liberal government’s policy of turning back people-smuggling boats had strained the relationship so much Indonesia was unlikely to relent. Tony Abbott, the prime minister, dismissed this as “loose and irresponsible talk from the Labor party” when questioned about it on Sunday.
“The relationship with Indonesia is strong. It’s at least as strong under this government as the former government, which you might remember put the sugar on the table when it came to people-smugglers and [those are] President [Joko] Widodo’s words,” Tony Abbott said.
“I say that the relationship with Indonesia is at least as strong today as it was under the former government. The fact that the people smuggling trade has all but shut because of the policies of this government is one of the reasons why the relationship is stronger today, because there isn’t that irritant in the relationship that existed for about five years under the former government.”
But Abbott also said on Sunday that it was currently a case of “the less said the better” if Australia wanted to save Chan and Sukumaran – emphasising the political delicacy of the situation and its relationship to the pair’s fate.
This was underscored by Bishop. “I think we should all be careful with the commentary that we undertake in relation to this,” she told reporters in Perth.
Previous remarks by Abbott, including linking calls for clemency to Australia’s support for Indonesia in past natural disasters, have been seen as damaging to their cause.
Abbott has requested a phone call with Widodo but it has so far gone unanswered.
“I have raised the question of the Bali Nine and the two Australians on death row with the president on a number of occasions and we had a phone call about a fortnight ago that was specifically on this subject and I made the Australian position absolutely crystal clear,” he said.
“He also made the Indonesian position pretty clear as well. He might think that the subject has been well and truly discussed but my request for a phone call stands and it’s up to the Indonesian president to respond.”
