Translation from English

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Australia- Branson Makes Appeal- ABC

  • BREAKING NEWS
    • Entire board of Greyhound Racing Victoria resigns in wake of live baiting scandal
 Print    

Bali Nine: Sir Richard Branson joins calls for clemency; Indonesia reminds Australia about asylum seekers

By Michael Rowland and Greg Jennett
Updated about an hour ago
VIDEO: Sir Richard Branson adds his voice to calls for clemency
PHOTO: Sir Richard Branson urges Indonesia to grant clemency to prisoners on death row. (AFP Photo: Mandel Ngan)
RELATED STORY: Sukumaran paints portrait of Indonesian president, signs it 'people can change'
RELATED STORY: Families return from first visit to death-row pair on execution island
MAP: Indonesia
Sir Richard Branson has added his voice to the calls for clemency for two Australians on death row, as an Indonesian minister warns of a renewed influx of asylum seekers if relations between the two countries are damaged over the Bali Nine duo. 
The founder of Virgin spoke out this morning in his role as a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy. 
Sir Richard and fellow commissioners have written to Indonesian president Joko Widodo, saying the impending execution of 10 prisoners for drug crimes – including Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran – is a barbaric and inhumane form of punishment. 
He told ABC News Breakfast the commission's recommendation for clemency came from evidence based on different countries' approaches to drugs.
"What we have learned is that treating drugs as a health issue – not as a criminal issue – it actually helps lower the number of drug deaths," he said.
"It limits the spread of infectious diseases like HIV and AIDS or hepatitis C, it reduces drug-related crime, and it allows people who struggle with addiction to become useful members of society again.
"We would love to be able to show the Indonesian government how countries like Portugal and others have completely overcome their drug problem by taking a very, very different approach."
Sir Richard said he was prepared to travel to Indonesia to put his case to the government.
"I am willing to go and get on a plane today, tomorrow, as are the other commissioners," he said. 
"What we want to do is try to be helpful. All of our research is evidence-based and we have studied different national approaches in great depth."

Australia reminded of asylum seekers in Indonesia

But within Indonesia, defensiveness over the issue is growing. 
Almost every statement made by Prime Minister Tony Abbott and the Australian Government has been analysed and reported widely in Indonesia in recent weeks, some of it inaccurately. 
The perception that foreign aid was being threatened has caused offence, and so too has the incorrect impression that Australia might have threatened travel boycotts to Bali if the Chan and Sukumaran executions went ahead. 
One colourful nationalist minister, Tedjo Edhy Purditjatno, has leapt on the controversy and pondered out loud the possibility of retribution.
The coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs reminded Australia there were 10,000 would-be asylum seekers in Indonesia.
"Imagine if we let them all go to Australia," he said.
He did not directly threaten to allow that to happen, but the issue of maritime border security is on display in Cilacap, near Nusakambangan island where the death row inmates are being held. 
Unusually, two large navy warships are docked here and have patrolled waters around Nusakambangan prison and along the southern coast of Java. 

Families to make second visit to Nusakambangan island

None of this is of any concern to the Chan and Sukumaran families. 
They will be back at the Cilacap port today to make their second visit to the prisoners ahead of tomorrow's crucial legal challenge to their death penalty.

Who are the others on death row?


Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are among 11 inmates approved for execution by Indonesia. Who are the others and what are their crimes?
Meanwhile, a Frenchman on death row has been transferred under heavy police guard from Nusakambangan island, the day before he starts a last-ditch court bid to avoid the firing squad.
Serge Atlaoui has been detained on the island since he was sentenced to death in 2007 on drugs charges and had an appeal for clemency rejected in January by Mr Widodo.
The father of four was arrested near Jakarta in 2005 in a secret laboratory producing ecstasy.
Imprisoned in Indonesia for 10 years, he has always denied the charges, saying he was installing industrial machinery in what he thought was an acrylics factory.
Topics: prisons-and-punishment, law-crime-and-justice, drug-offences, crime, world-politics, indonesia, bali, australia
First posted about 4 hours ago
 Print    

  1. Tach Duc Thanh Nguyen (r), Matthew Norman (c) and Si Yi Chen (l) have been sentence to life.Timeline: Bali Nine case

  2. A composite image of Andrew Chan and Myuran SukumaranProfiles: Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran

  3. Myuran Sukumaran boards planeIn pictures: Bali Nine pair transferred 

  4. Serge Areski AtlaouiWho else is on death row?

  5. Police guarding port near Nusa Kambangan IslandInside 'execution island'

  6. Meet the man set for grim role in death of Bali 9 pair Andrew Chan and Myuran SukumaranVideoUndertaker's grim role in executions

  7. Myuran Sukumaran's friend Aaron Eisler.Sukumaran's friends 'shattered'

  8. Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan sit inside Kerobokan prisonFour Corners: Eat, Pray, Shoot

  9. Fact check: Death penalty doesn't stop people committing crimesDeath penalty doesn't deter

  10. Joko WidodoIndonesia's executions of foreigners

  11. Bali Nine's Myuran Sukumaran 'resolved about fate' but hard to say goodbye, says Ben QuiltyFarewelling Bali Nine inmate

  12. The Australian Government will continue to seek clemency for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.Julie Bishop's plea: Don't kill these changed men

  13. Scott Rush was arrested along with eight others in Bali.AFP faces recriminations

TOP STORIES

100 Years of ANZAC: World War One Centenary site

CONNECT WITH ABC NEWS

Subscribe to ABC NewsMail
News Podcasts

GOT A NEWS TIP?

If you have inside knowledge of a topic in the news, contact the ABC.

FEATURES

  1. Penguin and Oli BloomMagpie makes home with family

    The Bloom clan of Newport, NSW say they never expected an abandoned magpie chick they took in more than a year ago would become a permanent member of the family.

  2. Daniel Ricciardo and Lewis Hamilton celebrate on the podiumF1 preview

    Grandstand previews the 2015 Formula One season ahead of the opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

  3. Reserve BankInterest rate mantra over

    The RBA has revealed low interest rates aren't having the impact they used to, and yet the Government isn't willing to push the fiscal stimulus accelerator. This should make for an interesting May budget.

  4. Pigs on a farm11 facts about food

    The old saying goes, 'you are what you eat' but how much do you really know about food, and the effect it has on your body?

TOP STORIES

JUST IN

MOST POPULAR

ANALYSIS & OPINION

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Please leave a comment-- or suggestions, particularly of topics and places you'd like to see covered

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)