Post by Anja Nieser on Sept 5, 2006 20:00:36 GMT -5
Four more Bali Nine mules facing death
Wednesday Sep 6 06:39 AEST
Four more of the Bali nine drug mules have been sentenced to death after Indonesia's Supreme Court issued shock verdicts on their appeals for lighter sentences.
The court imposed the new death sentences on 20-year-old Scott Rush, Tan Dun Thanh, 23, Si Yi Chen, 21, and the youngest of the group, 19-year-old Matthew Norman, Fairfax newspapers reported today.
None of the nine, their families or their lawyers have been officially informed of the new sentences, which Fairfax uncovered in a search of Supreme Court records in Jakarta and confirmed with court authorities.
The Supreme Court upheld convictions of the four for attempting to courier heroin from Bali to Australia in April last year, but annulled a previous High Court decision to grant lighter sentences and imposed the death penalty.
The new death sentences were unexpected as prosecutors, who had also appealed the 20-year terms faced by most of the nine, had called for them to be upgraded to life imprisonment.
The sentences mean at least six of the Australian heroin smugglers now face execution, with Andrew Chan, 22, and Myuran Sukumaran, 25, already facing the death penalty.
Verdicts in the appeals of Michael Czugaj and Martin Stephens are pending, and Renae Lawrence did not lodge a further appeal to her 20-year sentence.
No reasons for the tougher sentences were available and were unlikely to be published for at least a month, Fairfax said.
news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=86883
Wednesday Sep 6 06:39 AEST
Four more of the Bali nine drug mules have been sentenced to death after Indonesia's Supreme Court issued shock verdicts on their appeals for lighter sentences.
The court imposed the new death sentences on 20-year-old Scott Rush, Tan Dun Thanh, 23, Si Yi Chen, 21, and the youngest of the group, 19-year-old Matthew Norman, Fairfax newspapers reported today.
None of the nine, their families or their lawyers have been officially informed of the new sentences, which Fairfax uncovered in a search of Supreme Court records in Jakarta and confirmed with court authorities.
The Supreme Court upheld convictions of the four for attempting to courier heroin from Bali to Australia in April last year, but annulled a previous High Court decision to grant lighter sentences and imposed the death penalty.
The new death sentences were unexpected as prosecutors, who had also appealed the 20-year terms faced by most of the nine, had called for them to be upgraded to life imprisonment.
The sentences mean at least six of the Australian heroin smugglers now face execution, with Andrew Chan, 22, and Myuran Sukumaran, 25, already facing the death penalty.
Verdicts in the appeals of Michael Czugaj and Martin Stephens are pending, and Renae Lawrence did not lodge a further appeal to her 20-year sentence.
No reasons for the tougher sentences were available and were unlikely to be published for at least a month, Fairfax said.
news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=86883