JAKARTA, Indonesia - The Constitutional Court of Indonesia upheld the death penalty for serious drug offenses Tuesday, dimming hopes of a reprieve for three Australians facing execution for trying to smuggle heroin off the resort island of Bali.
Lawyers for the three men, members of a group of Australians convicted of drug offenses known as the Bali Nine, had hoped a successful constitutional challenge would add weight to their final appeal to the Supreme Court, which had previously escalated their sentence from life imprisonment to death. Should that appeal fail, their last avenue would be a direct plea to Indonesia's president.
The Constitutional Court ruled 6-3 that a 2000 constitutional amendment upholding the right to life did not apply to capital punishment. The court added that the right to life had to be balanced against the rights of the victims of drug trafficking.
"The request by the applicant is rejected," said the chief judge, Jimly Assidiqqie.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 10/31/2007