If the two Australians on death row in Indonesia are executed, Triple J will have blood on its hands, claims a supporter of the prisoners.
An advocate for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, the convicted Bali 9 drug smuggling ringleaders facing the death sentence, says that an Australia Day survey has hampered last ditch efforts to gain the two men clemency, according to the ABC.
Over the Australia Day weekend an SMS poll of 2,123 people was carried out by Roy Morgan Research with the participation of Triple J.
52 per cent of people surveyed in the poll agreed with the notion that Australians convicted of drug trafficking in a foreign country and sentenced to death should be executed. The results were announced by Triple J on its Hack show.
Indonesia’s ambassador to Australia, Nadjib Rifat Kesuma, and the Indonesian attorney-general, Muhammad Prasetyo, have both referred to the poll as evidence that the killing of the two men is supported by many Australians, according to the ABC.
Since the publication of the results, Indonesian courts have denied Chan’s and Sukumaran’s desperate last ditch legal appeals against being executed by firing squad.
Vice chancellor of the Australian Catholic University and a supporter of the Mercy campaign (which is advocating clemency for Chan and Sukumaran), Greg Craven, told the ABC that Triple J was in some way responsible should the two be executed.
“If these two men really are executed then the radio station that commissioned the poll, the people who delivered that poll, and the people who answered that poll in the affirmative will know that they have had a part, no matter how small, in the death of two other people,” he said.
Indonesian authorities have indicated the pair could be put to death within the coming days.
President making an example of them
Chan and Sukumaran were convicted by Indonesian courts in 2006 of plotting to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin through Bali in 2005. Both men were sentenced to death by firing squad.
The Australians had their appeals for a presidential pardon rejected by President Joko Widodo in January this year despite public and private calls by Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Prime Minister Tony Abbott to spare the prisoners from execution.
Widodo has vowed to take an extreme stance on drug trafficking and has made it clear he wishes to set an example to other would-be traffickers in his country. The president has reportedly set a target of executing 20 of Indonesia’s 64 convicted drug traffickers by the end of 2015.
Six convicted drug traffickers, including five foreigners from Brazil, the Netherlands, Vietnam, Malawi and Nigeria, were executed on 18 January. Brazil and the Netherlands recalled their ambassadors to Indonesia in response.
Widodo has stated that he believes Chan and Sukumaran should be executed together.
IMAGE: Australians Myuran Sukumaran (L) and Andrew Chan (R), members of the so called Bali Nine gang, sits inside a detention room prior to their trial in Denpasar on the island of Bali in 2010. (SONNY TUMBELAKA/AFP/Getty Images)
