http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/bali-nine-face-death-jab/2007/03/15/1173722660864.html
Indonesia flags lethal injection deaths for condemned Bali nine members
Mark Forbes and Karuni Rompies, Jakarta
March 16, 2007
INDONESIA'S Attorney-General says he is considering killing members of the Bali nine on death row by lethal injections rather than by firing squads.
Attorney-General Abdul Rachman Saleh and his anti-narcotics chief have intervened against a constitutional challenge to their death penalties by members of the Bali nine, urging the Constitutional Court to endorse executions.
Mr Saleh said injections would be more humane, but Indonesia remained committed to executing serious drug offenders.
The shift to lethal injections is being discussed with Indonesia's Doctors' Association.
Mr Saleh said the existing method was to blindfold convicts and put them in front of six shooters, with just one bullet loaded into the six weapons. If the convict did not die after the shooters fired, the commander of the squad delivered a final shot.
Scott Rush, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran have launched constitutional challenges against their penalties.
At yesterday's hearing, National Narcotics Agency chief Made Pastika also gave evidence, describing drug traffickers as "mass murderers because they can endanger the future of Indonesia".
"I believe we still need the application of capital punishment. If we abolish it Indonesia would send the wrong message to the drugs traffickers."
Harsh anti-drug laws had drastically reduced drugs cases in Singapore and abolishing capital punishment could see drug traffickers relocating to Indonesia, General Pastika claimed. Mr Saleh also warned of the dangers of drug trafficking.
He also claimed Australians and other foreigners should not be allowed to challenge Indonesia's constitution.
In the landmark case, the court is still considering if foreigners are eligible for constitutional protection.
"The Government strongly rejects the petition," Mr Saleh said. "Capital punishment is not against human rights because there are laws that regulate it and the laws are guaranteed by the constitution."
Rush's Australian lawyer Colin McDonald said that, as a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Indonesia should reserve the death penalty for the most serious crimes, like murder.
"There is plenty of international jurisprudence to say that middle-ranking, drug-related crime is not in the most serious category. Therefore, at least in relation to middle-ranking drug crime, the death penalty is unconstitutional."
There was a strong case that capital punishment contravened Indonesia's constitutional guarantee to a right to life, Mr McDonald said.
General Pastika told the court that people in Bali had turned to drug use and trafficking because of the economic downturn caused by the Bali bombing.
"Fifteen thousand people died of drugs per year in Indonesia, or around 41 persons per day. In politics, we say that drugs kill young generation."
The three other members of the Bali nine also on death row have not joined the constitutional challenge, but are due to lodge Supreme Court appeals against their sentences today or early next week.
The constitutional challenge is expected to continue for a month.
