By Paul Dobbyn
“WE’RE all hoping and praying for a miracle – and if we don’t get that those two men on death row in Bali will be dead in a couple of weeks.”
Brisbane lawyer Bob Myers, involved in the case of the Bali Nine drug smugglers from 2005, made the observation after the Indonesian foreign affairs ministry confirmed Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were due to face the firing squad this month.
Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher and the Grand Mufti of Australia, Ibrahim Abu Mohammed also delivered a joint statement from the grounds of St Mary’s Cathedral on February 8 asking for clemency for the pair.
“Our plea today to the president and the people of Indonesia is on the basis of their apparent remorse and repentance for a crime they committed nearly 10 years ago,” the statement said.
“These Sydney-born men have had a long time to think about what they have done while in Kerobakan prison and on death row.
“Both men have been studying and helping other prisoners.”
The mothers of both men met with Indonesia’s human rights commission in Jakarta on Monday February 9 and in a press conference in Bali pleaded with Indonesian President Joko Widodo to spare their sons’ lives.
Mr Myers supported the call for clemency from Australia’s two most senior Catholic and Muslim leaders.
He pushed for intervention in the case at “the highest levels”, suggesting both Prime Minister Tony Abbott and the head of the Australian Federal Police should approach their Indonesian counterparts to ask for clemency.
Mr Myers said this was on the basis that the Australian Federal Police had acted wrongly in notifying Indonesian authorities who arrested the nine Bali drug smugglers at Denpasar Airport while they were enroute to Australia.
Mr Myers reiterated, “the situation was unique”.
“The drugs were not intended to be sold to Indonesian citizens,” he said.
“It was coincidental the group went through Indonesia; it could have been London or wherever … anywhere in the world.”
He called on Prime Minister Abbott to “show leadership and explain to the Indonesian president the circumstances in which the men were betrayed”.
Mr Myers became involved in the case in April 2005 after receiving a phone call from his friend Lee Rush who was concerned his son, then 19, may be involved with others in drug trafficking.
He then offered to contact a friend in the Australian Federal Police before Scott left Australia.
However, the AFP let Scott and the others leave Australia.
Nine days later Rush, Chan, Sukumaran and six others were arrested at Bali’s Denpasar airport as they were about to return home with 8.3 kg of heroin strapped to their bodies.
Scott’s former fellow Corinda-Graceville parishioner Michael Czugaj was also among those arrested.
Scott had been a student at Christ the King Primary School, Graceville, and Michael had been at St Joseph’s School, Corinda.
A monthly prayer vigil against capital punishment, organised by Brisbane archdiocese’s Catholic Justice and Peace Commission in collaboration with the Corinda-Graceville parish community, will be held at Graceville’s Christ the King Church on February 17 at 7pm.
A co-ordinator said Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran’s names were mentioned in the vigil’s liturgy.
