Tony Abbott Warns Of Diplomatic Fallout If Bali Nine Executions Go Ahead

The fight for Bali Nine members Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran continues today, as the government has made eleventh hour pleas to Indonesia against the pair’s death sentences following their 2005 crime.

Tony Abbott today warned that his government would “certainly find ways to make our displeasure felt,” and did not rule out the possibility of recalling Australia’s ambassador from Jakarta if the executions take place. “At the moment our focus has to be on making what are admittedly 11th-hour pleas, but we are making them, we are making them because this shouldn’t be happening,” Prime Minister Abbott said today. He added, citing Chan and Sukumaran’s noted rehabilitation during their ten years in prison, “we believe that it would be entirely appropriate for the sentences of Chan and Sukumaran to be commuted. We respectfully so request.”

Yesterday, Foreign Affairs minister Julie Bishop suggested that Australians may well stage a boycott against travel to Indonesia if the death sentences are carried out against Chan and Sukumaran. “I think the Australian people will demonstrate their deep disapproval of this action, including by making decisions about where they wish to holiday,” Bishop said yesterday.

Furthering the government’s final pleas for the fate of the Bali nine pair—and following Tanya Plibersek’s and Julie Bishop’s emotional addresses to parliament this week—a petition for clemency of the two men has received 150,000 signatures in support. 

A meeting will take place in Jakarta on Monday, attended by Australian and Indonesian officials, to outline the sentences of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran. 

Via The Guardian.
Lead image by Sonny Tumbelaka via Getty.

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