Bali bomb suspects should not get death penalty if convicted,
Bali bomb suspects should not get death penalty if convicted, Australian minister says
Associated Press Melbourne, Australia
Australia's foreign minister on Friday called on Indonesia's judicial system not invoke the death penalty if it convicts a group of suspects in last year's deadly Bali bombings.
The Oct. 12 blasts in the resort island's nightclub district killed 202 people, mainly foreign vacationers including 89 Australians.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer made it clear he was speaking on his own behalf, and not for the Australian government. In a radio interview, Downer said Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda had told him the alleged bombers would face the firing squad if found guilty.
"I actually personally am not in favor of capital punishment. Since I was a child I've never liked the idea of capital punishment," Downer told Melbourne's 3AW. "I must say that to you, no matter how egregious the crime, but I don't think I resonate with public opinion there."
Australia has no death penalty and refuses to extradite suspects to jurisdictions where they could be put to death, unless it receives a statement that the penalty will not be sought.
In Jakarta, state prosecutors working the case refused to say whether they would demand the death sentences during trials expected to start soon.
Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty Natelagawa declined to comment except to say: "Irrespective of our individual inclinations on the rights or otherwise of the death penalty, the reality is that it is part of our law."
Separately, an Indonesian court on Thursday sentenced shop owner Silvester Tendean to seven months' jail for selling the explosive material used in the Bali nightclub bombings in October last year.
Tendean was found guilty of possessing and selling 2.2 tons of potassium chlorate to Amrozi, a key suspect in the bombings. Like many Indonesians, Amrozi uses only one name.
Downer said Tendean would "not necessarily" have received a harsher sentence in Australia.
"If they sold those chemicals unknowingly and unwittingly to someone who subsequently went and used them for a chemical purpose ... all sorts of things are sold to people who then might use those things to commit criminal acts," Downer said.
"The people who sell them aren't necessarily culpable in the subsequent offense."
Tendean is the first person to be tried in the Bali blasts. Amrozi's trial is expected to begin within weeks in Bali's capital, Denpasar.
Police have arrested 32 people in the Bali attacks. Several of those detained have links with Jamaah Islamiyah, a regional terror group believed linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization.