Pubdate: Tue, 27 Sep 2005
Source: Australian, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2005sThe Australian
Contact: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/files/aus_letters.htm
Website: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/35
Author: Rob Taylor in Jakarta

ALL BALI NINE FACE EXECUTION

ALL members of the Bali Nine will be facing possible death penalties 
when their drug-trafficking trials begin over the coming weeks.

Prosecutors in Bali have handed over files to the Denpasar District 
Court, clearing the way for trials to begin. Defence lawyers had been 
hoping they would only be charged with possession, which carries a 
10-year jail term.

The team of six provincial prosecutors have asked court officials to 
schedule seven separate trials.

Four of the nine Australians, detained at Bali's Ngurah Rai Airport 
in April with blocks of heroin weighing between 1.3kg and 2.9kg 
allegedly strapped to their bodies, will each be tried separately.

The four are Wollongong man Martin Stephens, 29, Brisbane duo Michael 
Czugaj and Scott Rush, both 19, and the only female among the group, 
27-year-old Newcastle woman Renae Lawrence.

The so-called gang enforcer Andrew Chan, 21, from Sydney, will be 
tried separately as will the accused mastermind of the gang, Myuran 
Sukumaran, 24, also from Sydney.

Three others - Brisbane man Tach Duc Thanh Nguyen, 27, and Sydney 
pair Si Yi Chen, 20, and Matthew James Norman, 18 - who were arrested 
with Sukumaran at the Melasti Hotel in Kuta will be tried together.

The hotel raid launched with the help of Australian Federal Police 
netted 300g of heroin divided between two small bags.

Police also found five mobile phones, two suitcases containing scales 
and packaging materials, as well as backpacks.

The arrests led to criticism of the AFP for having tipped off 
Indonesian police for alleged offences that could see all nine 
Australians shot, despite Canberra's opposition to the death penalty.

The defence lawyer for Lawrence, Haposan Sihombing, said the 
prosecution files were handed over to the court this morning.

"All of them are facing death," he said.

Eight of the nine will face between four and five layers of 
possession charges under tough narcotics laws, which also carry life 
sentences and fines of up to $394,000.

But police asked for Chan, who was pulled off a Sydney-bound 
Australian Airlines flight without drugs, to face an additional 
burden with a second charge of possession.

The extra charge was designed to ensure he could not walk away free, 
police said.

With the files lodged, the court can now order trials to begin within 
a fortnight.

Chan's lawyer Mohammad Rifan said he had not yet seen the charges for 
his client.

"But if (the two charges are) true, then the prosecutor just has more 
to prove," he said.

Prosecutors two weeks ago sought advice from Indonesia's 
Attorney-General Abdul Rachman Saleh in Jakarta asking for a second 
opinion on plans to seek the firing squad.

Rifan said the prosecution team was divided over whether they could 
successfully argue for death sentences.
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