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'Bali Nine' Death Sentences Handed Down for Drugs

The 'Bali Nine' are learning their fate in Bali this week. Two have been sentenced to death. The rest, who were mules, were sentenced to life imprisonment. Renee Lawrence cooperated with authorites and prosecutors asked for her to receive a 20 year sentence. The judges sentenced her to life as well.

Boycott Bali. A country that sentences teens with no prior record to life in prison and young adults to death is a country with an inhumane system of justice that does not deserve to have tourists -- or your dollars.

Update: More news and reaction from the defendants and their families. A short video of Ms. Lawrence's sentencing is here.

Australia's The Age has an editorial against the death penalty today that begins,

The fate of the Bali nine highlights the inadequate support available to citizens charged with crimes overseas.

As to the two smugglers who were sentenced to death, the editors opines:

They were willing to peddle a drug that causes untold misery and death. They deserve to pay a heavy price for their deeds, but not even this reprehensible crime justifies a punishment that denies all hope of redemption or rehabilitation.

....These Australians face punishments very different from those that apply here. Our democracy, for all its faults, is based on respect for human life and the state does not have the power of life or death over its citizens. Yet, the Government's lack of clear policies on the matter, which allowed the Federal Police to assist Indonesia in arresting the Bali nine, have now resulted in two more young Australians facing gruesome and untimely deaths.

Those sentenced to death will meet their fate at dawn on an unannounced day.

THE shots usually ring out at dawn's first light, from an isolated clearing or deserted beach. Indonesia's condemned may suffer an agonising death. Hooded and handcuffed to a chair or post, they wear a white apron with a red cross marking their heart.

Most of the 12 police volunteers, standing less than 10 metres from their targets, will fire blanks to spare their consciences from the certainty they have killed.

The condemned does not always die instantly, requiring a final shot to the heart or temple minutes later. A doctor will attend to pronounce death and the prisoners may request the presence of a priest.

The executions occur unannounced, with police often dispatching decoy convoys to distract relatives or the media. The condemned receive about three days' warning.

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    While I appreciate the sentiment, it's not bloody likely I'll be in Bali anytime in the next 100 years. On the other hand, here in the good ol' USA we do almost the same things, n'est pas? While drug trafficking is not generally a capital offense, we hand out life sentences like candy corn on Halloween.

    Bali is not a "country" by itself, although it may act that way. Just boycott all of Indonesia.

    Re: 'Bali Nine' Death Sentences Handed Down for Dr (none / 0) (#3)
    by Rich on Tue Feb 14, 2006 at 10:53:23 AM EST
    We allow teens to be sentenced to lengthy terms as adults and certainly allow execution of young adults. Boycott the US? BTW, I've lived in SE Asia and drug using/dealing foresigners are a problem and exacerbate local drug problems. There are resorts in Thailand that have been ruined by drug using backpackers. Foreignersd who waltz in and expect to use what ever substance they want are breaking the law and as annoying a presence as evangelical missionaries. I am sorry but I have no sympathy here. The Indonesians have every right to make examples of these people.

    And we have every right not to go there.

    Re: 'Bali Nine' Death Sentences Handed Down for Dr (none / 0) (#5)
    by kdog on Tue Feb 14, 2006 at 05:39:38 PM EST
    When will the Indonesian become the next target in the war on terror? Locking up people for life, or even a few years...heck even a day, over some dope is terrorism..plain and simple.

    Re: 'Bali Nine' Death Sentences Handed Down for Dr (none / 0) (#6)
    by kdog on Tue Feb 14, 2006 at 05:40:01 PM EST
    oops...s/b Indonesian government.