COURT BID TO STOP EXECUTION OF BALI SIX FAILS

INDONESIA'S Constitutional Court has dealt a severe blow to the Bali
nine by endorsing the death penalty and the execution of drug offenders.

In a split decision, the court upheld the validity of capital
punishment, rejecting pleas that it breached Indonesia's constitution
and international obligations. Three of the nine-judge bench opposed
the verdict.

The decision leaves the six Australians who face firing squads
dependent on a last-ditch appeal to the Supreme Court, which has
already upheld or imposed their death penalties.

Defence lawyers had hoped to use a favourable Constitutional Court
decision as the grounds for their final appeal.

The only other hope for clemency is pardons from President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono, which, his office has stated, would never be
granted to drug traffickers.

Any public campaign or political pressure to save the six Australians
will be undermined by the strength of yesterday's verdict.

Before the decision, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Australia
would make pleas for clemency once all legal avenues had been exhausted.

But the Government's anti-death penalty stance did not extend to the
Bali bombers.

"Although I'm opposed to capital punishment I won't use any Australian
Government resources at all to plead on behalf of terrorists who
killed 88 of my fellow countrymen and women," Mr Downer said yesterday.

Chief judge Jimly Asshidiqqie said that the right to life in
Indonesia's constitution, and under international protocols, was not
absolute. Rights of the victims of crime had to be balanced against
the rights of offenders.

Judge Asshidiqqie and five fellow judges equated drug offences to
murder.

Indonesia had international obligations to halt drug trafficking, he
said.

The decision had created intense divisions within the court, Judge
Asshidiqqie conceded, stating that he "hoped now the abolitionists and
non-abolitionists can start talking again".

The majority of the bench found international protocols signed by
Indonesia reserved the death penalty for the most serious crimes. Drug
trafficking met this definition.

The court stated all death sentences that had already been imposed
should be executed, although it acknowledged Parliament was
considering amending the criminal code in the future so sentences
might be commuted to life -- if a prisoner had been well behaved for 10
years.

The court ruled foreigners were not entitled to constitutional
protection in Indonesia, rejecting petitions from the three of the
Bali nine -- Scott Rush, Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan -- who lodged
the challenge.

Rush's Australian lawyer, John North, said he would fly to Bali to
inform him of the result before lodging the final appeal for judicial
review.

"The court on this very important issue for Indonesia is divided;
there is room to move," he said.

Indonesia's leading human rights lawyer, Tolung Mulya Lubis, for Chan
and Sukumaran, said he did not know what their next step would be.

"It's a major blow, not only for them (Chan and Sukumaran) but
everyone facing a death sentence."

The other three members of the smuggling ring sentenced to death,
Matthew Norman, Si Yi Chen and Thanh Duc Tan Nguyen, appealed directly
to the Supreme Court and are awaiting a decision. Their case drew
heavily on the arguments that failed in the Constitutional Court.

National Narcotics Agency chief Made Pastika applauded the decision.
"Behind this death penalty there are many lives we have to save," he
said outside court.

Dissenting Judge Laica Marzuki said that in the name of human dignity
the death penalty should be abolished for all crimes.

Amnesty International condemned the decision. Australian spokesman Tim
Goodwin said this was a setback for all on death row in Indonesia.
"There is no evidence that the death penalty provides any special
protection against the drug trade or any other crime," he said.