'Bali Nine' ringleaders 'next in line' to be executed

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A child holds stickers of a campaign to save two Australian citizens from death sentence, in Bali, Indonesia, 31 January 2015.Image source, EPA
Image caption,

The men have had their appeal for clemency rejected

Two Australians facing the death penalty in Bali are next in line to be executed, Indonesia's attorney general has said.

Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, members of the "Bali Nine" drug smuggling ring, applied on Friday for a fresh judicial review.

But the attorney general's office says they have exhausted options for appeal.

It was not clear when the executions would take place. Appeals for clemency have already been rejected.

Attorney General HM Prasetyo said on Monday that Chan and Sukumaran "will be included" in the next group of prisoners to be put to death.

"We have heard that many Australians support the execution and it is one of the things that pushes us to feel we are not making a mistake," he told a press conference in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

Lawyers for Chan and Sukumaran have filed an application for a second judicial review. Mr Prasetyo said he had heard that this focused on the men's rehabilitation in prison, but said this did not constitute new evidence.

"New evidence is... something we didn't know when the trial took place that would have altered the sentence," he was quoted as saying by the Sydney Morning Herald, adding that "our reference" is the fact that their appeal for clemency has already been rejected by the president's office.

Diplomatic row

Indonesia has some of the toughest drug laws in the world. It ended a four-year moratorium on executions in 2013.

Last month, Indonesia executed convicts from Malawi, Nigeria, Vietnam, Brazil and the Netherlands as well as one from Indonesia.

It prompted Brazil and the Netherlands to recall their ambassadors in protest.

Australian authorities have threatened to do the same if Chan and Sukumaran are put to death.

Australia opposes the death penalty and its government has repeatedly campaigned on behalf of the men. They were in a group of nine Australians arrested in Bali in 2005 with more than 8.3kg (18lb) of heroin.