Death ... Australian drug traffickers, from left, Si Yi Chen, Matthew Norman and Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen. Inset: Scott Rush / Reuters, AP
|
By staff writers and wires September 06, 2006
FOUR more of the Bali Nine drug mules have been sentenced to death after Indonesia's Supreme Court issued shock verdicts on their appeals for lighter sentences.
The court imposed the new death sentences on Scott Rush (20), Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen (23), Si Yi Chen (21), and the youngest of the group, 19-year-old Matthew Norman, Fairfax newspapers report today.
None of the nine, their families or their lawyers have been officially informed of the new sentences, which were uncovered by Fairfax in a search of Supreme Court records in Jakarta and confirmed with court authorities.
The Supreme Court upheld the four men's convictions for attempting to courier heroin from Bali to Australia in April last year, but annulled a previous High Court decision to grant lighter sentences and imposed the death penalty.
The new death sentences were unexpected, as prosecutors had previously called for the 20-year terms faced by most of the nine to be upgraded only to life imprisonment.
The sentences mean at least six of the nine Australian heroin smugglers now face execution, with Andrew Chan (22) and Myuran Sukumaran (25), already facing the death penalty.
No response
The Fairfax report drew no response from the Federal Government today.
A spokesman for Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said the Government did not comment on ongoing court cases.
Click Here for Bali 9 Case Information
|
