PhOtOs-Bali Nine May Escape Firing Squad
 

Could Bali Nine Duo Escape the Firing Squad? Prison Governor Recommends Australian Inmates' Sentences be Reduced to Life Behind Bars

• Bali Nine ring leaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are on death row
  
• Bali prison governor submitted his recommendations to the central government in Jakarta earlier this year
• Farid Junaedi also says the remaining Bali Nine drug smugglers should have their life sentences to be reduced to a fixed term
• The Bali Nine were caught in April 2005 trying to traffic 8.3 kilograms of heroin out of the Indonesian island
  

Daily Mail UK, 21 August 2014


The ring leaders of the Bali Nine drug smuggling plot could escape the firing squad after the governor of the prison where they have been locked up since 2005 recommended their sentences be reduced to life behind bars.

Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were sentenced to death for their roles in the the failed attempt to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin out of Bali to Australia and appealed to the Indonesian president about two years ago for clemency.

In a boost in the hopes of getting off death row, Kerobokan prison governor Farid Junaedi said the pair should have their sentences reduced to a fixed term, reported the Sydney Morning Herald.


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Bali Nine ring leaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are on death row


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The two Australians appealed to the Indonesian president about two years ago for clemency


Mr Junaedi revealed on Sunday, during a ceremony commemorating Indonesia's independence day in Bali, that he had made 'several recommendations' for sentence reductions for good behaviour.

'These include the Bali Nine - from death sentence to life, and from life to a fixed term [usually 20 years],' Mr Farid said.

This is the first time the Bali prison governor has made such a recommendation, which was submitted to the central government in Jakarta earlier this year.

'It's just something simple. I just don't want to be shot, really,' Sukumaran said on Saturday.
But it is believed outgoing president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, whose term ends in October, is hesitant to grant Chan and Sukumaran's wishes as it would come across as favouring Australian and other foreign drug traffickers.

Since being jailed the pair have worked hard to convince their jailers they are reformed characters - Chan has worked with the prison church and Sukumaran runs an art class to give hope to other inmates.

The Bali Nine were caught trafficking 8.3 kilograms of heroin out of the Indonesian island in April 2005.

The other Australians serving life sentences in Kerobokan prison are Scott Rush, Martin Stephens, Matthew Norman, Si Yi Chen, Tan Duc Than Nguyen and Michael Czugaj.