30th April, 2015
Australian church leaders have joined with those expressing their dismay at the execution yesterday of eight people in Indonesia, including Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.
The eight people – who included the Bali nine pair as well as four Africans and a Brazilian as well as an Indonesian – were executed just after 3.30am on Wednesday morning (Australian time).
There are reports that the prisoners all refused blindfolds and sang hymns including Amazing Grace before they were shot. Christie Buckingham and Major David Soper – who had been nominated as the spiritual advisors to the two men – were nearby when they were executed.
Rev Buckingham tweeted that the two men’s "last hour was one of their finest hours" and that they had been giving comfort to all around them, including the guards.
In the aftermath of the executions, Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced he was withdrawing its ambassador to Indonesia and breaking off ministerial contact in the wake of the executions which he described as "cruel" and unnecessary".
The Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher – who had earlier made a joint appeal for clemency for Chan and Sukumarana with the Grand Mufti of Australia Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohamed, was among those church leaders who expressed his dismay at the deaths.
In a statement he said the Indonesian Government’s refusal to entertain appeals for mercy – even after both Chan and Sukumaran had demonstrably turned their lives around – "seemed to us to damage our neighbor’s reputation for justice".
"In some ways capital punishment punishes the families more than those executed," he said, having earlier noted his opposition to the death penalty. "They must carry the memories for years to come. My heart and the hearts of all good-willed Australians go out to the Chan and Sukumaran families and the families of the other executed with them."
Indonesia has reportedly defended its use of the death penalty, with Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo saying executions were necessary to "save the nation from the danger of drugs".
A Filipino woman, Mary Jane Veloso, was also expected to be executed with the others but received a last minute reprieve.
– DAVID ADAMS
