Halt Indonesia drug executions until graft claims probed: Aus

Australia urged Indonesia today to delay the execution of two men for drug offences until a corruption probe into their case is complete, after a report that judges sought tens of thousands of dollars in bribes.
"Bali Nine" drug traffickers Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan could face the firing squad within days, along with others from Brazil, Nigeria, the Philippines and an Indonesian prisoner.
Australian media showed photos of crosses prepared by a mortician that will be used to mark their coffins, inscribed with the date 29.04.2015.
But Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the death row convicts should not be shot while legal question marks remain over their cases.

"I should point out that Mr Chan and Mr Sukumaran's lawyers are pursuing action before the Constitutional Court in Indonesia," Bishop told ABC radio.
"And there's also a separate investigation underway by the Indonesian Judicial Commission into claims of corruption in the original trial, and both of these processes raise questions about the integrity of the sentencing and the clemency process."

Bishop spoke to her Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi last evening, while Prime Minister Tony Abbott has written to President Joko Widodo to renew his plea for the executions to be halted.
Abbott meanwhile stressed his opposition to the death penalty "in all cases" on a visit to Paris on Monday, a view echoed by French President Francois Hollande in a separate statement.

A Frenchman is on death row in Indonesia but is not among those facing execution within days.
Today Fairfax Media published allegations of corruption by the judges who sentenced the pair in 2006, claiming they asked for more than one billion rupiah -- around USD 77,000 at the time -- to pass a prison sentence of less than 20 years.
It cited their then-Indonesian lawyer, Muhammad Rifan, who claimed a deal fell through after an intervention by Jakarta, which allegedly ordered the pair be given the death penalty.
He said he decided to go public given that the executions were imminent and that the Judicial Commission, the Indonesian body that safeguards the probity of judges, had yet to complete its investigation into the alleged requests for bribes.

At least one of the judges in the case denied to Fairfax there had been political interference or negotiations about bribes.