E&OE
5 February 2009
Question Without Notice: Merauke Five
The five Australians generally now known as the Merauke Five arrived in Merauke, part of Indonesia, allegedly without visas or appropriate travel and aviation authority. As a consequence of that they were detained by Indonesian authorities.
Effectively
from the moment of their detention Australian consular officials from
Indonesia were there and rendered consular assistance. After appropriate
investigation by Indonesian authorities, they were charged and subsequently
tried and convicted of offences which I have referred to generally.
They were sentenced and that sentence has been the subject of an indication
by them that they are proposing to appeal.
Australian
officials have ensured that they have had access to legal advice, and
my most recent advice is that that appeal process is in the course of
being prepared and will be lodged in the near future. They received
an opportunity to apply for bail but decided, in conjunction with the
advice of their lawyers, not to apply for bail, on the basis that any
time they served in detention following their sentence in the first
instance would be held in account for any sentence they were subject
to in appeal.
I make this point, which is
often not understood. When an Australian citizen, an Australian national,
comes into contact with the legal system of another country, there is
a limit to what Australia can do. That is not to say that Australia
cannot or does not do anything. There is simply a limit to what we can
do when one of our citizens in another country has to go through their
legal processes. And the reverse of course applies.
If a national of another country
falls within the processes of our criminal legal jurisdiction, they
are subject to it. On more than one occasion an Australian government
has indicated to a foreign national that it would be inappropriate for
the government of the day to seek to interfere in the legal processes
of our own country. The same rule applies in respect of the legal processes
of another country.
We have made the point to the Indonesian authorities through our officials in Indonesia that we are very concerned about their welfare, very concerned and interested in the outcome of the legal processes. On the basis of personal conversations with our Ambassador and consultations with our consular officials, I am satisfied that everything that we can do in a consular sense, everything that we can do in terms of expressing our concerns to the Indonesians authorities, has been and continues to be done. In the meantime we await the outcome of the Indonesian judicial and legal processes.
[Ends]
Media inquiries
Foreign Minister's office (02) 6277 7500