Bali sentences split Australia press

No leniency for heroin smuggling

The sentencing to death in Indonesia of the two ringleaders of a group found guilty of smuggling heroin has sparked intense debate in the Australian press.

Other members of the "Bali nine" received jail sentences, including life imprisonment, but it is the death sentences which generate most comment.

The Australian police come under attack in some papers for tipping off the Indonesian authorities, though one paper defends them.

Indonesia has a sovereign right to pursue drug traffickers in accordance with its own laws The Sydney Morning Herald

For The Sydney Morning Herald, the sentences "should serve as a warning - as they were no doubt intended to do - to others who might be tempted to follow".

"The drug trade ruins lives... and without question Indonesia has a sovereign right... to pursue drug traffickers in accordance with its own laws and its own standards."

However, it has sympathy with the families "as they contemplate their children's lives cut off, or wasted in a Balinese jail".

A Herald correspondent in Indonesia writes that the governments in Canberra and Jakarta were expecting the verdicts "but dreading them, placing them at loggerheads over the execution of two young Australians".

"Both governments are determined not to let the controversy derail a blossoming relationship, and will seek a face-saving solution. A prisoner exchange agreement is likely to be accelerated, but that offers no hope for the condemned pair."

In contrast, The Daily Telegraph's political reporter condemns the sentences as "barbaric" and also has harsh words for the Australian government.

Barbaric Bali court decision Commentator in The Daily Telegraph

"As the Australian government tiptoes around the pair's sentence, desperately trying to avoid offending (Indonesian President) Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, it may be tempting to think why bother?

"I am sure as their inevitable appeals fail, and higher authorities confirm their deaths by firing squad, the reality of how barbaric the Bali court's decision is will set in. Chan and Sukumaran might be scum, but I will never think the Indonesians have the right to kill them," the commentator argues.

Police under fire

Both The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald carry condemnation of the police for tipping off the Indonesian authorities rather than arresting the gang on arrival in Australia.

The head of Melbourne's Deakin Law School, Mirko Bagaric, writes in The Australian that the death sentences are "grim news not only for the two Australians, but also for the Australian Federal Police".

"For tipping off the Indonesian authorities about the drug trafficking plans of the Bali Nine, the AFP (Australian Federal Police) will have blood on its hands if Sukumaran or Chan are executed."

The Herald calls on the Australian Federal Police "to explain its actions in detail".

Australians should be grateful that (police) nipped in the bud this attempt to put more heroin on our street Melbourne's Herald Sun

"Why was our national police force acting to place Australians at risk of execution, when Australia opposes the death penalty as a matter of policy?"

However, Melbourne's Herald Sun says that criticism of the police "is unjustified".

"Australians should be grateful that they nipped in the bud this attempt to put more heroin on our streets."

The leading Melbourne paper The Age attacks the Australian government for what it says is a "lack of clear policies".

"The dilemma for Australia is that some of our neighbours are among the chief advocates of the death sentence, both as a punishment and a deterrent... Yet, the government's lack of clear policies, which allowed the Federal Police to assist Indonesia in arresting the Bali nine, have now resulted in two more young Australians facing gruesome and untimely deaths."

BBC Monitoring selects and translates news from radio, television, press, news agencies and the internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. It is based in Caversham, UK, and has several bureaux abroad.