IN a last-ditch attempt to overturn the death penalty, Scott Rush’s lawyers will call on three witnesses to give evidence in the Bali Nine inmate’s final appeal in the Indonesian Supreme Court late next month.

Rush’s Indonesian lawyer, Robert Khuana, would not disclose the identities of the witnesses for security reasons, but he has not ruled out calling courier Renae Lawrence, who is serving 20 years with Rush in Bali’s Kerobokan prison. Mr Khuana said on Tuesday he was afraid that Rush, who is facing the death penalty for drug smuggling, would be moved from Kerobokan to a prison island off central Java, as the Bali bombers were in preparation for their execution.

Rush, 24, will be the first to lodge his appeal, ahead of fellow Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, also facing death for their part in a plot to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin from Indonesia to Australia in 2005.

Mr Khuana outlined the arguments he would use to try to save Rush from execution, saying Rush was a courier, not an organiser, did not technically export the drugs, and that the judges failed to read all the facts and did not differentiate between the cases.

Leading a six-member legal team, Mr Khuana will present Rush’s case in the PK, or Reconsideration, a review of the prisoner’s last failed appeal to the Supreme Court in 2007, before different judges. Continue reading →

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