THE father of Bali Nine heroin smuggler Scott Rush says he hopes Australian officials can appeal to the Indonesian Government to save his son’s life.
Indonesia’s Constitutional Court today threw out a challenge against the death penalty in drug cases.
Scott Rush was arrested with eight other Australians on April 17, 2005, in Denpasar in Bali while trying to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin to Australia.
He and five others have been sentenced to death by firing squad.
The court also today ruled foreigners don’t have the right to challenge Indonesia’s laws.
Scott’s father Lee, who has led a campaign against capital punishment, said he still hoped and prayed his son and the others could serve out their time in an Australian jail.
“I would hope that an Australian Government official could make representation to the Indonesian President to save our son and the other Australians’ lives,” Mr Rush said.
“Our son has been quite silly in participating in this drug issue and we would like to see him serve appropriate time for the crime (in Australia) and be able to get rehabilitation, and at some stage in his life be able to move back into society.”
Asked what it was that drove him to fight on, Mr Rush said: “The heartache of not being able to hold my son in my arms.
“Plus I look over my left shoulder and my right shoulder and there’s a lot of other people doing it tough out there and not just my son.”
Mr Rush said he understood both Labor and the Coalition supported an end to capital punishment.
AUSTRALIANS AGAINST CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 
The cat is out of the bag now: foreigners don’t have the right to challenge Indonesia’s laws but at the same time they are subject to those laws. This is clear evidence that Indonesia’s judicial system is xenophobic from the top down. When a nation discriminates against foreigners the full extent of their insecurity is obvious and embarrassing.
This is plainly hypocritical. Indonesia has no reservations when foreigners criticise their commercial laws in order to improve legal certainty and smooth the progress of further trade. I wonder what the expatriate community makes of this new development. As long as they support this corrupt and undemocratic regime they have nothing to worry about.