Australia to discuss drug smugglers with Indonesia

Australia's Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said he would raise the issue of three Australian drug smugglers held on death row in Indonesia in a trip to the Southeast Asian country this week.

Smith is due to meet Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda tomorrow during a three-day visit.

The three Australians are members of the so-called Bali Nine, who were caught trying to smuggle more than 8.2 kilogrammes of heroin from the resort island of Bali to Australia in 2005.

"I'll be making those the points, in our formal bilateral conversation in Jakarta tomorrow, that we have three of the Bali Nine still subject to a death penalty," Mr Smith told Australian television.

"I'll make enquiries about the progress of their cases through the Indonesian legal and judicial system, and again make the point that when those processes have completed, that if any of those three still remain the subject of a death penalty, we'll be making a plea for clemency in accordance with our normal processes," Mr Smith said.

Last October, Indonesia's Constitutional Court ruled that executing drug smugglers did not breach the constitution, rejecting a bid to challenge the law by the three Australians, Scott Rush and accused gang masterminds Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan.

Mr Smith also said that although the Australian Government opposed the death penalty, he would not be making a similar request for clemency regarding the people responsible for the deaths of 88 Australians in nightclub bombings in Bali in 2002.