THE LETTER THE COURTS REJECTED: HOW ANDREW CHAN ASKED FOR A SECOND CHANCE:
27 January 2015
Your Honour President Bapak Joko Widodo and Chairman of the Supreme Court.
My name is Andrew Chan and at this moment, I'm kept in a corrections facility in Bali Indonesia. Life in prison is tough. And it becomes more difficult because my family live very far away and I rarely meet them. But I'm writing this letter not to complain about this because I know I deserve to be jailed for quite a long time.
Your Honour, the reason I'm writing this letter is to beg Your Honour to understand me and that Your Honour could see from the bottom of his heart that I as a human have been reformed with a changed heart. Far from family and friends, many things have made me appreciate the value of real life and that has changed me into the me now.
I'm like a broken cup, but doesn't mean that I can't be repaired. In the last ten years in the system of this country that Your Honour leads, it has made me complete, to love Indonesian people and help them.
I realise that if I had abused the trust back then I have to regain that trust by showing that I can be trusted. I want to say that I'm guilty of the crime that I committed. I'm not trying to justify or belittle what I have done.
I beg that Your Honour gives me a second chance to show Your Honour that I have changed.
I spend my time right now teaching others not to commit the same mistakes I have done and that they need to realise the pain, the suffering and the countless sleepless nights caused by that. I can say those things because I did the same thing to my family.
I'm learning to be a pastor. I could praise myself for lots of things, but anyone can praise themselves and so I will let others speak for me, including prison officers, prisoners, even the prison governor. I say thank you for Your Honour's time to read this letter and I pray that Your Honour will understand me better.
Your Honour, I've always loved the people and the country of Indonesia and I'm hoping again that Your Honour could see from the bottom of his heart that I'm a changed person, who has changed for the better and maybe one day, you could see it for yourself. I hope from the heart that Your Honour could give me a second chance.
Respectfully, Andrew Chan
* Source: Handwritten letter, translated from the original Indonesian. Given to court as part of Chan/Sukumaran legal team application for a second judicial review, which was rejected.
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