Ex-Bali Nine lawyer to meet on bribe claim

Indonesia's judicial commission is preparing to interview the former lawyer for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran over bribery allegations.

Bali lawyer Muhammad Rifan

Indonesia's judicial commission is preparing to interview the former lawyer to the Bali Nine pair. (AAP)

A Bali lawyer who claims bribery and politics interfered in the death sentencing of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran will be quizzed next week.

On the eve of the men's executions last month, Muhammad Rifan alleged judges who sentenced the men in 2006 asked for more than $130,000 for a lighter sentence.

Mr Rifan indicated he wished to withdraw the claims after the executions but the judicial commission had already launched a probe.

Commissioner Imam Anshori Saleh told AAP on Thursday the matter was still under investigation, with Mr Rifan to be questioned in Bali next week.

Mr Imam says because it is an ethical probe, witnesses don't have to be sworn in and commission staff will interview Mr Rifan in private.

"We would like to know why he said that in the first place and then why he withdrew it," he said.

"Because it's a public report, we can't reject it, we have to follow it up.

"Whether it's proven or not, that's another matter.

"We want the public to have open and accessible justice and the judicial commission is the bridge for that."

The complaint was lodged by lawyers fighting to save Chan and Sukumaran from the death penalty.

They argued the men shouldn't have been executed before the claims were investigated.

Mr Rifan was the pair's lawyer when they went on trial for their part in the 2005 Bali Nine plot to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia.

He first made claims of "interference" in February, and as the men went to the firing squad last month, revealed judges had asked for $130,000 to give a prison term of less than 20 years but withdrew the offer on orders from Jakarta to impose a death penalty.


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Source: AAP


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