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Bali nine executions: Lawyer who alleged bribery refuses to attend Judicial Commission
Sydney Morning Herald - May 12, 2015
Muhammad Rifan is due to give evidence to a Judicial Commission inquiry investigating the bribery claims next week.
However Mr Rifan, who is understood to have received threatening phone calls over the claims, says he cannot see the point of attending now both Australians are dead. "Can it help them come to live again? If it could I would," Mr Rifan said.
Fairfax Media revealed just days before the executions that Mr Rifan claimed the judges who imposed the death penalty asked for more than $130,000 in exchange for a prison term of less than 20 years.
However, a deal allegedly fell through after the judges told Mr Rifan they had been ordered by senior legal and government members in Jakarta to impose the death penalty.
Mr Rifan has come under intense pressure over the allegations and it was rumoured earlier this month he had been arrested following police questioning. He later denied he had been arrested or was facing further police questioning.
However asked if he would attend the Judicial Commission inquiry next week, Mr Rifan said: "I don't want to comment on this case anymore, I don't see the urgency. Besides, it wasn't me who filed the report to the Judicial Commission."
Mr Rifan said both men had been executed and he didn't want to prolong the sufferings of their families.
However Chan and Sukumaran's most recent lawyer, Todung Mulya Lubis, said that if Mr Rifan was summoned by the Judicial Commission he must attend. "We gave the judicial commission his phone number and address," Professor Mulya said.
Asked if Mr Rifan could be summoned by force, Professor Mulya said the Judicial Commission was a state institution that could ask for help.
Professor Mulya this week presented signed documents to the Judicial Commission based on "disturbing information" from Mr Rifan that the judges had requested money.
He said he had answered six questions and was prepared to be further questioned. "We submitted several newspaper clippings and recorded conversation between us and Muhammad Rifan," Professor Mulya said.
He said they also submitted a statement from Chan and Sukumaran but the two men should have been examined as witnesses. "But Sukumaran and Chan have been executed," Professor Mulya said. (With Karuni Rompies)
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