Qld: Easter vigil for death row Aussies

AAP General News (Australia)
04-01-2010
Qld: Easter vigil for death row Aussies

BRISBANE, April 1 AAP - Australians on death row will be recognised at a prayer vigil
on Good Friday in Brisbane.

The service will be held at the home parish of Scott Rush, who's on death row in Indonesia
for trying to smuggle heroin from Bali to Australia in 2005.

Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are also on death row for the same crime.

Peter Arndt, from the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, said it's hoped the service
will lift their spirits.

"We're holding the service to show support for people who are facing the death penalty
and just as importantly their families, and to also make a public expression for abolition
of the death penalty," he told AAP.

"We would hope that the state and federal governments continue to commit themselves
to the abolition of the death penalty in Indonesia, and with our other trading partners,
and do everything they can to spare the lives of Scott Rush and the other two on death
row."

Rush's lawyers are preparing an appeal against his death sentence in Indonesia's Supreme Court.

The service will be held at noon (AEST) at the Christ the King Catholic Church in Graceville.

AAP ka/pjo/apm

KEYWORD: VIGIL

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