Foreign Prisoners Support Service

HUMAN RIGHTS FOR EACH PERSON REGARDLESS OF AGE, RACE, RELIGION OR POLITICS

Andrew Chan Campaign Information

Name: Andrew Chan
Born: 12 January 1984 [Sydney, NSW]
Nationality: Australian
Sentence: Death Sentence given 14 February 2006 Appeal rejected 26 Apr 06 [Death by firing Squad]
Offence: Andrew Chan was arrested whilst seated on an Australian airline flight waiting to depart Denpasar, Indonesia on 04 July 2005 for Sydney. He was carrying three mobile phones and a boarding pass, however no drugs were found in his possession. Indonesian police testified Chan recruited eight other Australians, also detained, to act as drug mules and offered them money to carry out the task of trafficking 8.3 kilograms of heroin to Australia. The group is known as 'the Bali 9'.
Letters and care packages can be sent:
To Fara for Andrew Chan
Jl. Intan Permai Timur Gang
3 Kamar no.4
Kerobokan, Denpasar 80117
Bali, Indonesia

Important Notice

Please be advised that those people sending letters to Kay Danes at Kerobokan Prison should discontinue because she is NOT a prisoner. Rather, Kay Danes is a Prisoner advocate based in Australia. Please do not address any more mail to Kay Danes at Kerobokan Prison, Bali. If you would like to write to her this is the address:

Kay Danes
PO Box 391
Capalaba QLD 4157
Australia

About Andrew Chan
I graduated in year 10 of my high school. I liked playing Union football at school, enjoyed tennis, reading, rap, R&B, anything really, including novels by author Wilbur Smith and John Grisham. I also like cricket and rugby league.

Sample Letter to
The Australian Government
to assist the plight of the 6 Australian's on Death Row in Indonesia & to abolish
the death penalty

I come from a small family and when I was young, I wanted to be an ombudsman. My hero has always been my Dad. I believe in God. I am 100% Christian. I think my life has turned into this direction for my ways. I feel remorseful but now I must face this journey. I am studying theology at the moment to improve myself. What I have learned from this experience in jail is that I want to be a better person. In order to do this, I'm studying. I'm also playing sport in the prison to keep busy.
If I have a message for young people heading down this road then I would say, study and be good. Do not go down this road. If I had my time again, I would like to go out and witness for God and be a preacher or something. In here, I attend church services all the time. I feel the Lord's presence anywhere I go and he gives me the courage.
I am very sad and disappointed when I think of my family. The thing I miss the most is not being with my family. I'm lucky because I have many postcards and photographs of my family and friends. But it is not the same as being with them.
If people want to write to me then I will write back when I can. I need food and cigarettes and whatever they can send. I don't have much money and in here, you need it to get by. I don't have any visitors, just some family and sometimes some friends, but only occasionally.
The Australian Embassy are very nice but they can only do so much. They come when I want them to come, if the matter is important.
I am in a small cell all alone under maximum security. The toilet is very nasty. I don't have a shower but I have a KFC bucket that I pour water over my head. I have electricity and I sleep in a bed.
My daily routine is simple. I play sport, go to Church and read.
If people want to send me money for food then they can send me on Western Union. To know more people can contact Kay Danes and the Foreign Prisoner Support Service and they will advise how to help me. I don't know what is going to happen next. I can only trust in God to get me out of here.
Finally, thank you to everyone who has thought about me and what I am going through. Please continue to pray for me. Thank you also to Kay Danes and the Foreign Prisoners Support Service for your ongoing assistance and this campaign page.
Andrew Chan

Urgent ACT NOW!

We urge our fellow Australians to show compassion for the family of Andrew Chan and to him as he endures this terrible ordeal. We ask you to lodge your concerns in writing to Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
The death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights. It is a premeditated action of a state killing another human being in the name of justice. It violates that persons right to life as proclaimed in the UN Declaration of Human Rights. In opposing the death penalty, it means no disrespect for the victims of violent crime and their relatives. But there can never be any justification for torture or for cruel treatment of another human being. The loneliest place on earth is when you are denied your freedom and your rights, when you are beaten, tortured and at the end of despair and you wonder how another human being could do such evil things to their fellow man. The after effects of these situations impact on many, except perhaps those big drug syndicates that continue to prey on the vulnerabilities of others.
Please contact Minister Downer's office and voice your concerns!
The Australian Government http://www.australia.gov.au/
Please note: e-mail correspondence should include your postal address. Responses will not be made via e-mail.

Update 10 April 2007
FPSS Support Continues for Australians detained on Death Row [Bali]

Thank you to everyone who has offered support to the families of; and to the Australians currently on death row in Indonesia. We appreciate your concerns and would like to reaffirm our committment to this campaign. We are doing all that we can to generate positive support to the campaigns in the hope that the Indonesian Government will show some leniency to these young Australians. We hope that they might be spared the death sentence, and transferred back to an Australian prison where they would have access to appropriate levels of medical care, family support and proper rehabilitation.
Please find below a brief update on our main efforts...
1. FPSS are in contact with the Legal Representatives currently launching a Constitutional Challenge in Indonesia. We have taken advice from them in how best we can support those on death row and have pledged support to all future campaign strategies in accordance with their advice.
2. FPSS advocates are continuing to lobby Australian Government Members of parliament in Canberra to ensure the concerns of our members are known to the Australian Government.
3. FPSS letters of appeal have been sent to various Indonesian Government members. These have respectfully appealed for mercy on behalf of those on death row.
4. FPSS have continued to advise other lobby groups and human rights committees on the various ways of proceeding to ensure the integrity of the campaign is maintained.
5. FPSS advocates are in close and direct contact with the Australians on death row in Bali and are fully compliant with their wishes.
6. FPSS advocates are continuing to provide practical support where possible to the families and to the prisoners themselves. WE also advise visitors to our site on how they can support the Australians detained in Bali, how to write letters, how to send care packages, how to assist financially. We are pleased to hear that over the past twelve months, a large number of FPSS members have even travelled to Bali and made direct contact with the Australians and are continuing that support.
7. FPSS are maintaining good relations with various media groups interested in these cases and ensuring that the information provided to them is accurate, appropriate and condusive to the current legal strategies in place and requests by family/prisoners.
8. FPSS continue to maintain positive relations with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade [DFAT] and Attorney General's Office in the interests of maintaining the appropriate level of integrity to this campaign effort. We are pleased to report that DFAT are working extensively to provide a high level of consular support. Feedback from some of the Australians who have written to us recently, is that they are very happy with the level of consular support provided to them, understanding the difficulties of their situation.
Rest assured that FPSS are doing everything possible to support the Australians detained in Bali. FPSS do not condone drug trafficking or illegal actions of any persons. FPSS does not condone the use of the death penalty. The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. It violates the right to life. Click Here for the ForeignPrisoners.com Death Penalty Page

Notice of information use from the detainee
The information contained on this website is not to be copied to any other sites and/or used without permission of FPSS. This campaign page and the information contained herein has been approved by the detainee with the expressed request that the information only appear on the FPSS website and no other site. The reason for this is to provide assurances that the information remains accurate and to protect the integrity of the campaign, again at the request of the detainee. All material herein in subject to copyright and any breech will result in the appropriate action.

FREEDOM IS A RIGHT OF ALL HUMAN BEINGS IN A WORLD WHERE LIFE IS VALUED AND PEACE MAY FINALLY BE A POSSABILITY

Just in case you forgot - read the Universal declaration of Human Rights