Australian government vows to fight for Bali 9

CANBERRA - The Australian Government will plead for the lives of its nine citizens facing death by firing squad in Bali for their alleged roles in a bid to smuggle heroin strapped to the bodies of four "mules".

Prime Minister John Howard's confirmation that Canberra would automatically appeal for any death sentence to be commuted came as signs emerged that the Australian Federal Police may be restricted in passing on any further information that could lead to execution.

The latest developments followed Indonesia's decision to charge all nine alleged smugglers under article 82 of its drug laws, which provides for the death sentence to be imposed for trafficking in narcotics.

They also came as Indonesia claimed the group's alleged ringleader and enforcer, Myuran Sukumaran, 24, was preparing another batch of heroin for shipment to Australia when he was arrested.

And in Australia, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has confirmed that Sukumaran had been a temporary employee at the Foreign Affairs Department's Sydney passport office, and that his mother and brother continue to work there.

Indonesian police say Sukumaran and alleged accomplices Renae Lawrence, 27, and Matthew Norman, 18, held multiple passports, and that members of the group had previously met and travelled to Bali.

Downer said yesterday that he could not confirm that false passports had been used, but an internal investigation was under way.

He said that while Sukumaran had worked in the passports section he had not been involved in the authorisation of passports and, although it was possible he could have searched for information, there was no evidence he had done so.

And Downer said he had no evidence that Sukumaran's mother had done anything untoward in her work in the passport office.

Police in Indonesia and Australia believe the failed smuggling bid was part of a larger, more sophisticated operation and are trying to trace its major figures.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty told Channel Nine a lot of factual material was available to investigators about the group's previous movements.

"Things ... that will unfold in the future are: how often this particular group might have travelled to Bali, not only the number of times but the occasions they've done it, [and] how often the groups they met with have been travelling to Bali from the other countries," he said.

Yesterday the Sydney Morning Herald reported that Bali police believe Sukumaran was preparing to export another shipment of heroin when police broke in and arrested him, Norman and alleged accomplices Si Yen Chen, 20, and Tach Duc Thanh Nguyen, 27.

The Herald quoted drug squad chief Lieutenant-Colonel Bambang Sugiarto as saying that 300g of heroin found in their room was to have been part of a second shipment to Australia.

Federal police had previously passed intelligence to Bali that allowed police there to place the group under surveillance to ensure they could be charged under article 82 with exporting narcotics.

But there are now doubts about what more information can be passed on because of the decision to charge the group under a law that invokes the death penalty.

Laws laying down the rules under which evidence to be used in criminal cases can be passed to another country through mutual assistance agreements limit the extent of co-operation when the death penalty is involved.

Howard yesterday confirmed Canberra's opposition to the death penalty.

"We have a longstanding policy that if an Australian is sentenced to death overseas we do everything we can to win a reprieve."