Minister defends Aust police actions in 'Bali nine' case

Australian justice minister Chris Ellison has strongly denied claims that federal police acted unlawfully in helping Indonesian authorities build a case against the Bali nine.

Indonesian prosecutors last week announced they will seek the death penalty for all the Bali nine even though some of the young Australians maintain they were forced to become drug mules after the gang's leaders threatened their families.

The Law Council of Australia has said the federal police should never have provided assistance, because it breaches Australian law to support cases that carry the death penalty.

Australian Council for Civil Liberties spokesman Terry O'Gorman today added his weight to the argument saying the police had gone too far.

"We've had a bipartisan policy in this country that we will not be party to Australians being put to death for alleged criminal offences in other countries," Mr O'Gorman told ABC radio.

"In this instance this policy has been seriously and significantly deviated from."

But Mr Ellison today rejected the lawyers' claims.

"I certainly don't think the Australian federal police have contravened Australian law in any way," he told ABC radio.

Mr Ellison said AFP officers were acting within the law and their own rules.

"I mean if you accept the Law Council's argument, the Australian federal police shouldn't have co-operated in the investigations of the Bali bombing - I mean, that carried a death penalty," he said.

"Quite clearly, the Australian community would certainly not accept that."

But Mr Ellison said when the time came, the government would do all it could to protect the Bali nine from the firing squad.

"Certainly you can't do anything before charges have been laid, but I can assure you that if they face the prospect of the death penalty, then we will go in to bat as hard as we can," Mr Ellison said.

Mr Ellison said under the law, federal police officers would only be able to give evidence once the cases got to court, provided there was a guarantee that the death penalty would not be carried out.

"The law requires that we can't give that consent unless there's an undertaking that the death penalty won't be carried out," he said.

"So it depends on the circumstances at the time.

"If an undertaking's given that the death penalty won't be carried out, then it's straightforward."

Federal police national manager of border and international investigations Mike Phelan said his officers had not broken any laws.

"It's certainly consistent with government policy and consistent with Australian federal police guidelines we have in relation to dealing in transnational crime matters where the death penalty may exist," Mr Phelan said.

"We can't pick and choose who we deal with just because of the laws in their countries."

Mr Phelan said federal police officers were seeking other suspects in relation to the Bali nine case, both in Australia and Indonesia.

Five people have already been charged in Australia in relation to the case.

- AAP