A 24-year-old Aussie from the Sri Lankan Tamil community was sentenced to death this week for running a ring smuggling heroin from Bali to Australia:

Myuran Sukumaran

Bali Nine “enforcer” Myuran Sukumaran today joined Andrew Chan in being condemned to death by firing squad for attempting to smuggle heroin from Indonesia to Australia. [Link]

I doubt the codename helped their credibility:

The court heard that Sukumaran assisted Chan in strapping bags of heroin to the legs and bodies of Renae Lawrence, Czugaj, Martin Stephens and Scott Rush… On April 5, it is alleged, Sukumaran gave Lawrence $500 and a Nokia mobile phone. He instructed her to call an Australian contact codenamed ‘Pinocchio’, the court heard. [Link]

I bet they prefer the sound of ‘hakuna matata’:

Cheers from some Indonesian anti-drug activists echoed in the court as the judges announced the words “hukuman mati”, meaning death sentence. [Link]

Maybe they should’ve read the fine print:

During the trial [a drug mule] said he was so excited at the offer of an overseas holiday in Bali that he was blind to the possible reasons behind the free trip. [Link]

I don’t think this is the judge they had in mind when they made Judge Dredd:

Judge Suryowati said she looked down at the bench in front of her, tears welling in her eyes, as [the chief judge] announced Sukumaran would be executed. [Link]

There has been some interesting but unsubstantiated speculation about whether this was a fundraising operation for the Tamil Tigers:

Indonesia hopes to obtain Interpol assistance to investigate into the alleged links between the convicted drug smuggler of Tamil origin Mayuran Sukumaran and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)… According to Interpol sources in Colombo, London and several other capitals, there are more than 100 Tamil militants serving jail terms in Europe for drug smuggling. “Some of the leaders are definitely LTTE cadres,” the source said. The LTTE started drug smuggling from the ‘golden triangle’ to Europe and North America, Interpol sources said. [Link]

The only female drug mule in this case was apparently on the rebound:

In October last year, [Renae] Lawrence had split with Tracie Sansom - a mother of three who was more than 10 years her senior… Just over three weeks before she was arrested at Bali’s Ngurah Rai airport with wads of what Bali police said was heroin taped to her body, police allege she stole a car and sped up the Pacific Highway. It was 4.30am on March 26, and Lawrence had found company in Matthew Norman, a fellow catering worker who was nine years her junior and also one of the Bali nine. Police used road spikes to stop the pair… [Link]