President of Indonesia
On 20 October 2014, Joko Widodo became the seventh and current president of Indonesia.
Myuran Sukumaran
On 7 July 2011, it was announced that the Indonesian Supreme Court had rejected Sukumaran's appeal against his death sentence. Indonesian President at that time, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, had the power to grant clemency, although media reports considered this unlikely and expected that Sukamaran would be executed. In October 2014, Joko Widodo ("Jokowi") succeeded Yudhoyono as president. Jokowi, who holds a hardline position against drugs, declined Sukumaran's plea for clemency in December 2014. In January 2015 the Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott, together with the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Julie Bishop, made further representations to Jokowi and Indonesia's Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, for clemency on behalf of Sukumaran. In late January lawyers for Chan and Sukumaran filed an application for a judicial review into their cases; which was rejected by the Denpasar District Court a few days later. Meanwhile, Indonesian officials continued planning for the execution of Chan and Sukumaran:
In a final attempt to avert the death penalty, on 9 February lawyers for Chan and Sukumaran launched a rare challenge against the Indonesian president's refusal to grant them pardons; which was dismissed by the Indonesian government a day later.