Final appeal for Bali Nine Scott Rush

Scott Rush, one of the infamous Bali Nine drug smugglers, is to make a final appeal against his death sentence.

Rush was arrested in 2005 at Denpasar airport in Bali, trying to smuggle 1.3kg of heroin strapped to his body. He was just 19. The Australian is one of three Bali Nine members to have recieved a death sentence for his part in the smuggling ring.

After being sentenced to life imprisonment, Rush had his appeal for a shorter denied by the High Court. When his lawyers then took the case to the Supreme Court in 2008, he lost again but at a terrible price - the court handed him a death sentence instead.

This is his last chance chance to have a court cancel his death sentence.

"I often wake up having nightmares," Rush told yesterday's hearing. "I often think about the firing squad and how long it would take me to die."

He told the court that he would like to be "an ambassador against drugs" and how he is "the living example of how drugs can destroy lives and do cause family and friends so much unhappiness, pain and distress".

If this final appeal fails, Rush's only hope would be to seek clemency from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The president, who took office in 2004, has never granted clemency to a drug criminal before.