Australian Federal Police defends role in Bali Nine arrests leading to executions

Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Andrew Colvin on Monday refused to guarantee future AFP investigations would not lead to Australians being sentenced to death overseas.

Addressing a press conference to answer questions about the AFP 's involvement in the arrests of executed Bali Nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, Colvin said the Australian police were not in a position to arrest any members of the heroin smuggling ring before they left Australia for Indonesia in April 2005.

"At the time we were working with a very incomplete picture. We didn't know everybody involved, we didn't know all the plans, or even what the illicit commodity was likely to be," he told reporters in Canberra.

"We were not in a position to arrest any of the members of the Bali Nine prior to their departure from Australia."

Information given to Indonesian police by the AFP led to the capture of the Bali Nine. Colvin stressed that no two cases were the same and the AFP may again provide intelligence that could led to the death penalty.

"I'd love to give you a guarantee that that won't happen," he said.

"But no two scenarios are same. When we commence an investigation we cannot always predict where that investigation may lead."

Colvin said the guidelines relating to how the AFP deals with countries with the death penalty have been considerably bolstered since 2005 and he was "completely satisfied" with them.

"It's substantially different insofar as it asks us to consider at a much earlier stage whether we will share information well before arrest. That wasn't the case in 2005. It is the case now."

Commissioner Colvin said the case of the Bali Nine served as a tragic reminder of the risks associated with Australians who travel overseas to participate in drug trafficking and other serious crimes. Endi