Indonesian police want all nine Australians executed by firing squad. Mr Rush revealed in an application filed in the Federal Court yesterday that on or about the day his son went to Bali last April he asked the AFP for help to stop him leaving Australia.

He said that at the time he feared his son was "going to Indonesia in respect of drug-related matters" and he instructed a lawyer, Robert Meyers, to ask the AFP to intervene. Mr Rush said AFP officers told him through the lawyer that Scott would be informed he was under surveillance, dissuading him from committing any offence in Indonesia that might bring the death penalty. But Mr Rush said the AFP did not contact Scott, who was arrested at the Bali International Airport on April 17 with heroin strapped to his body.

Scott and another of the accused couriers, Renae Lawrence, 27, of Newcastle, are taking action in the Federal Court sitting in Darwin over what they claim is the denial of procedural fairness over their arrests in Bali and the legality of the AFP's conduct under Australian law. They say the AFP acted illegally when it gave assistance to the Indonesian police that led to their arrests, exposing them to the death penalty.

The application they lodged seeks records, notes and documents relating to their arrests. The application, to be heard on Monday, will intensify criticism of the AFP's role in the arrests. John North, president of the Law Council of Australia, yesterday called for AFP guidelines to be changed to conform with the Federal Government's position not to help in death penalty cases. Civil liberties advocates have attacked the AFP for tipping off Indonesian police about the alleged activities of the nine in Bali — exposing them to the death penalty — instead of waiting for them to arrive back in Australia with the heroin.

But Mr Rush now reveals he gave the AFP information about his son's intentions before Scott and other members of the group even left Australia. AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty said after the arrests that his officers would provide evidence that could help Indonesian police impose the death penalty because the nine were "caught red-handed".

But Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said on September 28 that Australia would no longer co-operate in the cases without an assurance that a death penalty would not be sought. Indonesian authorities responded that they did not need any help with the prosecutions. Justice Minister Chris Ellison yesterday defended the AFP, saying it had acted properly.

"I reject any allegation that the AFP breached any guidelines. I've seen the work they've done," he said. Senator Ellison said that until charges were laid, police-to-police assistance was within guidelines covering the way the AFP handled cases involving Australians overseas.

But the minister said that once charges had been laid, any request for help from Indonesia had to be made under the two countries' mutual assist- ance treaty and required the death penalty to be taken off the table. Mr North, the law society president, said it was difficult to say what impact the application could have on the trials in Bali. "The Indonesians will go ahead under their own system based on the evidence they have gathered against the nine Australians," he said.

"But they might take some notice if it is fact that the co-operation (with the AFP) was not in accordance with proper guidelines."