The execution of two Australians from the Bali Nine appears imminent as Indonesia announces plans to send six people on drugs charges to a firing squad this weekend.
In what has been described as an ominous statement, officials have said convicted masterminds Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran will be executed once both have had their clemency rejected.
Sukumaran’s clemency was turned down last month but Chan has not yet received a reply.
The Sydney mother of 33-year-old Sukumaran, who has been credited with rehabilitating himself and others inside the notorious Kerobokan jail, has spoken of her heartbreak and fears that she will not get to see her son one last time before he is executed.
“I wish they’d kill me first,” Raji sobbed in an interview with News Corp Australia. “He doesn’t deserve to die. Every day when he goes to sleep, he must be thinking about what could happen and how they will take him. It terrifies me.. I think of the same thing as well.”
Six death row inmates from Brazil, Nigeria, Malawi, Vietnam, Holland and Indonesia are scheduled to be executed on Sunday. Indonesian Attorney-General HM Prasetyo is prioritising drug cases, for which there is to be no clemency or compromise.
The next round of executions after this weekend is also expected to be drug traffickers. It’s the first round of executions in Indonesia for more than a year.
Myuran Sukumaran talks to his lawyer from a cell before a court appearance at Denpasar Court in Bali. AAP.
At a press conference in Jakarta to address Sukumaran’s case, Mr Prasetyo said, “We are still waiting one other person that the clemency is yet to be issued for, Andrew Chan.
“When a crime is committed by more than one person, the execution will be conducted simultaneously … When the clemency has been rejected, we will start to make plans to conduct the execution of them.”
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While in prison Myrun has developed a passion for painting and studied for a degree in fine arts. PIC: MercyCampaign.org.
Inmates are given three days’ notice of their execution, which happens by firing squad at night, and asked for their final wishes.
Indonesia has asked for understanding in its hard line against drug dealers.
Myuran with his Archibald Prize entry. PIC: MercyCampaign.org.
Sukumaran told News Corp Australia through a friend of the enormous toll his sentence had on him and his family.
“We have been living under the shadow of death for so long and it’s killing my family,” he said. “It’s eating slowly. It’s a miserable way to live. I feel completely lost about this decision and really don’t know.
“But I won’t let them break my spirit. I will keep doing what is right and at the end of the day when I stand before judgment I will be judged on who I am and what I’ve done… I know what I did was wrong. I am trying to make up for it. I live every day trying…
“In the world of all the incarcerated people on drugs offences no one has worked harder than me to rehabilitate not just me but as many people around me.”
