Bali Nine Aussies to be killed together in Bali

Devastated … Myuran Sukumaran’s mother Raji
with his brother Chinthu and sister
 Brintha pictured at home following the rejected appeal
for Myuran’s clemency. Picture: Lukman S Bintoro
Source: News Corp Australia

Indonesia has announced plans to execute six people this weekend and in an ominous statement has said that two Australians on death row will be executed once both have had their clemency rejected.

So far Myuran Sukumaran’s clemency plea has been rejected but Andrew Chan has yet to receive any answer, meaning that Sukumaran’s fate now rests with Chan.

Last night tough-talking Indonesian Attorney-General HM Prasetyo said that six death row inmates, all on drugs charges, will face firing squads on Sunday. Five of them are foreigners — from Brazil, Nigeria, Malawi, Vietnam and Holland – and one is Indonesian. The Dutch citizen may have dual nationalities.

He said authorities were prioritizing the execution of drug cases, for which there would be no clemency or compromise, and that the next tranch of executions after this weekend would also be drug traffickers.

He urged those that disagreed with the death penalty to be understanding.

The Brazilian, Marco Archer Cardoso Moerira, has already been moved and isolated at a prison on Nusa Kambangan Island, off the coast of Central Java. It is believed the others have as well and late yesterday an Islamic preacher and a priest went to the prison to spend time with the condemned.

Five of those to die are men and one is a woman.

Five of the executions will take place simultaneously on Nusa Kambangan and the sixth person will be executed at Boyalali in Central Java.

It will be the first Indonesian executions conducted in more than a year and has sent terror throughout the prison populations, especially Kerobokan prison where 33-year-old Sukumaran and fellow convicted drug runner Andrew Chan are held.

Asked at a press conference in Jakarta specifically about Sukumaran’s case, Mr Prasetyo said that his clemency had been rejected.

“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,” Mr Prasetyo said.

He said that the six who will face a firing squad on the weekend had been given three days’ notice, as prescribed by the law and they had been asked for their final wishes. The ambassadors of each of the countries had also been informed.

Executions in Indonesia are conducted by firing squad, usually in the middle of the night in a dark and remote place. By law, members of the public cannot witness an execution. Police from the Brimob paramilitary squad make up the firing squad which consists of 12 but not all have live rounds in their guns.

Sukumaran learned last week that his last chance at beating the firing squad had been denied when he was delivered a letter, signed by Indonesian President Joko Widodo, denying him clemency.

The letter was dated December 30 and was one of about a dozen presidential decrees signed by President Widodo, rejecting clemency pleas for drug and murder prisoners on death row.

The decision was a massive blow for Sukumaran and fellow Bali Nine member Andrew Chan, who for years have worked to rehabilitate themselves in the hope that it would bring them mercy and win them clemency.

Chan has applied for clemency but has not yet received an answer from the President.

Indonesia’s decision to begin executions again after a hiatus of more than a year comes at the same time that the Indonesian Government has lobbied successfully for its own citizens, maids on death row in Saudi Arabia, to be spared. The Government has also paid millions in so-called “blood money” to save the lives of its citizens.

Mr Prasetyo yesterday reiterated statements from the country’s new President earlier in the month about the harm caused by the scourge of drugs.

“We will not compromise to narcotic syndicate and Indonesia will be consistent to be firm. There is no clemency for drug dealers. Even the president has said that there is no clemency for narcotic crime perpetrator.

“We hope that all stakeholders that do not agree with the death sentence, to be understanding, that what we are doing is to save our nation from the danger of drugs. We hope that by being firm to all drug dealers, and drug networks, it will give a preventative impact, a deterrent effect,” Mr Prasetyo said.

“Drug rings have spread to many places, not only in the big city but also in the remote areas and even in villages. Meanwhile the victims are many and most of them are youngsters of productive age. One thing that really concerns us is that narcotic crime has entered households as well as educational places.

“One thing that we should consider is that we should fight against this crime. There is no compromise to this crime,” Mr Prasetyo said.

He said National Narcotic Agency data showed that 40 to 50 people die every day from drug abuse in Indonesia.

After learning that his clemency had been denied, Sukumaran told News Corp Australia, through a friend, that living under the shadow of death was destroying him and his family but he vowed his spirit would not be broken.

“We have been living under the shadow of death for so long and it’s killing my family. 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.

“Me and Andrew lead a push for rehabilitation within this jail and changed the prison from within and they want to execute us? It doesn’t make sense.

“I know what I did was wrong. I am trying to make up for it. I live every day trying. I’ve pushed more than anyone to set up programs until the guards got sick of me asking.

“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. “

And his family in Sydney have been left devastated and bewildered, questioning the injustice.

His mother, Raji, told News Corp in an exclusive interview that she is haunted by nightmares that she will not get to hold or hug her son one last time if he is executed.

And Mrs Sukumaran begged the Australian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister to try to save her son’s life.

There are 64 drug convicts on death row in Indonesia and the President recently announced a new hardline approach — their clemency would be denied and they will all be executed.

President Widodo said drugs were crippling the youth of his country.

AAP