Nine drug traffickers await mass execution in Indonesia

Counsellor denied access

Combination file pictures of Australian Myuran Sukumaran (L) on January 24, 2006 and compatriot Andrew Chan on October 13, 2005 in Denpasar district court in Bali. [Photo/Agencies]

Authorities on Monday granted Chan's last wish, which was to marry his Indonesian girlfriend Febyanti. A small group of family and friends attended the ceremony in his prison cell.

Rebuffing last-minute appeals from Australia and the Philippines to spare their nationals, Attorney General H.M. Prasetyo told Reuters late on Monday that the nine had been given notice and had been placed in isolation cells.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she had received a letter from her Indonesian counterpart that gave no indication President Joko Widodo would change his mind and grant the clemency requested by Australia.

Indonesia's neighbour has been pursuing an eleventh-hour campaign to save the lives of Sukumaran and Chan, who were arrested in 2005 as the ringleaders of a plot to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia.

The pending executions have strained Indonesia's relations with Australia, Nigeria and Brazil, which will likely worsen after the death sentences are carried out.

Adding to the tensions, a religious counsellor who has known the Australian men for years said he was refused permission on Tuesday to visit the pair in their final hours.

Australia-Indonesia relations have been tested in recent years by disputes over people smuggling and spying. In late 2013 Indonesia recalled its envoy and froze military and intelligence cooperation over reports that Canberra had spied on top Indonesian officials, including the former president's wife.

"We don't want to make enemies with any country, but we are fighting narcotics whose impacts are horrific, especially in Indonesia," Prasetyo said.