Drug smugglers face firing squad

A woman holds signs reading "Justice and freedom" and "stop execution!" on Saturday during a rally near the city hall and cathedral of Metz, eastern France, in support of French national Serge Atlaoui, on death row in Indonesia for drug trafficking. Alexandre Marchi / AFP

Jakarta officials ignore appeals as relatives arrive at prison island

Indonesia has notified nine foreigners and a local man convicted of drug trafficking that their executions will be carried out within days, ignoring appeals by the UN chief and foreign leaders to spare them.

Authorities also asked the four Nigerian men, two Australian men, a Filipino woman, and one man each from Brazil, France and Indonesia for their last wishes, the spokesman for the attorney general, Tony Spontana, said on Sunday.

He said the legal options of nine of them have been exhausted, while Frenchman Serge Atlaoui still has an outstanding legal complaint over the procedure followed by his request for clemency. Spontana said he expects the Supreme Court to rule on this on Monday.

The 72-hour notice indicates the executions by firing squad in Besi prison on Nusakambangan Island will be carried out at the earliest on Tuesday or Wednesday.

The pending executions have caused an international outcry, particularly in Australia, France and the Philippines, which are opposed to the death penalty.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon added his voice to appeals for the convicts to be spared.

"The Secretary-General urges President Joko Widodo to urgently consider declaring a moratorium on capital punishment in Indonesia, with a view toward abolition," a spokesman for Ban said.

French President Francois Hollande has warned of diplomatic consequences if Atlaoui is executed, and said on Saturday that there could be possible economic fallout as well.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, whose government has been pressuring Indonesia to spare the two Australians, arrived on a visit to Paris on Saturday night and was expected to discuss the situation with Hollande.

Australian heroin traffickers Andrew Chan, 31, and Myuran Sukumaran, 33, were the ringleaders of a gang of nine Australians arrested in April 2005, while trying to smuggle more than 8 kilograms of heroin from the resort island of Bali to Sydney.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III said Sunday he will again appeal the case of Filipino convict Mary Jane Veloso to Widodo when they meet at an annual summit of Southeast Asian leaders in Malaysia on Monday.

Despite the appeals, Indonesia has shown little sign that it is willing to back down, and the foreign ministry indicated on Sunday that Ban's statement would not change its plans.

"We note the statement by the UN but we also note that there was no similar statement made when recently two Indonesians were executed," ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir said, referring to executions this month of Indonesian domestic workers in Saudi Arabia.

Executions were carried out recently "by other countries and we did not see any statement made by the UN," he added.

Indonesia has extremely strict drug laws and often executes smugglers. More than 130 people are on death row, mostly for drug crimes. About a third of them are foreigners.

In January, six convicted drug smugglers, including five from Brazil, the Netherlands, Vietnam, Nigeria and Malawi, were executed at the same prison, prompting the Netherlands and Brazil to recall their ambassadors in protest.

Relatives of the condemned prisoners have been rushing to Cilacap, the town that serves as the gateway to Nusakambangan, as authorities informed the death row convicts they would face the firing squad soon.

The family of Chan and Sukumaran arrived on Saturday to visit the men, crossing over to Nusakambangan accompanied by embassy officials.

AP - AFP