FOREIGN embassy officials arrived on Nusakambangan island on Saturday (April 25), the maximum security prison where the execution of 10 drug convicts is expected to take place.
Indonesia had asked foreign embassies to send representatives to the prison island, diplomats said on Friday (April 24), although an official 72-hour notice of execution has not yet been given.
Embassy officials received text messages from the government to send representatives. It was not clear why they were being summoned so early.
Among the convicted drug offenders set to face the firing squad are nationals from Australia,Brazil, France and Nigeria and the case has strained relations between the governments of those nations and Indonesia.
Security at the prison was heightened on Friday and religious counselors, doctors and the firing squad were alerted to start final preparations.
The Attorney General’s Office said it expected to announce the date of execution in the next few weeks.
The Attorney General has been waiting for all the legal processes of the 10 death row inmates to be completed before announcing an execution date.
Lawyers have been scrambling to various Indonesian courts in a last-ditch attempt to delay the execution. However, the only outstanding appeal considered still valid by the attorney general was for an Indonesian national, said spokesman Tony Spontana.
Philippine Vice President Jejomar Binay was expected to meet President Joko Widodo on Friday, during a visit to Indonesia to make a final appeal for mercy on behalf of one of its citizens among the group of 10.
France has warned Indonesia the executions could damage ties, while Australia has pleaded repeatedly for clemency for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, two Australians arrested as ringleaders of the so-called Bali Nine drug-smuggling group.
The members of the Bali Nine were arrested on the holiday island of Bali for trying to smuggle 8 kg (18 lb) of heroin to Australia. The seven other members of the gang, all Australians, have been jailed in Indonesia.
Indonesia has harsh punishments for drug crimes and resumed executions in 2013 after five-year gap. Six executions have been carried out so far this year. (Reuters)
