Indonesian authorities transferred two convicted Australian drug traffickers on Wednesday (March 4) to a maximum security prison inNusakambangan Island of central Java province.
The prisoners were transferred despite pleas for mercy from the government ofAustralia. The executions threaten already fragile relations between at times uneasy neighbours Australia and Indonesia.
Australians Myuran Sukumaran, 33, and Andrew Chan, 31, were transferred with tight security of ten armed security personnel for each person.
The prisoners are among 11 prisoners due to be executed by firing squad, mostly for drug crimes. The exact date of the executions on Nusakambangan Island in central Java remained unclear.
The Australian government has stressed that Sukumaran and Chan have been rehabilitated in prison, where they mentor younger inmates.
With the executions looking inevitable, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbottstruck a conciliatory tone after speaking with Indonesian President Joko Widodothis week, calling the conversation a “sign of the depth of the friendship betweenAustralia and Indonesia.”
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has said Canberra would consider recalling its ambassador if the executions went ahead, as Brazil and the Netherlands did after executions in January, the first since Widodo came to power.
Six prisoners, including five foreigners from the Netherlands, Brazil, Malawi,Nigeria and Vietnam, were executed in January.
Widodo has warned foreign governments seeking clemency against interfering inIndonesia’s sovereign affairs.
Indonesia has a record of imposing harsh penalties for drug trafficking. It resumed executions in 2013 after a five-year moratorium.
With the latest executions, Indonesia will have exercised the death penalty more times in one year than ever before, according to rights group Amnesty International.
Reuters