Bali Nine pair 'very likely' to be moved for execution this week, says official
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Version 0 of 1. It’s “very likely” Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan will be moved from their Bali jail cells for execution this week, Bali’s chief prosecutor says. Momock Bambang Samiarso says he’s only waiting on the green light from Nusakambangan, the jail island where the executions will take place. There has been no word as yet, but it is “very likely” to happen this week, he says. “What we want is the sooner the better,” he told reporters on Monday. “If they [Nusakambangan] can be fast, we’ll be fast too.” The arrival of fighter jets in Bali has fuelled speculation the Bali Nine pair would be moved soon. The prosecutor didn’t comment on that, but said there would be a meeting on Monday to discuss changes to the plan to transport the men by air. Meanwhile, advisers to Indonesia’s president Joko Widodo say he should get the executions of drug offenders over and done with, as pressure builds from overseas. Australia has been making strong representations for clemency to Indonesia on behalf of Chan and Sukumaran, sentenced to death in 2006 for the Bali Nine heroin smuggling plot. But Brazil has taken the strongest stance so far, choosing not to accept the credentials of Indonesia’s new ambassador, who has now been recalled to Jakarta. Brazilian drug smuggler Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira was executed last month, reportedly without receiving his last rites. Pleas for a Brazilian man set for execution this month, Rodrigo Gularte, have gone unheeded, despite evidence he has a severe mental illness. Related: Indonesia urged not to execute Brazilian Rodrigo Gularte, who has been diagnosed as mentally ill An adviser on corruption to Jokowi, international law lecturer Hikmahanto Juwana, told Indonesia’s Metro TV on Sunday that prime minister Tony Abbott and Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff viewed Indonesia as “easily pressured”. He argued it would be better for Indonesia to push ahead with the executions before any other foreign “manoeuvres”. “If it were me, I’d say just finish the executions,” he said. The transfer of Chan and Sukumaran to the execution site of Nusakambangan island was postponed last week after it was found there weren’t enough isolation cells for more than five prisoners. Hikmahanto said another presidential adviser had already raised a solution. “Hasyim Muzadi said just do [the executions] every week, not all at the same time,” he told Metro TV. “That’s no problem.” Tensions between Canberra and Jakarta boiled over last week after Abbott linked Chan and Sukumaran’s fate to Australia’s donation of $1bn in aid following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Jakarta perceived the comments as threats and warned that “no one responds well to threats”. |