Bali Nine pair to be moved today
ABC
Australian convicted drug smugglers Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan will be moved on Wednesday to the penal island where they will be executed, Bali’s prosecutor says.
Momock Bambang Samiarso was meeting other authorities in Bali on Tuesday to co-ordinate the move of the Bali Nine pair.
“Co-ordination has been completed, it (the transfer) will be implemented tomorrow at noon,” he told reporters.
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Mr Momock said everything was in place, including two military aircraft – one for the prisoners and one for the escorting police team.
But he hasn’t yet informed the Australian consul-general Majell Hind.
“Not yet,” he said. “We’ve just finished co-ordinating.”
Chan and Sukumaran’s barrister, Julian McMahon, has warned that sending them for execution before their next appeal could jeopardise Indonesia’s reputation as a law-respecting democracy.
Michael Chan leaves after visiting brother Andrew in Kerobokan jail, Bali. Photo: AAP
He was visiting his clients inside Kerobokan jail when the news was announced.
Sukumaran’s mother Raji and Chan’s brother Michael had visited earlier and had since left the prison.
So far all plans Indonesian officials have announced for the executions have been delayed.
The two Bali Nine members were due to be taken away to the island last month before the move was postponed.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says she’s dismayed that Indonesia is pressing ahead with the executions.
“I am dismayed by reports that Andrew and Myuran are to be transferred by Indonesian authorities in preparation for their execution,” she said in a statement.
Ms Bishop said she would continue to contact ministers in Indonesia to press for a stay of the executions.
“Given their rehabilitation, it is callous for these executions to proceed,” she said.
Meanwhile, President Joko Widodo again lashed out at foreign intervention over the death penalty in Indonesia.
A respected local newspaper, Kompas, has published a survey in which 75 per cent of respondents supported the president’s stance on the death penalty and for refusing to back down, despite pressure from foreign countries.
Those who conducted the survey insisted their methodology had a 3.8 per cent margin of error, but they only contacted 1,000 people in 12 cities and only 652 people agreed to be polled.
The survey was hardly representative of Indonesia’s 250 million citizens, but local media has been promoting the government’s so-called war on drugs and over the past decade support for the death penalty has sat around 70 per cent.
Meanwhile, a woman was seen throwing balloons filled with a red-coloured substance at the Indonesian Consulate in Sydney last night.
Australian police said they were searching for the woman after some of the balloons burst, splattering the red substance out the front of the building in Maroubra.