Death row inmates in Indonesia brace for the final moment

A group of prisoners sentenced to death for drugtrafficking are on the verge of execution by Indonesian authorities despite ongoing pleas for clemency.

The 72hour notice given to the prisoners by authorities will expire on Tuesday and Indonesian Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo is expected to announce the executions sometime during the day.

A spokesman for the Indonesian attorneygeneral, Tony Spontana, said that “preparations are 100 per cent ready” but did not give a date for the executions.

U.N. SecretaryGeneral Ban Kimoon, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Brazilian and Filipino presidents, Dilma Rousseff and Banigno Aquino respectively, and other governments and international organizations have made lastditch appeals for clemency for the prisoners.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s government, which executed six convicts in January, has rejected all clemency petitions so far, asked that its laws be respected, and defended the use of capital punishment as a deterrent to drug trafficking.

The convicts currently awaiting execution include Australian nationals, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, Frenchman Atresi Atlaoui, Brazilian Rodrigo Gularte, Filipina Mary Jane Veloso, Ghanaian Martin Anderson, Indonesian Zainal Abidin, and Nigerians Raheem Agbaje, Silvester Obiekwe Nwaolise and Okwudili Oyatanze.

Although the Indonesian Constitutional Court has agreed to hear another appeal by Chan and Sukumaran on May 12, the Indonesian attorney general has made clear that this appeal would not affect the current round of executions.

Chan and Sukumaran, ringleaders of a drug trafficking group known as the “Bali Nine”, were sentenced to death in 2006 for attempting to smuggle eight kilograms (17.6 pounds) of heroin from the Indonesian island of Bali to Australia.

The Australian inmates’ lawyer, Julian McMahon, told television channel ABC that “realistically, there’s not much hope.”

Indonesian courts have also turned down pleas for clemency for Gularte on grounds that he suffers from schizophrenia.

If the executions are carried out, Gularte, who was arrested in 2004 for attempting to smuggle six kilograms of cocaine into Indonesia hidden inside a surfboard, will become the second Brazilian to be executed in Indonesia for drugtrafficking.

Executions by firing squad in Indonesia are carried out behind closed doors.

This second round of executions under Widodo’s government were originally to take place in February, but were delayed due to appeals and pressure from the international community.

Indonesia, where executions recommenced in 2013, has 133 death row inmates, 57 for drugrelated crimes, two for terrorism and 74 for other offences.