Two Australians on death row in Indonesia have completed the grim journey from Bali to isolation cells on Nusa Kambangan, the prison island where they are due to be executed along with eight other drug offenders at a time and date to be announced shortly.
Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were taken from Bali’s Kerobokan prison at 5.10am local time on Wednesday morning. They were flown to the port of Cilacap in central Java and ferried inside armoured vehicles to the small island where Indonesia carried out its last round of executions in January.
In Jakarta on Wednesday the Indonesian attorney general, HM Prasetyo, would not confirm if the pair, who were convicted in 2006 for their role in a plot to smuggle more than 8kg of heroin from Bali into Australia, would face the firing squad this month. “We’ll see,” he said.
The Australian foreign minister, Julie Bishop, used parliament on Wednesday to again plead for clemency for the men. “On behalf of the parliament, I respectfully ask of the Indonesian president that he spare the lives of these two Australian citizens,” she said.
She was joined by Labor’s foreign affairs spokeswoman, Tanya Plibersek, who said Chan, 31, and Sukumaran, 33, had “made enormous transformations in their lives and … are making enormous transformations in the lives of other people as well”.
Australia has already postponed trade missions over the impending punishments and was considering scrapping other meetings.
Indonesia’s ambassador to Australia, Nadjib Riphat Kesoema, said he expected the executions would strain diplomatic relations between the two countries, but added, “our relations [are] far beyond the interests of the two people”.
He defended the use of the death penalty in Indonesia, which he said was a necessary deterrent in a country where 1,500 people died each month from drug addiction. “We are not trigger happy. We do it for a very big reason,” he said.
The Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, reportedly told a cabinet meeting to take the Australian government’s concerns seriously and monitor its reaction.
“We realise it creates a kind of tension between Indonesia and Australia,” the cabinet secretary, Andi Widjajanto, said. “We had the same tension before with the Netherlands’ government ... And so we take the concerns from our friendly neighbours seriously.”
Lawyers for Chan and Sukumaran released a statement on Tuesday saying they would lodge a challenge to the decision to dismiss their most recent clemency appeals, but Prasetyo said earlier this week the executions would take place regardless.
“The clemency plea has been answered. So if clemency is rejected there should be no more legal avenues that need to be lodged,” he said.
The families of both men are expected to have the chance to visit them on Nusa Kambangan. Chan’s mother, Helen, flew from Sydney airport on Wednesday after receiving news of the pre-dawn transfer.
Komang Gede Tri Utama Aria, of Bali Provincial Law and Human Rights Office, said Chan and Sukumaran appeared “relaxed” when guards came to escort them from Bali’s Kerobokan prison on Wednesday morning. “There was no fighting,” he said.
The prison governor, Sudjonggo, said the Bali Nine pair were aware it was time to go when guards entered the supermax cells.
“We didn’t have to say, ‘Wake up! Wake up!’ They knew it was the morning because we had told them during the night,” he said. The pair washed quickly and were dressed in less than 10 minutes.
Nyoman Putra Surya, Head of the corrections division at Bali Provincial Law and Human Rights Office said the men thanked authorities for their care while they were in Bali.
“They were ready,” he said. “They even said thank you.”
Nyoman said the men smiled and shook their hands before they were searched and handcuffed. “We handcuffed them, they were silent,” he said.
“We handcuffed them to the front. We didn’t cover their eyes ... We treated them well.”
Seven foreigners and one Indonesian are among those who will be executed simultaneously by firing squad. The prisoners will be granted 72 hours’ notice.
