Time slips away for Bali Nine duo - NEWS.com.au

A friend of Andrew Chan has arrived at Cilacap port with 8 buckets of KFC who says they're for Chan and other inmates.

Rehabilitated ... Bali Nine ringleaders Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan helped to educate other prisoners. Source: Supplied

AFTER an initial denial of the rights for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran to have a religious adviser of their choosing, authorities have now agreed that two Australian ministers will be allowed to accompany the men in their final hours.

It is not clear what time the two ministers — David Soper and Cristie Buckingham — will be asked to leave Nusakambangan before the executions but they will not be with them in their final moments as they are strapped to wooden planks and shot. Two Indonesian pastors have been appointed to that role.

Final hours ... Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan spent their last day with their families. Source: Supplied

The turnaround came as the Australian and French governments issued a joint statement with the European Union appealing for President Widodo to halt the planned execution.

The statement, reported by Fairfax Media, said the executions would not “give deterrent effect to drug trafficking” and that “to execute these prisoners now will not achieve anything”.

“It is our hope that Indonesia can show forgiveness to ten detainees. Forgiveness and rehabilitation are fundamental to the Indonesian judicial system as well as in our system,” it said.

Screams could be heard inside the port building at Cilacap, as the families of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran prepared to cross to the prison island to say their last goodbyes to the forsaken men.

The Bali Nine ringleaders and seven others are to be executed by firing squads just after the stroke of midnight (3am AEST). Indonesian President Joko Widodo has coldly turned his back on the pleas of the international community to spare them.

So much pain ... Chinthu Sukumaran and his sister Brintha after seeing their brother for the last time. Picture: Adam Taylor Source: News Corp Australia

Nine cheap and badly made silk-lined coffins — each valued at around $100 — passed in an ambulance onto a ferry and over to the prison island of Nusakambangan, confirming the mass execution was in its final planning stages.

One of them had been commissioned extra large for Sukumaran.

For much of Tuesday, Chan, 31, and Sukumaran, 34, were denied the right to spend their final hours with their trusted hand-picked religious advisers from Australia — and which Indonesia had promised could be with them.

Devastating ... Andrew Chan with his beloved wife Febyanti Herewila. Picture: Lukman S. Bintoro Source: News Corp Australia

It threatened to be another humiliation in what has been a disgraceful episode from the time the pair were shifted from Kerobokan jail in Bali, in March, under armed fighter jet escort, to their final destination in south Java.

Australian leaders, lawyers and members of the public have rallied around Chan and Sukumaran in the last months, contradicting the often-ventilated social-media claim that Australians cared little for them because neither man was caucasian.

Agony ... Brintha Sukumaran breaks down as she arrives at Nusakambangan Port to visit her brother. Picture: Adam Taylor Source: News Corp Australia

Chan’s new bride, Febyanti, appeared stricken as she went to say goodbye to the man she married inside Nusakambangan on Monday night.

Sukumaran’s mother Raji sobbed as she struggled to walk. Myuran’s sister Brintha wailed and collapsed as she made her way to the port gate.

Unbearable grief ... Myuran Sukumaran as a boy with his brother and sister. Source: News Limited

The families were forced by heavy-handed security forces to get out of their car 100m from the port office, manhandled and jostled through a throng of security and media, as three police guard dogs jumped and snapped at them.

Indonesia’s Judicial Commission, which was tasked with investigating claims that sentencing judges had in 2006 sought $130,000 in bribes to guarantee the men would receive life, rather than death, sentences, claimed there was no evidence of corruption.

The Judicial Commission said it had examined the allegations in a professional, careful way. They said the commission had no authority to halt the executions and asked all parties to respect the legal process of Indonesia. None of the people who have provided statements to the commission have been interviewed or contacted.

Living hell ... Andrew Chan inside Bali’s notorious Kerobokan Prison. Source: News Corp Australia

Julian McMahon, the pair’s Australian lawyer, said: “To my knowledge I am unaware of the Judicial Commission speaking to any of the witnesses who provided statements.

“I do not understand how anybody could say that the investigation has been undertaken if the witnesses have not been spoken to.”

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who has been barely able to conceal her anger at the executions, said she had taken advice that nothing would be gained by a last-minute dash to Jakarta.

“Clearly, if travelling to Indonesia would make a difference, we would have gone there,” Ms Bishop said.

Hundreds gathered in Sydney's Martin Place for an eleventh-hour vigil organised by the Mercy Campaign for Bali Nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran who are expected to be executed in the early hours of Wednesday at Indonesia's prison island of Nusakambangan. (AAP Video/Carol Cho)

Prime Minister Tony Abbott was in transit back to Australia from Europe as the men’s last hours counted down.

President Widodo spent the day in his Jakarta palace and made no public appearance or statement.

The Abbott Government’s response to the executions will not be known until they are confirmed dead.

Indonesia watcher Dave McRae, told News Corp he believed it would be appropriate for the federal government to initiate some limited form if suspension of relations, with the aim of getting Indonesia to change its death-penalty policy.

“This may not be the last time an Australian faces the death penalty in Indonesia,” he said.

However, Indonesia would seize on this and point out that Australia does not impose sanctions on other death-penalty countries, including the US.

Last time ... Michael Chan talks to journalists at a hotel in Cilacap after visiting his brother. Source: News Corp Australia

Chan and Sukumaran are set to each face a 12-man firing squad — and Myuran told friends he planned to reject the offer of a hood and look his killers in the eyes.

Seven others, from Nigeria, Brazil, the Philippines and Indonesia were to be shot alongside them. Their chest wounds from 5.56mm bullets would then be stitched shut by medical officers as they lay slumped on the killing field and previous in previous executions it has taken prisoners six to seven minutes to die after being shot. They are then to be carried a short distance where their bodies would be cleansed of blood and placed in the coffins.

Innocence ... Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan at primary school in Sydney. Source: Supplied

Some of the victims who have little family or consular support, such as the Nigerians, will likely be buried on the island. Others, such as Brazilian Rodrigo Gularte, may be cremated in the nearby town of Purwokerto because of the problems of transporting a body back to his country.

The bodies of Chan and Sukumaran are expected to be driven directly to Jakarta, 10 hours to the north, most likely to the police forensic centre on the southern outskirts of the city.

They will then be transferred to proper caskets for repatriation to Australia.

Source: Top Stories - Google News