By Ainur Rohmah
JAKARTA
The 10 drug convicts on death row in Indonesia will be executed three days after their legal appeals are completed, local media reported on Saturday.
Several of the condemned inmates, who face execution by firing squad, are awaiting the outcome of legal battles that are due to be finalized later this month. The authorities must give 72 hours’ notice before the sentences are carried out.
Attorney General Muhamad Prasetyo was quoted by the Tempo news website as saying: "It's quite a long time but we just want to respect the law in Indonesia."
Speaking in Jakarta on Friday, Prasetyo described the notice period as necessary to allow the prisoners to “get ready mentally."
During this time, they will have access to a religious counsellor and be allowed to meet their families.
All but one of the death row prisoners have been moved to Nusa Kambangan prison island off the south coast of Java, including Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, the leaders of the Bali Nine heroin trafficking gang.
Philippine national Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso is awaiting the outcome of her Supreme Court appeal at Yogyakarta prison in Central Java.
Chan and Sukumaran, as well as Frenchman Serge Areski Atlaoui and Ghanaian Martin Anderson, are also waiting to hear the results of legal reviews of President Joko Widodo’s decision not to grant clemency.
The only Indonesian facing execution, Zainal Abidin, had his review rejected on Thursday, the attorney general's office confirmed.
Meanwhile, the practical arrangements for the executions have been completed, according to Prasetyo, and the authorities are just waiting for the legal processes to finish.
Prasetyo insisted that the executions would not be cancelled.
An auction of 92 paintings by Sukumaran, who took up art during his 10 years in Bali’s Kerobokan prison, was cancelled on Friday night on the orders of the prison governor.
