Chilling execution awaits 'Bali Nine' masterminds
Indonesia will put to death six drug convicts after midnight, in a grim fate that awaits Bali Nine ringleaders Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan.
Five foreigners are among the condemned who will face a firing squad, the first executions to be carried out under Indonesia's new President Joko Widodo's government.
A similar chilling fate awaits Australians Sukumaran and Chan - who have been on death row in Bali since their convictions in 2006 over a plot to smuggle more than 8kg of heroin.
Sukumaran has already been told his bid for clemency has been rejected, while Chan awaits final word.
Authorities have said the prisoners will be executed together.
The Indonesian president, who took office in October, has insisted there will be no pardons for those convicted of drugs offences on death row.
All six of those to be put to death had their appeals for clemency to the president - their last chance to avoid the firing squad - rejected on December 30, attorney general H.M. Prasetyo. said.
Those listed for execution tonight include Brazilian inmate Maroc Moreira, who was sat in front of three Indonesian officials when he was reportedly told he would be shot dead within days.
His lawyer, Utomo Karim, told News Corp of his shock at being told his client would be executed during a routine visit at Nusa Kambangan jail.
"I am very shocked as come to Cilacap to only visit him, but we were suddenly informed that Marco will be executed," he said yesterday.
It is understood the inmates - believed to be from of Malawi, Vietnam and Nigeria and Holland - will be executed on an island housing a large prison off the coast of main Java island, while the sixth - an Indonesian national - will be executed at a jail in central Java.
A British grandmother on death row is not among those being executed at the weekend.
Jakarta halted executions for five years from 2008 but resumed them again last year, with ten prisoners executed.
In the dead of night in 2008, in a remote clearing on the Indonesian island of Nusa Kambangan, Nigerian nationals Samuel Iwuchukwu Okoye and Hansen Antonious Nwaolisa were executed by firing squad after being sentenced to death for smuggling more than 3kg of heroin each.
An account given by Irish Catholic priest Charlie Burrows, who was present at the executions of Okoye and Nwaolisa, says their deaths were neither quick nor painless; that they were being tortured, "moaning again and again for seven minutes" as they slowly died.
"I think it is cruel, the torture," he said at the time in testimony before Indonesia's Constitutional Court.
Okoye and Nwaolisa had been strapped to crucifixes with inner-tubes. Black hoods were placed over their heads.
"It was simple: one, two, three, then 'bang'," Father Burrows said.
"The blood came out slowly; they were in pain. After 10 minutes, a doctor came to inspect them and pronounced them dead."
If executed like Okoye and Nwaolisa, the two Australians will have their hands and feet shackled before being taken from their cells before midnight and driven to a remote execution site.
They will be given a stark choice: die standing, sitting or kneeling.
If necessary, they will be tied to a pole, and will have the choice of whether to be blindfolded.
Twelve executioners armed with rifles - only three of which will have live rounds - will be told to aim at targets over their hearts.
"Executions are not clean killings," their Australian lawyer Julian McMahon, told AAP on Friday.
"What, in fact, happens is that the prisoner is taken out into the bush. It's usually at night. If necessary, they are tied to a plank."
"If the prisoner isn't dead straight away, the commanding officer is meant to walk up and then put a bullet in the head."
Mr McMahon said execution would be a great injustice, and belie not only the efforts his clients have made in improving their lives but also the success of the Indonesian justice system.
"The injustice of this is heartbreaking," he said.
"Myuran and Andrew are not just reformed prisoners leading good lives. They have indisputably changed and improved the lives of many prisoners.
"The system has reformed these two men. They are such a credit to the governors and themselves. It's incredible they might now be shot."
