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Distraught families visit Bali Nine duo before executions

Yahoo7 and Agencies
Updated

Video has captured harrowing scenes showing the distraught family members of condemned drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran visiting the pair for the final time.

Surrounded by a large media scrum, family, including Chan's brother Michael, Sukumaran's sister and mother - alongside lawyer Julian McMahon - entered the port on the way to 'execution island' to say their very last goodbyes.

Sukumaran's sister appeared to collapse amid the crowd of reporters and onlookers, with supporters forced to carry her to the terminal.


Raji Sukumaran, the mother of Myuran Sukumaran (center) cries as she arrives at the port authority office at Wijaya Pura port in Cilacap, Central Java. Photo: AAP

The sounds of uncontrollably wailing and crying were heard as they entered Cilacap Port.

It's understood the family must say goodbye at 2pm Jakarta time (5PM AEST).

The executions are expected to be carried out on Nusakambangan island, Central Java, after midnight.

Chan and Sukumaran are among nine prisoners – eight of whom are foreigners, one Indonesian – facing death after authorities gave them final notice of their executions.

Chan, 31, and Sukumaran, 34, have quietly reformed themselves since their involvement in the foiled Bali Nine plot to smuggle heroin from Indonesia in 2005.

But pleas to spare the men - Chan now a pastor and Sukumaran a talented artist - fell on deaf ears.

Death row convicts in Indonesia can request spiritual counsellors in their final hours, but the Australian media said that Chan and Sukumaran's requests had been rejected, with Indonesian authorities deciding to given them companions of their choosing.

"Last bit of dignity denied," Chan's brother Michael told Fairfax Media in a text.

On Monday, an ex-lawyer for the pair detailed sensational bribery claims, alleging judges in their original trial wanted more than $130,000 for a lighter sentence.

Their current lawyers say it's unthinkable for the men to be executed under the cloud of corruption.

They also have a challenge in the constitutional court set for a preliminary hearing next month, but its decision will not be retrospective.

Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran await the firing squad after repeated pleas for mercy are rejected. Photo: AP

The only man they needed to convince, President Joko Widodo, was not receptive on Monday.


"Why not convey it at the time, when it actually happened if... it truly happened, right?" he said of the bribery claims.

Security has tightened at the port town of Cilacap and the coffins have been prepared for nine prisoners' bodies.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says she also has not finished fighting for the men.

"Indonesia has accomplished what penal systems around the world aspire to do and that is rehabilitate drug offenders," she said in a speech in Sydney on Monday night.

Suhendro Putro prepared coffins and bodies from executions at Nusakambang in January. Photo: AAP

"I'm not asking the Indonesian government to do anything other than it asks other countries in relation to Indonesian citizens."

Sukumaran has spent his last days painting, with the latest work, "The Second Last Day" a self-portrait of him looking skyward.

In a bittersweet day for the Chans, Andrew Chan married his fiancee Feby Herewila on Monday, in a small prison ceremony officiated by Salvation Army minister Dave Soper.


Chan has also chosen him as his companion as he goes to his death, while Sukumaran will have his friend Reverend Christie Buckingham for solace.

They will be placed in isolation in the hours before they are taken to a firing ground, where their hands will be bound to a post and they will be given the option of standing, sitting or kneeling before the firing squad.

Indonesian authorities have refused Bali nine duo Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran the right to have a pastor of their choice to witness their executions, which has outraged their families.