Indonesia executes 8 drug convicts by firing-squad
Coffins were seen being brought into the prison ahead of the pair's execution, which has now taken place
Bali Nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran have been killed by an Indonesian firing squad, local media is reporting.
The
Jakarta Post reported Chan, 31, Sukumaran, 33, and six other prisoners
were taken to a jungle clearing on the island Nusakambangan, reports dailymail.
They were shot dead by firing squads comprising 12 police privates shortly after midnight (6pm BST).
Officials
ignored agonised pleas for clemency from the prisoners' families and
Australian and international officials and an outstanding constitutional
court hearing.
There are reports Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, the Filipino drug mule, was spared after new information emerged about her case.
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The armed police who shot dead
Australian drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaranan headed to
Nusakambangan Island earlier today
Myuran Sukumaran's grief-stricken
mother, Raji, made a desperate appeal for her son's life as her husband
Sam looks on - but it was to no avail
Raji and Sam Sukumaran try to come to terms with their grief on the worst day of their lives
The
Australian duo were accompanied by their nominated spiritual advisers
in some of their final moments, although it is understood they did not
witness the executions.
Sukumaran
had pledged to face the firing squad with 'strength and dignity' and
was planning to go without a blindfold. Their last meal was KFC.
Daily
Mail Australia has been told the grim task officially informing the
families will fall to Australia's Consul-General, Majell Hind.
An Australian representative will accompany the bodies as they are taken by road to Jakarta later today.
Sukuraman's sister, Brintha, is supported as she is escorted through the crowd towards the port gates
Condemned Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran have been executed in Bali tonight, according to local reports
Distressed family and supporters battle through the crowds to reach the port gates
Sukuraman's mother Raji (centre) cries as she arrives at the port authority office at Cilacap for a last visit with her son
Family members and supporters make their way through the crowd as they prepared to visit the men for the last time
Reporters mobbed the families of the prisoners as they arrived
Brintha Sukumaran (centre), a sister of Myuran Sukumaran, screams as she arrives at Wijaya Pura port to visit her brother
A clearly distressed Brintha Sukumaran had to be carried when she arrived at the prison
Chan, 31, and Sukumaran, 33, were the first to die in the round of executions.
A British grandmother, Lindsay Sandiford, is expected to be executed within months.
The 58-year-old was sentenced to death two years ago after being caught with £1.6million of cocaine in her suitcase.
Mrs
Sandiford, from Cheltenham, reportedly told a friend she was heartbroken
at the news about Chan, who she is understood to have befriended in
jail.
'If they kill someone as good as Andrew, what hope is there for me?' she said.
'I just want to get it over with. I feel like just giving up.'
She says she was coerced into smuggling vast quantities of cocaine from Bangkok to Bali by a crime syndicate.
Michael Chan (centre, in green)
brother of Andrew Chan, makes his way through the media to the port
authority office before travelling to Nusakambangan Island
Michael Chan said his brother and Sukumaran have been denied their choice of minister in their final hours
The development came just hours after Sukumaran's mother, Raji, made a desperate appeal for her son's life to be spared.
Wracked
with grief and despair, Raji could not disguise the pain she was
enduring in the final moments before her son's death. But still she
begged for mercy.
'I
won't see my son again and they are going to take him tonight and shoot
him and he is healthy and he is beautiful and he has a lot of
compassion for other people,' she pleaded.
'I
am asking the government not to kill him, please president, please
don't kill him today. Please don't. Call off the execution.
'Please don't kill my son. Please don't.'
Despite her desperate pleas, her son was not spared by the Indonesian authorities.
Asked
about a joint statement by the EU, France and Australia urging
Indonesia to cease its executions, Attorney General HM Prasetyo cited
Indonesia's legal sovereignty: 'That's what our laws decided. We say,
our courts are open, fair and nothing is closed.
'We have explained that we're not against them [personally]. What we fight is the serious crime of drugs.
'We ask for prayers and support from everyone so that this unpleasant duty can be finished well, without any disturbances.'
President Joko Widodo had told the attorney general to 'proceed according to the rules'.
Sukumaran's
brother Chinthu spent a few hours with his brother before bidding
goodbye. He said they talked about the death penalty and how the deaths
would change nothing.
'He
(the Indonesian president) knows this is just a waste. He knows this is
not going to solve anything with drugs (smuggling),' said Chinthu.
'Drug
trafficking will still be there. If these nine people die today,
tomorrow, next week, next month, it is still not going to stop anything.
I ask the president to please show mercy.
'Please don't let my Mum and my sister have to bury my brother.'
Condemned Australian Andrew Chan has married his fiancée Febyanti Herewila in prison on Indonesia's 'Death Island'
Chan received a visit from Febyanti
Herewila, an Indonesian Christian who became his wife in a marriage
ceremony on the island on Monday
The drugs ringleader proposed to his girlfriend at Kerobokan Prison
Chan
and Sukumaran were part of the Bali Nine who were convicted in 2005
over a plot to smuggle around 18.2lbs of heroin from Indonesia to
Australia.
The
pair, as well as other death row inmates, had remained defiant in their
final hours inside the prison on Indonesia's 'death island', where
coffins were seen arriving earlier this evening.
Chan
married his fiancée of less than three months inside the prison today.
Their wedding was held just months after the drugs ringleader proposed
to his girlfriend at Kerobokan Prison.
Leonard
Arpan, lawyer for the two men, said he had lodged an appeal against the
death sentences, but it did not stop the executions taking place.
Chinthu Sukumaran said they asked
President Joko Widodo to show the same mercy he'd asked for his own
citizens on death row overseas
Chan's mother was in tears as she boarded a ferry to the island with the pair's Australian lawyer Julian McMahon.
Sukumaran
was denied the opportunity to hug his mother goodbye after guards
refused to remove his handcuffs, according to the Daily Telegraph.
The
date of the executions became official when a local funeral director
was instructed to inscribe the names of those to be shot by firing squad
and the date of their deaths.
Chan
and Sukumaran both refused to sign their execution warrants during
official proceedings on Saturday, saying they believed it would be
unjust to kill them.
Indonesia,
which has now carried out 15 such executions in four months, has vowed
to kill all of its 58 foreign drug convicts by the end of the year.
BALI NINE DUO: THEIR FINAL HOURS RE-ENACTED ON TELEVISION
The chilling reenactment of how executions are carried out in Indonesia was broadcast to millions of viewers.
The
Australian men were led from their isolated cells in Batu prison
through the wildly dense tropical forest up a 3km steep winding track to
a place called Nirbaya - or more appropriately known as Death Valley.
Those
led to death valley are given white clothing to wear, which symbolises
the afterlife, before beginning their fatal trek and are given the
option to be blindfolded with a piece of fabric before facing the firing
squad who will be lined up anywhere from five to 10 metres in front of
them.
The
confronting decisions continue for the death row inmates with the
opportunity to choose whether to stand, sit or kneel before a cross is
placed over their hearts acting as a target for the 12 riflemen - of
which nine will have blanks and only three will have live rounds.
If necessary their hands or feet will be tied to a 3m high pole or worse still - a wooden execution chair.
The Australian men will be given a maximum of three minutes to calm down before being shot in the heart
Three shooters will have live rounds while nine other rifelemen will have blanks
The
offender is then given a final chance to calm down for a maximum of
three minutes before the riflemen are ordered to shoot them in the
heart.
It is then that the executing commander brandishes his sword as a sign for the 12 shooters to begin to fire their rifles.
If
the doctor confirms once the fires have been shot that the prisoner is
still breathing - the executing commander orders for a pistol be put to
the temple just above the ear for a final shot.
However, the shooting can continue on the condemned, if the doctor declares that there is still signs of life.
Some of the last words heard are 'laksanakan, laksanakan' - meaning 'execute, execute' in Indonesian.
The Australian men are expected to be
led from their isolated cells in Batu prison through the wildly dense
tropical forest up a steep winding track before meeting their demise
Michael Chan (left), the brother of Andrew Chan, and Chinthu Sukumaran (right), the brother of Myuran Sukumaran, pleaded for their clemency
Sukumaran's final paintings: A heart dripping with blood is carried by one of the Bali Nine duo's lawyers
A man carries a painting by Myuran
Sukumaran, which has been signed by all nine death row inmates. The
artist signature reads 'satu hati, satu rasa di dalam cinta' (one heart,
one feeling in love)
The painting is a self-portrait of Sukumaran with a bullet hole through his heart
Julian McMahon, the lawyer for Bali
Nine pair Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, looked downcast as he
carried the paintings back from Death Island
Helen Chan, the mother of Andrew Chan (left) and McMahon walk as they prepare to head to Nusakambangan Island prison
Coffins in an ambulance on the way to 'Death Island', Nusakambangan
The date of the executions - April 29 -
became official when a local funeral director in Cilacap was instructed
to inscribe the names of those to be shot by firing squad and the date
of their deaths
Amnesty international and Sydney Bali
Nine activists hold a vigil in front of a flower wall that says
'#keephopealive' in a last ditch effort to sway the Indonesian
Government to halt proceedings to execute Andrew Chan and Myuran
Sukumaran
The mortician, B. Suhendroputro, stands by the crosses for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran
Mr Suhendroputro writes the name of the death row convict, Andrew Chan, on one of the wooden crosses
The men's coffins are laid out in a holding area in Cilacap, before being transported to Death Island
A worker arranges coffins that will be
delivered to the prison island of Nusakambangan onto a truck ahead of
the imminent executions of drug convicts on death row
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