2 Feb 2015

Execution looms for Bali Nine members

8:13 pm on 2 February 2015

Two Australian members of the so-called Bali Nine drug smuggling ring are to be among the next group to face an Indonesian firing squad, Indonesia's attorney-general says.

An Indonesian policeman stands guard next to a detention room where Australians Myuran Sukumaran (L) and Andrew Chan (C), members of the so called Bali Nine gang, wait for their trial.

An Indonesian policeman stands guard next to Australians Myuran Sukumaran, left, and Andrew Chan, members of the so called Bali Nine gang. Photo: AFP

Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran filed requests for their sentences to be reviewed last week after their requests for clemency were denied.

Among the documents filed to the court were letters Chan and Sukumaran wrote to Indonesian President Joko Widodo and the chief justice of the supreme court begging for mercy.

However, a spokesperson for attorney-general Muhammad Prasetyo said that would not stop the Bali Nine ringleaders being executed.

The two Australians have been in jail in Indonesia since 2005 after they were arrested with seven others while trying to smuggle heroin out of Bali.

There has been no decision on when the executions will happen but the pair could get as little as 72 hours' official notice of their execution.

Earlier, Indonesia's ambassador to Australia said he had met with Australia's "highest official" - understood to be Prime Minister Tony Abbott - and explained there was nothing Australia could do to save Chan and Sukumaran from the firing squad.

Ambassador Nadjib Kesoema was in Jakarta for a briefing with president Widodo, who rejected the Australians' request for clemency.

- ABC

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