On one Indonesian isle, two Australians are unwelcome

THE Bali Nine duo would be an unwelcome presence to the prisoners on Nusakambangan.

Myuran Sukumaran inside Kerobokan jail yesterday. Picture: Adam Taylor

“HAVE the Bali Nine arrived yet? Are they here yet? Have they ­arrived?’’

The feverish, recurring question is churning over and over on the prison island of Nusakambangan among those facing imminent execution with Myuran Sukumaran, 33, and Andrew Chan, 31.

Not because inmates want to meet the notorious Australians, rather because they don’t: while the pair remain in Kerobokan jail they represent hope for a reprieve to others, an inside Nusakambangan source told The Australian yesterday.

While President Joko Widodo has refused to budge on granting mercy to any drug convicts on death row, reiterating that no ­intervention would stop the executions of Chan, Sukumaran and other foreigners, the pair’s lawyers continue to challenge his edict.

Simultaneously, the stench of fear and tension is growing at the seven-prison compound, and site of the executions, as inmates await an unspecified date with death.

Until the condemned pair ­arrive on the island off central Java, the condemned inmates waiting on Nusakambangan ­believe that they have a ghost of a chance of ­escaping the firing squad.

Indonesian authorities have so far failed to clarify which prisoners are on the death list, apart from Chan and Sukumaran and three other convicts being transferred from other prisons in Java and ­Sumatra. Five death-row drug convicts on Nusakambangan are known to have been denied clemency, but so have three murderers.

Some reports state they are ­intended to be executed in the next group.

As long as the Australians ­remain at Bali’s Kerobokan jail — their home for the past decade — hope for those on the island ­remains tangible, says the source who lives on the island, but does not wish to be named.

The infamous Australians offer a wellspring of support because they are a hot news item; their plight provides the publicity other drug convicts are relying on to save their own skins.

“The Bali Nine is the one hope because the news about them is so big — if they come it means they will do it (the executions); if not, they might not. Everybody is waiting for the Bali Nine. When the Bali Nine (pair) arrive, they know execution is a reality. It’s going to happen,’’ the source says.

“It is good if they have hope till the end.

“Right now the prisoners are trying to believe it won’t happen. Lots of people (the death-row convicts) are asking ‘Have the Bali Nine come yet? All of us who have empathy, we hope it will not happen, but then there is the reality.”

The Jakarta Administrative Court on Tuesday dismissed a last-ditch application by the Bali duo’s lawyers to appeal President Joko’s rejection of clemency.

The case was based on the premise Mr Joko did not consider their circumstances and take their rehabilitation into account.

The men’s Indonesian lawyer, Todung Mulya Lubis, said the legal team would appeal the decision. “We have two weeks to file an appeal,” he said.

Authorities say preparations to move Chan and Sukumaran to the island are 90 per cent complete, and the move is “very likely” this week. Isolation cells made of brick continued to be built. “They are working quite fast.’’

The pair were sentenced to death in 2006 for leading the plot to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin from Bali to Australia. Of about 3500 prisoners in the seven-prison complex, 60 to 70 were on death row, about 80 per cent of whom were drug convicts.

Not all are at risk of facing the firing squad. Many had been on death row for over a decade and some die of natural causes.

One man in his 70s who had died naturally had been imprisoned for 40 years on Nusakambangan.

In the first round of executions last month, five foreigners from Malawi, Brazil, Nigeria, Vietnam and The Netherlands were killed on the island after their clemency pleas were denied. An Indonesian was executed outside the island.

“Last time it was very quick. They were there for three days. The place is fully sterilised — no one is allowed to go in or out of the island,’’ the source said.

The current mood among prisoners has become strained and edgy. “Yesterday the feeling among death sentence people was tense.’’

Five foreign drug convicts scheduled for execution were ­already at Nusakambangan, ­including Brazilian Rodrigo Gul­arte, who allegedly has schizophrenia and is seeking mercy on mental health grounds, and Frenchman Serge Atlaoui.

The Attorney-General’s office confirmed last night that 10 prisoners, including Chan and ­Sukumaran, would be executed at Nusakambangan and said the ­decision was final.

Separately an official in his­ ­office indicated all those who would die were drug offenders.

Other foreigners who are ­believed to be on the list include Ghanaian Martin Anderson, Nigerian Raheem Agbaje Salami, ­Filipina woman Mary Jane Vel­osa, as well as four Indonesian convicts.

Some would be transferred from East Java, Yogyakarta, Ban­ten and the Sumatran province of Palembang to the island, then given 72 hours’ notice before being shot.

“The men try to hide their feelings but they are worried and stressed, though they don’t talk about it.

“They cannot describe what they feel. They often say ‘You do not know what I feel’. The reality they face is so hard.’’